News

Several months ago, media and the Internet were saturated with stories about the potential for an Ebola outbreak in the US. For weeks, that was the lead story and then suddenly, the reports stopped. However, recent events should serve as a reminder that contagious diseases like Ebola still pose the potential for life-threatening conditions.

There have been at least nine patients who have been tested for the virus over the past several weeks, including patients in Ohio and New York. Two known Ebola patients are currently being treated in an Atlanta hospital. Both of those patients were actually transferred there from Liberia, where they had both been working with Ebola victims.

The Ebola-stricken Americans will be treated in this isolation rooms and others similar to it.

These incidents serve as a serious reminder that these contagious diseases still pose a serious – if not fatal – threat to those who work in emergency response and the medical field.

Emergency Film Group’s PPE for Ebola & Other Hazards: Protecting Healthcare Workers describes how to select the proper type of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), as required by OSHA, to use in order to protect healthcare workers from exposure to patients contaminated with Ebola or other infectious diseases, industrial chemicals, and biological and chemical warfare agents.

This program is designed to provide training and information about the use of protective clothing and equipment to EMS and hospital staff, first receivers, hazmat teams, law enforcement, and waste management workers.

Topics covered include:

• Routes of exposure;
• Respiratory protection;
• Details of PPE;
• Different ensemble classes;
• Proper donning and doffing protocols;
• Fitting storage and inspection of PPE;
• Avoiding heat injuries while wearing PPE; and
• Decontamination.

A Florida man was recently arrested by the FBI on federal terrorism charges. Harlem Suarez, 23, who is also known as Almlak Benitez, was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, an offense that carries a potential sentence of up to life in prison. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says that Suarez was plotting to detonate a shrapnel-laden bomb on a beach in Key West.

Suarez caught the attention of the FBI in April, when someone reported that he was attempting to recruit people to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). One post read, “Stand up with us my brother. Stand up with the black flag and the AK with 10 mag, fight with us, be a gangster with us, kill our enemies and convert to Islam now in USA.”

The agency used a confidential source to interact with Suarez by cellphone, online, text messaging, and in person. Over the next few months, the two exchanged many conversations regarding the making of a bomb. The source told Suarez he knew someone who could make the bomb, and introduced him to an undercover FBI agent.

Last month, Suarez purchased materials to make the bomb, including galvanized nails. The plan was to place the bomb in a backpack and use a cellphone to remotely set it off. He then met with the confidential source and gave the source the materials, along with $100, to make the bomb. Several days later, he and the source met with the FBI agent, who gave them the bomb and instructions on how to explode it. The device was actually inert and could not be detonated. Moments after the exchange, federal agents moved in and Suarez was arrested.

Emergency Film Group’s IED Training Package provides the training to strengthen preparedness for a dirty bomb attack, as well as deterrence, prevention and protection capabilities. The four program package is now available at a huge discount for a limited time.

Each year, almost 4,000 people die from carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning in this country. Another 10,000 people become seriously ill from this deadly gas, which can be emitted from many common household sources, including attached garages, barbecue grills, ceiling mounted unit heaters, chimneys, gas clothes dryers, gas or oil space heaters, gas refrigerators, gas, oil, wood or coal furnaces, paint removers, pool/spa heaters, tobacco smoke, unvented cooking appliances, unvented heaters, vehicle exhausts, water heaters, and wood burning fireplaces.

In Maine, four young people died from carbon monoxide poisoning, caused by fumes from a generator running in the basement of the cabin they were in.

Often referred to as “the silent killer,” symptoms of CO poisoning often mimic the same symptoms of the flu or food poisoning. Typical symptoms may include difficulty breathing, drowsiness, headache, nausea, and vomiting. Victims who have high levels of CO in their systems may suffer from convulsions and/or fall into a coma, and death.

Because those suffering from CO poisoning often mistake their symptoms for something else, most dispatched calls from victims are treated as medical emergencies, leaving emergency responders dispatched to the locations at risk of becoming victims of CO poisoning, as well. This is why it is critical for responders to have the proper training and proper detection equipment to detect the presence of CO.

Nine people were hospitalized with CO poisoning when one of the family members accidentally left a car running in the garage.

Emergency Film Group’s CO: Response to Carbon Monoxide Incidents DVD provides training to EMTs, firefighters, industrial fire teams, poison control center personnel, plant safety personnel and others who may be called upon to safely respond to an incident involving carbon monoxide, the most common type of poisoning responded to by EMS.

On May 19, 2015, a pipeline located on the California coastline ruptured, spilling more than 100,000 gallons of crude oil. At least 21,000 gallons of the of the crude were dumped into the Pacific Ocean, creating a nine mile oil slick before the pipeline, which is owned by Plains All American Pipeline, was finally shut off – three hours after the rupture occurred.

According to the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration (PHSMA), Plains All American Pipeline is one of the worst offenders for safety and maintenance infractions. In less than a decade, the company has been cited for 175 safety and maintenance violations, including being responsible for at least 10 other oil spills in four other states.

A man tries to rescue an oil soaked bird (Lara Cooper/Noozhawk.com via Reuters)

Plains All American operates almost 18,000 miles of pipeline through several states. The company’s rate of incidents per mile is more than three times the national average of other pipeline operators, according to a recent independent analysis. Of the more than 1,700 pipeline companies that operated in the U.S., only four other companies have more reported violations than Plains All American.

The company has paid over $115,000 in civil penalties for violations which include failing to maintain adequate firefighting gear and relying on local volunteer fire departments. They have also been cited for failing to install equipment to prevent pipe corrosion, failing to prove it had completed repairs recommended by inspectors and failing to keep records showing inspections of breakout tanks used to ease pressure surges in pipelines.

Staff and volunteers work to clean oil off a brown pelican at the International Bird Rescue center in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

The Santa Barbara oil spill area has been declared a state of emergency, with both Refugio State Beach and El Capitan State Beach closed. More than 850 workers have been attempting to clean the damage that has been done to the area. As of today, more than 280 dead animals have been recovered, including 180 birds and 100 marine mammals. So far, workers have recovered 14,267 gallons of oily water and 960 cubic yards of oily sand. The cost to date is at least $65 million, with more months of clean-up recovery expected.

A crew cleans oil from the beach at Refugio State Beach on May 20, 2015 (David McNew/Getty Images)

Emergency Film Group’s Oil Spill Response Series is a five-part training series that provides important health and safety information for clean-up workers. Created with the assistance of the US Coast Guard, this series examines all recognized clean-up technologies and emphasizes waste management techniques. It is used worldwide by the US Coast Guard and some 500 other organizations. It is ideal as a crash course to meet OSHA and USCG regulations.

Jihadist attacks against a Paris magazine office, a kosher market in that city, and the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa seem to signal a new reliance by terrorists on conventional weapons. But you would have to have a short memory not to remember the Mumbai Massacre and the Fort Hood Shootings.

Maybe it is because in France, Canada, and the U.S. assault weapons are easier to come by than the explosives that are the deadly force in countless IED attacks in the Middle East. Despite the best efforts of law enforcement, the military, the intelligence community, and others designated with the task of protecting us from terrorist attacks, the likelihood is that the attacks will continue.

This is not lost on Americans. A recently released poll by the Pew Research Center, shows the public puts fighting terrorism above all other policy concerns for the first time in five years, edging out improving the nation’s economy which finished second in the poll.

In 1998, Osama bin Laden said that the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was a “religious duty.” In 2003, a fatwa by a radical cleric said it was legitimate to use such weapons to kill millions. There have been more than 50 reported attempts to acquire, create, or deploy WMD. Clearly, the possession of such weapons would give jihadists power on the world stage and lead to further recruitment of fighters.

This idea is still very much alive. A German journalist who imbedded with ISIL in Mosul for ten days, recently returned to report that Islamic State fighters are committed to killing millions who do not share the radical Islamists’ religious beliefs.

A major concern is the instability of certain nations that possess WMD as part of their military arsenal. Despite efforts to remove WMD from Syria, U.S. government sources have expressed fears that President Assad may have held back a small stash of chemical weapons.

In Iraq, it has been reported that ISIL fighters removed forty kilos of uranium from the University of Mosul. While the uranium was not enriched sufficiently to be a nuclear threat, it could well be used as in a radiological dispersion device. In the ISIL stronghold of Fallujah, a water treatment plant uses chlorine to treat sewage. Al Qaeda used chlorine cylinders in IEDs against coalition troops, but without much success. The laptop of an ISIL fighter, who had formerly been a university chemistry student, had plans for weaponizing bubonic plague and making ricin from castor beans. His whereabouts are unknown. Nor do we know if other chemists and scientists have joined ISIL’s cohort.

As hundreds of foreign fighters join ISIL every day there number now exceeds 15,000 including, it is estimated, some 2000 westerners. A top security concern is the potential return of these westerners to their native countries after having been groomed to carry out attacks in their homeland. The Charlie Hebdo attackers are a case in point.

As ISIL controls large swathes of land, the probability grows that people with the appropriate set of skills will find the right raw materials to fashion a WMD. It is an escalating threat which makes, “not if, but when” a prescient prediction. What we can do is train and prepare.

Emergency Film Group WMD Response Package II provides training and response guidelines to emergency personnel who would be called upon to respond to a WMD incident. This package contains four DVDs, two Resource CD-ROMs, and two Leader Guides.

Recently, the media and many politicians have focused a great deal of attention on the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa, where at this writing, some 10,000 have died, and on the few cases that have surfaced in the United States. This has led to some false assumptions, misinformation, and confusion, particularly about the appropriate protection for healthcare workers and others who might come in contact with the Ebola virus.

When two health care workers at a Texas hospital were exposed and subsequently developed symptoms of Ebola, hospital management was called before a congressional committee. It was learned that the workers had been provided with personal protection, but had received no training or supervision in the use of the equipment. Another revelation was that the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) recommendations were based on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) model. The WHO model was designed for situations in which “care is given in remote places,” where it would be likely “intensive training would not be available for health care workers,” such as remote villages in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

This begs the question of why the WHO model would be put forth by the CDC here in the United States where we have the world’s most comprehensive standards on personal protective clothing and equipment. The standards have been developed by government agencies and national standards making organizations and products that meet or exceed the standards are well known and widely available. Subsequently, in late October 2014, the CDC revised its recommendations. The latest CDC recommendations are a vast improvement, yet it seems likely that more revisions will follow.

The major mover in the field of protective clothing continues to be the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) headquartered in Quincy, MA. They have two standards that apply, NFPA 1991, Standard on Vapor Protective Ensembles for Hazardous Materials Emergencies and NFPA 1994, Standard for Protective Ensembles for First Responders to CBRN Terrorism Incidents. In case there is any question here, the Ebola virus is a hazardous material, Hazard Class 6, Type A – an infectious substance. As far as the aforementioned CBRN (chemical biological, radiological, nuclear), Ebola has long been thought of as a potential biological agent that could be used as a weapon by terrorists.

Here is the bottom line- protective clothing certified to NFPA 1991 and NFPA 1994 is reliable for protection against Ebola, provided that proper donning and doffing protocols are followed as well as appropriate decontamination and waste management procedures for viral and bacterial threat contaminants.

Testing carried out under NFPA 1991 (totally encapsulating garments, also called vapor protective clothing) includes chemical resistance – how well the fabric repels the movement of the chemical though the CPC material. Each material is tested against a battery of 21 chemicals. No permeation is allowed for a minimum of one hour. One of the chemicals tested is chlorine. A chlorine molecule is about 5000 times smaller than an Ebola virus. So clearly, any ensemble that meets the standard will provide excellent protection against Ebola.

The ensembles designated Class 2 under NFPA 1994 are tested in a similar manner as the 1991 suits, but undergo separate tests for resistance to viral substances in liquid form. In one test, the entire garment is mounted on a mannequin and then sprayed with water from every direction for twenty minutes. If any water penetrates the ensemble, it fails. So, clearly these Class 2 ensembles are excellent barriers against Ebola.

Although it is likely that any garments used in the treatment and care of patients who have or are expected to have the Ebola virus will be of a disposable type, any re-useable equipment will have to be decontaminated. The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases recommends decontamination of Ebola with a solution of five percent sodium hypochlorite, common household bleach, for three to five minutes followed by washing with soft liquid soap and rinsing. Contaminated run-off must be collected. The latest CDC recommendations advise cleaning with an EPA registered disinfectant wipe “with a label claim of potency at least equivalent to that of non-envelope virus.”

While the latest CDC recommendations focus on the hospital environment, it is important to understand that protection is required in any healthcare setting where there is potential for exposure to patients or infected materials including body substances, contaminated medical equipment, contaminated surfaces, or aerosols generated by certain procedures. Potentially at risk are EMTs, members of hazmat teams involved in transporting patients, mortuary personnel, and those involved in handling medical waste.

In the face of this uncertainty, because no FDA approved vaccine or anti-viral drug is available for Ebola, and because of the high morbidity of these infected with the disease, it is important to learn the most basic lesson of self-protection – that those whose duty calls them to work with Ebola patients can do so safely provided they have adequate protective clothing and equipment and are trained to use it.

At Emergency Film Group, we have been training emergency responders and medical personnel how to carry out potentially dangerous tasks safely for more than 35 years. Several years ago, we created a four part series called Hospital First Receiver which is now in use in more than 1,000 hospitals throughout the country. One program in that series is entitled “Self Protection.” It was designed to provide a comprehensive examination of the protective clothing and respiratory protection issues which OSHA says every user of the equipment must be aware.

While designed for the first receiver, the lessons apply equally to any person who is expected to be involved in the care of Ebola patients.  We have re-issued the program in a new edition to speak directly to the protective clothing issues raised by Ebola. More information about the updated program,  PPE for Ebola and Other Hazards: Protecting Healthcare Workers,  can be found here. . .

A 26 year-old California man was killed after a hole he dug on a Northern California beach collapsed and trapped him under the sand.

Adam Pye, a recent college graduate, was at Half Moon Bay Beach, located outside San Francisco, with friends, when they decided to dig holes in the sand. Pye dug a hole approximately 10 feet deep and was standing in it when the walls of the hole began to collapse, burying him.

Friends and bystanders tried digging him out, using hands, shovels and other tools. After five minutes of digging, they managed to get Pye’s head above the sand, but he was already unconscious. Emergency responders began arriving at the scene, and paramedics did manage to open up the young man’s airways.

Emergency crews and volunteers working frantically to rescue Adam Pye from a sand hole.

It took 30 firefighters, with the help of bystanders, another 35 minutes to dig Pye out and remove him from the hole. However, attempts at reviving him were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Just one month ago, another man, 49 year-old David Frasier of Fredericksburg, Virginia, died in a similar accident at a beach in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Frasier was standing in a four feet hole when its walls collapsed on top of him.

Rescue efforts in confined space areas require special training. Emergency Film Group’s Technical Rescue Package provides in-depth training in multiple rescue disciplines at a significant savings. The package includes six DVDs plus four texts providing a study of the skills and knowledge needed to safely locate and extricate victims.

The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) has released contaminated groundwater from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to manage the huge amounts of radioactive water that have built up at the complex. The nuclear plant has been crippled since being hit by an 11-meter tsunami and a 9.0 scale earthquake in March 2011.

There have been massive amounts of radioactive water accumulating at the site since the disasters struck. Groundwater continues to flow down from nearby hills, with an estimated 400 tons entering the basements of the reactor building each day. The water is pumped out and stored in over 1,000 temporary tanks, but those tanks have just about hit capacity.

Tepco dumped 560 tons of radioactive water into the ocean. The company is also planning on dumping another 790 tons of contaminated water in the Pacific, but will not confirm when that will be taking place.

Tepco worker prepares to release radioactive water into Pacific Ocean.

Tepco claims the safety limits for the water are tighter than the recommendation of the World Health Organization guidelines for drinking water. However, the facility being used to remove the most dangerous nuclides from the water continues to have problems and has been shut down. According to reports, the system, which was installed two years ago, has yet to be completely functional, suffering from equipment leaks and repeated leaks.

Emergency Film Group’s Radiation Monitoring DVD training video teaches emergency personnel in mission specific Operations Level competencies regarding monitoring for radiation at WMD events as well as natural disasters and industrial accidents.

Illegal production of methamphetamine in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. The Office of National Drug Control Policy estimates the economic cost to society of meth use in this country between $16.2 billion and $48.3 billion annually.

What happens to the homes that were used to create math once law enforcements shuts down the operation? Lethal chemicals seep into the walls of these homes, leaching out over time, exposing new residents to all the toxins. Meth Lab Cleanup, a national training and abatement company, estimates there are currently 2.5 million meth-contaminated homes in the United States. For every 10 homes used for meth production, experts say, authorities uncover just one.

Many of these homes are sold at deep discounts. And in many states, realtors aren’t required to disclose to potential buyers that the home they are about to purchase once housed an illegal meth lab and is loaded with toxins. Chemical residue from production of the drug seeps into the walls and insulation. That great “fixer-upper” just may be hiding all kinds of deadly chemicals that could make you and your family extremely sick.

So how do you find out if the house you want to call home was once the location of meth lab?

• Visit the Drug Enforcement Agency’s National Clandestine Laboratory Register. This list contains the addresses for all homes discovered by law enforcement that contained meth labs. The searchable database has addresses arranged by state and city.
• Talk to the neighbors in the area and find out what kind of history the property has.
• Visit the local police department and inquire about any arrests or issues involving the property.
• Buy a test kit for the property. The cost to clean a former meth house runs anywhere from $5,000 to $150,000. The test kit to determine if there are dangerous chemicals from its production costs about $50.

Emergency Film Group’s Response to Illicit Drug Labs DVD provides training for emergency personnel who may encounter a clandestine drug lab during routine calls or who may be involved in taking down a lab. An ideal resource for law enforcement, hazmat teams, EMS and other emergency personnel.