E mergency response deals with the reaction to a natural or man-made disaster and involves containing the disaster situation. The process is time-critical because many lives depend on how quickly and accurately emergency responders make decisions. During an emergency response, emergency operations centers (EOCs) face different problems depending on the category the emergency falls under (fire, ...

One of the actual global problems is an issue of waste, its formation, disposal and possible secondary processing. Another closely related issue concerns hazardous waste which represents a potential threat to environment and human health. This paper is focused on an area of waste containing hexavalent chromium arising especially from leather industry. Hexavalent chromium is classified as a carc...

The purpose of this work is to examine the relationship between alcohol use and level of involvement during Hurricane Katrina among law enforcement officers, and to investigate whether marital status or previous military training offer resilience against negative outcomes. Officers in the immediate New Orleans geographic area completed surveys that assessed their involvement in Hurricane Katrin...

Reproductive function has been shown to be sensitive to changes in the physical, psychosocial and chemical environments. Although reproductive effects of occupational exposure to hazardous chemicals have been well documented in the literature, the potential effects of chemical contaminants at levels representative of contemporary exposures in the general population are much less certain. Eviden...

In your letter of January 31,1990, you asked us to evaluate the quality of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data that will be used to determine the need for mandatory waste minimization requirements. We presented initial fmdings in response to this request in August 199 1. This report presents our detailed findings on this issue; that is, our assessment of (1) the degree and causes of ...

BACKGROUND Although there is evident association between alcohol-related hospitalization and alcohol use, the relationship has not been well examined. This study analyzed the extent of alcohol abstinence, non-hazardous use and hazardous use among people who had experienced alcohol-related hospitalization during the preceding decade. METHOD Registry data concerning alcohol-related hospitalizat...

Non-dispersive atomic fluorescence spectrometry (NDAFS) coupled with vapor generation (VG) sample introduction was applied to the determination of the concentrations of hazardous heavy metals, such as arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury, in seawater, soils and total airborne particulate matter (PM) collected around the Xiamen area in China. Almost 100% sample introduction efficiency was achieved...

Asbestos-related diseases continue to result in approximately 120,000 deaths every year in the United States and worldwide. Although extensive research has been conducted on health effects of occupational exposures to asbestos, many issues related to environmental asbestos exposures remain unresolved. For example, environmental asbestos exposures associated with a former mine in Libby, Montana,...

This study analyzes the social and geographic distribution of ecological hazards across 368 communities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Combining census data with a variety of environmental data, we tested for and identified both income-based and racially based biases to the geographic distribution of 17 different types of environmentally hazardous sites and industrial facilities. We also...

Emergency response planning in case of a major accident (hazardous material event, nuclear accident) is very important for the protection of the public and workers' safety and health. In this context, several protective actions can be performed, such as, evacuation of an area; protection of the population in buildings; and use of personal protective equipment. The best solution is not unique wh...