DISASTER PLANNING
by Bill Grieb
Disasters and emergencies can involve a single worker (for example, a heart attack on the job), several workers, or a complete plant or site. Disasters or emergencies can be caused by internal or external factors or natural disasters.
Internal causes include:
- Medical emergency
- Plant malfunction, collapse, or failure
- Fire and/or explosion
- Material spills and leaks
- Equipment malfunction or misuse
- Violence or sabotage
External factors include:
- Spills and leaks
- Transportation accidents
- Toxic release
- Fire and explosion
- Assaults and insurrection
- Utility malfunction
- (Electricity, gas, water)
Natural disasters include:
Violence: Among the criminal activities that threaten your workplace safety and health are bomb threats, robbery, assault, hostage situations, and kidnapping. Each organization should evaluate its risk and develop appropriately detailed response plans to cover potential criminal activities.
EMERGENCY PLANNING
The keys to emergency planning are:
1. Examine the situation.
2. Develop plans to handle emergencies and disasters.
3. Implement the plans.
4. Communicate the plan.
5. Train personnel.
6. Hold random drills and tests.
7. Evaluate and update the plan regularly.
Disaster Planning Guidelines
1. Examine the situation. Identify potential general disasters such as natural disasters and external disasters. Identify site-specific disasters based on your workplace's physical plan, equipment, materials, and processes.
2. Develop and implement engineering remedies. This may include keeping exits unlocked, modifying structures to meet earthquake standards, changing from toxic to less hazardous materials in certain processes, and redesigning traffic patterns for vehicles and personnel (for example, in a public assembly area) to reduce possibility of loss of life or limb in a disaster.
3. Develop and implement emergency response plans. This plan should consider all possible types of disaster. It should call for the use of notification systems, such as signs and alarms; emergency-response equipment, such as first aid kits; and fire extinguishers, and should provide for regular training and testing.
The emergency plan should define:
A. Escape procedures
B. Warning systems, alarms, signs
C. Refuge areas
D. Containment procedures
E. Shutdown sequences
F. Personnel tracking system
G. Rescue and medical duties
H. Emergency reporting
I. Persons responsible
J. Officials to contact
K. Internal warning system
L. External warning system
M. Inspection and startup procedures
4. Communicate the plan. Appropriate parts of the plan should be provided to employees, the fire department, and the police department.
5. Test and update the plan regularly. The time lines and efficacy of an emergency action plan should be tested with drills and, when possible, simulations. Regular inspections should be performed to identify potential problem areas.
Potential Hazards
Potential hazards should be described in your emergency response plan. For example, the plan should define actions to be taken in the event of a chemical spill or other emergency that has a significant possibility of arising from the equipment, materials, and processes unique to your organization. Say, for example, that drums of hazardous material are being moved by forklifts. The possibility of inadvertent spilling due to dropping or puncturing a drum is a potential hazard. A plan should be developed to react to this hazard. Additionally, training should be provided to employees so that action can be taken immediately, rather than after calling a safety manager or other delays.
Emergency Action Plans should be developed for evacuation, criminal activities, earthquake, flood, and snow.
Emergency Action Posters
Posters should be conspicuously displayed at appropriate sites throughout the workplace.
These posters should warn of potential hazards and dangers and provide emergency action information. Such a poster might say, 'Don't use elevators in the event of an emergency.'
These posters should provide response information and emergency phone numbers.
Other information might include first-aid measures:
1. Airway open and breathing
2. Circulation and bleeding
3. Poisoning
4. Severe burns
5. Shock
When in doubt, dial 911. Here are some other phone numbers that you should have at hand:
1. Ambulance
2. Fire rescue
3. Poison control center
4. Physician
5. Alternate physician
6. Police
7. Hazardous materials
8. National Response Center: (800) 424-8802
Disaster Response Rules
1. Remain calm
2. Assess the situation. Identify the hazards and determine who is threatened.
3. Sound the alarm. Quickly notify others who may be affected and inform your supervisor of the emergency. Activate fire alarms or other warning devices.
4. Get help. The quickest and easiest way to obtain professional help for any type of emergency not specifically covered by available procedures is to
CALL 911.
When calling, remain calm and carefully describe the nature of the emergency and the location.
5. Plan and take action. In the event of a hazardous material incident you should:
Approach cautiously
Identify the hazards
Determine who is threatened
Secure the scene
Get help
6. Report all disasters or emergencies immediately.
7. Participate in response and follow-up. In the event of an injury or illness, provide immediate first aid, as required by the nature of the injury. If necessary, call for help and see that victim is taken to a doctor or hospital.
DISASTER PLANNING CHECKLIST
THE PLAN
[ ] Do you have a written emergency action plan?
[ ] Does your emergency plan cover:
- Fire and explosion
- Flood and earthquake
- Hazardous materials
- Dangerous equipment
- Site-specific features
- External hazards
- Criminal activities
[ ] Have the plan and procedures been reviewed in the past year?
[ ] Have you conducted a site inspection including signs in the past year?
PROCEDURES
[ ] Do you have written emergency response procedures?
[ ] Do your emergency action procedures cover:
- Internal warning
- External warning
- Official notification
- Evacuation and containment
- Controlled shutdown
- Accounting for employees
- Emergency response
- Fire response
- Restart
POSTING AND NOTIFICATION
[ ] Are escape routes posted?
[ ] Are hazard warnings posted?
[ ] Are emergency actions posted?
[ ] Are exits marked?
[ ] Are the alarm systems that provide emergency warnings recognizable and perceptible above ambient conditions?
[ ] Has emergency-response equipment been identified with appropriate signs?
[ ] Do the local fire and police departments have copies of appropriate plans?
[ ] Have copies of plans been filed with state, OSHA, and EPA officials as required?
TRAINING
[ ] Have emergency responses been tested with drills in the past year?
[ ] Have all employees been trained in disaster response?
[ ] Do employees who remain to operate critical plant operations before they evacuate know the proper procedures?
[ ] Do employees know their responsibilities?
- For reporting emergencies
- During an emergency
- For rescue and medical duties
PUBLIC NOTIFICATION
Any disaster that causes danger to the public-either real or perceived- must be handled effectively. It may be a spill of hazardous materials or a malfunction of manufacturing equipment. Safety measures might even include the recall of contaminated food products. The public must be informed, reassured, and kept abreast of any actions being taken. The penalties for not doing so can be severe.
BACK UP
It is important to back up irreplaceable records-important documents, customer lists, accounting records, and so forth-at a separate site so they have a better possibility of being spared in the event of a disaster. In the face of disasters that affect a whole region at once, a business should consider storing additional backup in a completely different region; for instance, a west-coast business planning for earthquakes might store duplicate copies of its records and materials on the east coast.
Reprinted with permission from Safety Information Currents, Vol. IV, Number 12.