Chemical Hazards and Poisons DivisionCentre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards

The public health response to Chemical Incident Emergencies (CIE Toolkit)

Overview

Workshop on Health Programme projects on Generic Preparedness planning and response in health emergencies

30 September and 01 October 2009, Luxembourg

Dr Raquel Duarte-Davidson

Project number: 100924

World chemicals industry output

32%26%

27%28%

27%

32%

32%

31%

13%

16%

16%

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1970 1980 1990 1998

billi

on U

S$

OthersJapan, Korea, AustraliaWestern EuropeNAFTA

Chemical Threats

Source: OECD Environmental Outlook for the Chemicals Industry (2001) OECD, Paris

10%

Environmental risks to healthin natural & complex disasters

"New" ("modern")• Release of hazardous

agents and material

• Waste

"Traditional"

• Unsafe water

• Poor sanitation

• Lack of hygiene

Number of Disasters

People affected Deaths Damage costs [in million $]

Natural disasters 3199(54%)

2 534 687 000(95%)

806 465(89.5%)

730 812(99%)

Technologicaldisasters

2780(46%)

144 258 000(5%)

94 712(10.5%)

7711(1.0%)

Total (100%) 5989 2 678 945 000 901 177 738 523

Source: World Disasters Report 2005, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; and EM-DAT: The OFDA/CRED International Disaster Database - Université Catholique de Louvain - Brussels - Belgium

Global natural and technical disasters (1995-2004)

An example of a major chemical incident Enschede Fireworks Disaster

Photograph and map of destroyed area taken on May 14, 2000, 10.00 AM

Facts and Figures

22 persons killed

956 treated for injuries

10300 residents of the city of Enschede

were affected

280 severely damaged houses

200 destroyed houses

23 severely damaged buildings

84 destroyed buildings

450 million euros of material damage

and destruction

Objectives

To reduce the burdens of disease by the development of a toolkit that provides guidance and training for health care professionals to rapidly respond to chemical incidents of public health concern.

To be achieved by:

• strengthening national and international public health response

• Providing a source of relevant material, in the form of a toolkit, along with a training manual enabling participating Member States to address specific needs

Outcomes

Delivery of a “tried and tested” toolkit to public health professionals and course trainers. The toolkit will comprise

• detailed fact sheets• training manuals• scenario cards• sample questionnaires• guidance for conducting training exercises • information for the general public

All of which will be made available as a web-based package and will include lecture notes, power point presentations and exercise cards to supplement the manual

Concurrent with the toolkit, a ‘Network of Experts’ will be created to provide ongoing training and guidance from within a Centre of Excellence

The CIE Toolkit builds on other projects previously funded by the Public Health Programme which aim to enhance the capability of responding in a timely and co-ordinated fashion to health threats: Development of Generic Scenarios, Alerting System and Training

Modules Relating to Release of Chemicals by Terrorists (GSCT)

European Training for Health Professionals on Rapid Responses to Health Threats (ETHREAT)

Contract duration 36 months (April 2008 – end March 2011)

Workshop to evaluate course material in toolkit23rd and 24th Sep 2010 (Athens, Greece)

Work packages

WP1 Project Coordination HPA

WP2 Project Dissemination HPA

WP3 Project Evaluation NIOM

WP4 Development of a toolkit for the public health response to chemical incidents and emergencies

HPA

WP5 Provision of a training manual and supporting information HPA

WP6 Development of Exercise cards for scenario training FOI

WP7 Environmental epidemiology and monitoring follow up requirements following an acute chemical incident

NKUA

WP8 Risk and crisis communication requirements to facilitate the communication process following an acute chemical incident

KCL

WP9 Psychosocial consequences and care after chemical disasters IvP

WP10 Guidelines for conducting international exercises involving major chemical incidents

HPA

CIE Toolkit content and structure matrix

CIE Toolkit content and structure matrix

Scenario description

Exercise cards – scenario specific

Dissemination work

e-Promotional information and advice through CD-ROM/internet on

• Development of website and promotional material• Establishing links with other websites (to include partners linking their www with

that of the toolkit)

Up to 3 papers to be published in national/international peer review journals to include a paper on post-disaster health care

Promotional material distributed at conferences and venues and by email to relevant organisations

www.hpa.org.uk/CIEToolkit

Project partners

Main beneficiary:Health Protection Agency, United Kingdom (HPA)

Associated partners: Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Poland (NIOM)

Swedish Defence Research Agency, Sweden (FOI)

National Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece (NKUA)

Instituut voor Psychotrauma, The Netherlands (IvP)

Kings College London, United Kingdom (KCL)

Collaborating partners: World Health Organization (WHO) Europe (Bonn) and WHO (Geneva)

Further Information

Dr Mark Griffiths, Project Manager Tel:l +44 (0)2920 687942

Email: mark.griffiths@hpa.org.uk

Dr Raquel Duarte-Davidson, Project lead Tel: +44 (0)1235 824865

Email: raquel.duarte-davidson@hpa.org.uk

Web page www.hpa.org.uk/CIEToolkit/

Acknowledgements Project partners greatly acknowledge the EC for partly funding this

project