Management of chemical incidents

Safe management of mass fatalities following chemical, biological, and radiological incidents.

Contaminated mass fatalities following the release of chemical, biological, or radiological agents pose a potential major health hazard. A United Kingdom government investigation has identified a number of areas of risk. This paper presents an outline of the findings of the study and describes specific pathways for the management of contaminated and non-contaminated fatalities. Factors determin...

Assessing the health consequences of major chemical incidents--epidemiological approaches.

Global surveillance for chemical incidents of international public health concern.

OBJECTIVE In December 2001, an expert consultation convened by WHO identified strengthening national and global chemical incident preparedness and response as a priority. WHO is working towards this objective by developing a surveillance and response system for chemical incidents. This report describes the frequency, nature and geographical location of acute chemical incidents of potential inte...

Epidemiological assessment of health effects from chemical incidents.

Achemical incident is the unexpected release of industrial material that is (potentially) hazardous either to humans, other animals or the environment. Common synonyms include the term “accident” but this presupposes an anticipated failure of control; “incidents” include also unanticipated disasters resulting from mechanical or organisational failures, and occasionally even sabotage. The essenc...

Temporal and seasonal variation in the occurrence of chemical incidents.

AIMS To determine whether there were temporal or seasonal patterns in the occurrence of chemical incidents reported to the West Midlands Chemical Incident Surveillance System, UK. METHODS A retrospective analysis of reports maintained on a computerised database was carried out for information received from January 1997 to December 2001. RESULTS Annual numbers of events increased significant...