Hazardous material incidents can be as disruptive to daily operations as fires. Many of them can also be easily controlled. Knowing the difference and having a plan in place to accommodate is very import. 

What are Hazardous Materials? A hazardous material is any substance that is flammable, combustible, explosive, toxic, noxious, corrosive, oxidizable, radioactive or an irritant. Based on that definition, cleaning supplies in the janitor's closet would be considered hazardous materials. We work around hazardous materials every day, drive down the road next to them and have them in our homes. The key is to recognize when they pose a real threat and know what actions to take.

Preparation: First identify all the materials in your facility that could pose a hazard. Be sure they are labeled appropriately and stored properly. Follow the government regulations as they apply to your facility. Request Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for each substance. Usually these are easily obtainable by calling your supplier or the manufacturer of the product. MSDS information includes a list of chemicals used to make the substance, the effects of exposure to the substance, precautions that should be taken when working with the substance as well as actions to take in the event of an exposure. Persons who work with the substance should be given this information and a copy of all MSDS information for the facility should be kept in a central location that is easily accessible and includes all locations of the substances throughout the facility. Depending on the substance, government regulations may require MSDS information to be posted at the site where it is being used. In most cases, having an extra sheet of information readily available at the work site is a good idea anyway.

Prevention: Be sure employees understand the proper use and storage of these materials. They should be able to recognize spills and releases and know how to report them and what actions to take.

Making a Plan: A good plan should answer the following questions: 

• Can this material be contained and mitigated by our staff or is it a substance that should be handled by the fire department Special Operations Response Team (S.O.R.T.)? For instance, if someone spills a little bleach it may be able to be wiped up easily and the windows opened for ventilation of the area. A large quantity of a very toxic substance might require a specialized team.
  
  
• Do you evacuate the area, the floor, the building, the block? How will you communicate instructions to the people in your facility? How will you gather employees that have been exposed for medical assistance and monitoring?
  
  
• Who will you call to clean it up so the operation can return to normal? The fire department S.O.R.T. has the duty of containing the spill and protecting people. Clean up is usually provided by a private company.

Outside Exposures: So maybe you are relieved because the most dangerous room in your facility is a janitor's closet with a little bit of window cleaner and disinfectant in it. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have a hazardous materials component in your plan. 

If the fire chief walked into your facility and said it needed to be evacuated immediately because a big green cloud was headed your way, what would you do? How would you communicate the urgency to your employees that they should leave immediately? How would you transport employees without vehicles out of the area? (See the Floods section for some tips.)  How would you communicate with your employees when it was safe to return?  Is there a way that some of the daily operations of the organization can continue to occur at an off site location? What security issues need to be addressed?

What if the fire chief said that the green cloud was coming, but everyone was to remain inside the building? Can your phone system handle the entire building trying to make a call to reassure loved ones at the same time? What if the emergency lingers? How will the basic needs of your employees be met? Maybe there is a cafeteria in your facility and realistically you could feed people from it for a couple of days without deliveries. What about the people that only have enough money in their pocket for lunch today?

Ideally, our goal is to get to the scene, stabilize the situation and return your operation to normal as soon as possible. However, in a large-scale incident, it may take several hours to accomplish this. Rest assured we will do everything possible to communicate the situation to you so you can adjust your plan. However, during an emergency is not the time for you to begin to develop a plan or to broadcast it for the first time to your employees.