Enhancing Hazardous Materials Team Value

Traditionally, hazardous materials teams are focused on emergency response and training. While these are critical functions, are teams missing the boat by not expanding into other service areas where their expertise can be of benefit to the organization? I believe by performing additional, values-added services, hazardous materials teams may improve the level of support from their organizations, develop additional funding sources, increase staffing, improve responder health and safety, and maintain a high level of operational skill.

Hazardous materials teams are uniquely positions to perform the following activities, to the benefit of their communities, organizations, and the response community.

1. Provide air monitoring services at fires. Hazardous materials teams can provide continual air monitoring at a variety of fires, detecting the presence of aldehydes, cyanides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, cyanide, and other toxic materials. Teams can assist with establishing hazard zones and assisting with personal protective equipment decisions in order to improve responder safety and document hazards encountered by responders.

2. Provide and oversee decontamination at fires. This includes providing decontamination for responders and fire victims prior to transport to medical care. By ensuring proper decontamination of responders, there is the potential for decreasing the number of contaminants absorbed and by providing decontamination for fire victims, they are reducing the exposure to unprotected EMS crews and hospital staff.

3. Provide detection services to arson investigators. By using advanced technologies, such as GCMS, hazardous materials teams may support fire cause and origin investigators, reducing investigation time. This activity may also open additional avenues of funding as the team is now supporting law enforcement activities.

4. And speaking of law enforcement, the use of advanced detection equipment may also assist law enforcement with their investigations of drug labs and products. Again, this speeds up the time for investigation while potentially opening additional funding streams for hazardous materials teams.

These are just some of the applications of the skill set that hazardous materials teams possess that are not being capitalized on.

Is your team providing any unique services that provide additional value to the community?