CBRN / HazMat Training Blog

When you are required to conduct wide area emergency preparedness training - be it in the setting of a CBRNe school, a dedicated military center or an industrial facility - the ongoing challenge for any CBRNe instructor is to be able to create a scenario that is realistic, safe, reliable and cost effective.

Trainees need to be equipped with the practical knowledge and skills to respond with confidence to an enormous variety of potential live incidents. And each threat brings with it a unique set of practical, physical and psychological tasks that need to be 'experienced' in order to be understood.

Argon's award-winning instrumented CBRNe exercise systems PlumeSim and PlumeSIM-SMART will be among the array of innovative technologies available to see live in action at the fifth annual CBRN Exhibition in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, this June.

Visitors will also be able to view Argon's range of simulators for the Smiths Detection M4 JCADandM4A1 JCAD chemical agent detectors - as well as a selection of simulation probes for the Canberra/MirionAN/PDR-77, AN/VDR-2andRDS100 radiation detection systems.

Major technological or industrial accidents are thankfully relatively rare. However, when an incident does occur it can have devastating consequences.

Just recently, a factory worker died following an accident in a Northampton factory where ammonia leaked into the air. He inhaled the colourless gas that was used as refrigerant to cool down the site and production process, resulting in deadly burns and swellings in his airways. 22 more people, including brewery workers, firefighters and Police Officers, had to be treated in hospital.

As part of their quest to reduce the number of reported industrial incidents, plant operators and official bodies are focussing extensively on regulations and compliance to do everything they can to eliminate the risk of potentially serious incidents occurring. However, if an incident does occur it is crucial for all staff to have the skills and knowledge required to understand and handle the outcome of an accident.  Training is key here and this is where the challenge lies: How can organisations replicate real-world situations, without actually releasing hazardous agents into the environment?

Thankfully, serious industrial or technological accidents are comparatively rare, with the number of major reported incidents in Europe decreasing steadily from 48 in 2010 to just 3 in 2015.

This trend, however, doesn’t mean that industrial and technological companies can become complacent when it comes to training and preparing for a potential emergency incident – far from it.  By definition, when a major incident does occur, it will almost inevitably have devastating and long-lasting social, economic and environmental consequences. 

The term ‘major incident’ is a broad one and is widely ascribed to any event where there is a loss of life, a serious injury or substantial damage to property or the environment.

Although these incidents are rare, when a major event does occur, multiple agencies are generally thrown together in a highly pressured, chaotic environment, and expected to work together and co-ordinate an effective emergency response.  Problems can occur if Joint Emergency Planning Teams from local authorities, Emergency Services and personnel from the affected company all train their teams independently, working to different priorities and specialising in different areas of emergency response.

With growing risks emerging from regions under conflict that have vanishing or no borders at all, collaboration when it comes to CBRN knowledge and training is becoming vital.

Nowhere will collaboration be more important than in the Gulf and Middle East. With instability spreading out from Iraq into Syria and Iran, it’s key that nations and defence bodies communicate to ensure their response to potential CBRN events are swift and successful.

With the World Cup fast approaching, it has become a race against time for Brazil to have all the stadia and infrastructure ready for when the first match kicks-off on June 12^th.

Although the competition itself is sure to be a momentous event, the emergency services will have to be prepared for every eventuality, from crowd trouble to terrorist attacks.

The UK Government recently announced that it was planning a new elite college to educate a new generation of nuclear engineers. The college is quoted as being “an important step forward for the UK and its nuclear future.” The announcement states that the forecasted nuclear new builds will create 40,000 jobs in the UK during its peak, though many employers in the industry are recording skills shortages, especially in engineering.

It sounds like the horrifying basis of a Hollywood science fiction film; controlling the weather to use as a powerful weapon of war.  But as a recently released book, Arming Mother Nature: The Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism makes clear, this was seriously considered not long after the Second World War.