Introduction to HazMat Training

HazMat Regulations

When planning for any HazMat training exercise or situation, it’s also important to have a strong understanding of the regulatory requirements involved in both the training itself, and on a wider scale. 

The most widely applied regulatory scheme applies to the transport of dangerous goods, as set out in the regulations of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), and which forms the basis for the majority of regional, national and international regulations.

In the US, hazardous materials are defined and regulated by several bodies:

• The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - responsible for the regulation of hazardous materials that impact on the community and the environment
• The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) - oversees the regulation of hazardous materials in the workplace as well as hazardous waste operations and emergency response
• The US Department of Transportation (DOT) - regulates the transport or movement of hazardous materials within commerce in accordance with the US Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)
• In addition, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has developed dangerous goods regulations specific to the unique requirements of air transport; the International Maritime Organization has formulated the International Maritime Goods Code which forms part of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea; and the Intergovernmental Organization for International Carriage by Rail provides regulations that affect the transport of hazardous substances by rail.
• The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) - responsible for regulating materials that emit ionizing radiation (including those that produce alpha particles, beta particles, x-rays, gamma rays and high-speed neutrons)
  

Related read: Educating HazMat First Responders: Carbon Dioxide Incident- Best Practices

In the UK, the transportation of hazardous goods is controlled by a variety of national and international regulatory bodies that collectively mandate the means by which hazardous goods are packaged, labelled, handled and transported.

Relevant UK regulatory bodies include:

• The UN’s recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods (contained in the UN model regulations)
• The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
• The International Air Transport Organization (IATA) Dangerous Goods Regulations
• The International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code (IMDG)
• The European Agreement governing the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR)

UK manufacturers or importers of chemicals must comply with the European Regulation, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH).

The Dangerous Goods Emergency Action Code List (EAC) is the required compliance document for all UK emergency services responsible for planning and response to HazMat incidents.

Related read: Educating HazMat First Responders: Carbon Dioxide Incident- Best Practices

HazMat Training and the Transportation of Hazardous Materials

First responders should be aware of the best practices and safety regulations involved in transporting HazMat materials. 

Before any hazardous material can be shipped or moved, it must first be certified as being “safe to transport." This process involves verifying all paperwork, packaging, labelling or marking of hazardous materials and following the appropriate procedure for the correct loading, unloading, receiving or forwarding of items.

All substances that are deemed to be a HazMat risk must also be correctly packaged and labelled, according to their potential risk.

HazMat substances can typically be sorted into one of three packing groups:

1. Packing Group I - indicating that there is a high degree of risk associated with the substance
2. Packing Group II - indicating that the item presents a moderate degree of danger
3. Packing Group III - indicating that the material is deemed to be hazardous but of low danger

Once a HazMat substance has been packaged, it must then be clearly labelled for transport, depending on the hazard category into which it falls.

The categories, which are clearly defined in the respective national regulations, cover everything from explosives, flammable gases and spontaneously combustible items to poisons, infectious substances, corrosives and radioactive materials.

In some cases, an item may be classified as having both a primary hazard and one (or more) secondary hazards, which are governed by specific labelling and packaging rules.

Industrial HazMat training

Major industrial HazMat accidents are rare. However, with many thousands of chemicals in commercial use worldwide, there is the ever-present risk of accidental release.

And when a large-scale industrial incident does occur, there is the potential for considerable harm to personnel, the wider public and the environment.

This is why HazMat training for industrial accidents is still extremely important.  The United States federal government, for example, receives an average of twelve reports of hazardous substance incidents every day. Most are discovered and reported by the company or individual responsible, which means that the nature and severity of the hazardous material are known from the outset.

In some cases, however, the HazMat risk may not become apparent until local law enforcement, first responders or military support units arrive on the scene. These units need to have the relevant HazMat training to respond appropriately to these industrial incidents. 

In an incident in Cranston, Rhode Island, for example, twelve firefighters were hospitalised for suspected cyanide poisoning after attending a chemical fire at an industrial facility that stored twenty-five different types of chemical including cyanide and sulfuric acid.

The vital importance of HazMat emergency preparedness was also highlighted in Crosby, Texas, in 2017 when floodwaters caused a power shutdown and a series of explosions at a chemical plant. The hazardous smoke plume that ensued resulted in a 1.5-mile exclusion zone being placed around the plant.

Other industrial-related HazMat incidents in the US have included a mercury spill at the Cincinnati VA Medical Centre due to the movement of an old pipe during construction work; an ammonia leak at a Butterball plant in Jonesboro Arkansas; a polyethylene holding tank catching fire at a chemical plant in Gales Ferry, Connecticut; and a chemical scare at Flint Hills Resources in Illinois.

Toxic plumes have the potential to drift significant distances, as was evidenced in January 2013, when a foul-smelling gas cloud that originated in Rouen, France, prompted thousands of calls to the emergency services all across South Coast of the United Kingdom. 

Related read: Innovative new technology for realistic chemical HazMat training

HazMat Training Methods

There is a strong argument for providing first responders with exposure to realistic and engaging hands-on HazMat training experiences that prepare them for a wide variety of threats.

Structured web-based or classroom teaching should ideally be supported by access to realistic, practical, live-incident training to ensure that HazMat teams are confident in the safe handling of hazardous substances and in the correct protocols to follow in the event of a release.

Traditional HazMat training methods often comprise classroom or field-based exercises – typically with small quantities of live materials or check sources - which trainees then need to locate using conventional detection instruments. While there is value in being given the opportunity to handle real-life detectors, simulant-based HazMat training methods have some inherent limitations.

Using real detectors in training exercises requires taking them out of service for the exercise, potentially requiring their decontamination and maintenance should the equipment be damaged.

The use of live check sources, even in limited quantities, can also present considerable risk to trainees and their instructors, so there is the need to comply with health, safety and environmental regulations.

It’s also important to bear in mind the not inconsiderable cost and administrative effort required to order, transport, and store the substances.

At the other end of the scale, the use of printed signs around the training area, while an inexpensive training method, does little in practice to help trainees understand the correct use of detection equipment and to enable them to determine the best methods of interpreting readings under different operating conditions.

Features of effective HazMat Training

Realism

Realistic and engaging HazMat training scenarios are essential contributors to effective and long-lasting learning.

While the detector equipment used in live incidents is often fairly simple to use, the key is in creating life-like scenarios that facilitate an instrument’s actual readings and responses to ensure they are understood and the associated decision-making is practised.

Authenticity is crucial, both in terms of the look, feel and response of the detector and the physical and environmental challenges that the HazMat training scenario is setting out to recreate.

Repeatability

The process of ordering, storing, transporting and handling radiological sources and chemicals and gases for detection training scenarios requires administration, time and effort that may be better spent in delivering authentic and high-quality training.

It’s important to be able to train as often, and as diversely, as is required, including the staging of multiple and unlimited scenarios that can be carried out in a variety of locations.

The resetting of equipment, essential decontamination procedures, special permissions, regulatory administration, or the clean-up time between exercises can all cause delays which impact on the success of HazMat training.

Feedback

When training for HazMat threats, understanding where things have gone wrong can be just as important as knowing when things have gone right.

The use of any HazMat or CBRNe detector requires a trainee to follow a clear set of procedures.

So being able to obtain information on how accurately a trainee has adhered to this process is a key element of the learning experience. If a crucial step has been missed, it’s important to be able to record any errors for review after the exercise.

Safety

The aim of any HazMat training exercise should be to create as realistic a scenario as possible, whilst causing no physical or environmental impact.

The use of simulant chemicals or vapours in open-air exercises, for example, can saturate the training environment and pose serious potential health and safety risks.

So any HazMat training outdoors that involves simulants or live sources needs to be carefully controlled - from the time of day it is conducted, to the appropriate weather conditions and the quantity of agent being released.

Cost

The value for money of HazMat training scenarios should take into account the lifetime cost of ownership of the selected training method.

Ongoing maintenance and servicing of devices comes at a cost, as does acquiring, transporting, and handling sources, chemicals or gases and ultimately site remediation.

It’s also important to consider the the cost of specialist safety personnel and the effect that the use of any simulant agent may have on expensive detector equipment over time.

Minimizing the wear and tear on detection equipment also ensures that operational readiness is maintained.

PPE and HazMat Training 

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) apparatus provides essential protection in the event of chemical emergency incidents. However its use also presents some inherent challenges for trainees:

• Restriction of movement due to the weight of the equipment
• Restriction of vision due to visual field limitations
• Problems with communication (which can be partially overcome by the use of 2-way radios)
• Ergonomic challenges that can affect the operating, reading and interpreting certain detection instruments
• The risk of overheating or dehydration
• Psychological stressors due to the confining nature of the full suits

Crucially too, the equipment that offers the most highly protective form of protection, such as that used in Chemical Emergency Response, can only be worn for a few minutes at a time.

Because of the physiological and psychological stressors associated with the use of PPE, it’s also essential to conduct a medical monitoring program of the participants to record weight, vital signs, recent medical history, hydration and appropriate decontamination at the conclusion of the incident.

Training programs are also essential for HazMat teams to ensure they understand how to don and doff Personal Protective Ensemble (PPE), use their equipment, how to maintain and decontaminate it, how to recognize when the PPE or equipment has been compromised (due to tears in the suit for example) and when it is necessary to dispose of the apparatus.

Most importantly wearing the appropriate PPE should form an important element of any exercise so that trainees experience the full physiological burden and any ergonomic limitations of their detection equipment. To borrow a military phrase - “train as you fight.”

HazMat Training with Simulators

The use of simulator detector instruments enables industrial, military personnel, and first responders to experience realistic and compelling HazMat training scenarios of the highest possible standard.

An alternative to the more traditional methods of HazMat training is to use an intelligent computer-based simulation tool.

Furthermore, by using Argon's software-based PlumeSIM-SMART system, specially designed for use in a wide range of industrial and civil emergency scenarios, including the release of radiological, chemical and petrochemical gases, vapors and agents, you can create, run and optimise each HazMat training exercise from a central point.

HazMat Training in Practice: A Case Study

Creating realistic first responder training scenarios requires practical, hands-on use of highly specialised equipment.

Ken Cochran, Radiological Specialist for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), knows this well. He’s responsible for the radiological training of a broad range of response personnel.

TEMA offers a programme called the Modular Emergency Radiological Response Team (MERRTT), which provides responders with a practical, hands-on introduction to the fundamentals of radioactive materials, the use of radiological survey instrumentation, and the techniques required for decontamination.

Cochran recognised the opportunity to enhance the agency’s hands-on training capability using simulator-based technology and began looking for simulators that were compatible with the Mirion / Canberra CDV-718A survey meter.

This led him to Argon Electronics’ simulator training product range. He purchased the DT616-SIM Beta Gamma simulator probe and simulation sources.

He first used the equipment in a MERRTT training program for a group of firefighters.

“The weather outside was terrible,” Cochran says, “so we utilized a big garage used for parking fire trucks to simulate locating a radiation source of unknown activity.”

Cochran experienced first hand the flexibility of the equipment and the ability to set up training when, where, and how he wanted. He was also impressed with how this equipment can enhance the ability for the trainees to actually “see” the manner in which radiation behaves and to experience the ease with which it can be successfully detected.

“All the firefighters were extremely impressed that we were able to do what we did without using live radiological sources,” Cochran says. “They all love it. I have actually loaned the equipment out within the agency for similar training as well as to a local firehouse for their in-house refresher training.”