Chemical and Biological Agent Incident Response and Decision Process for Civilian and Public Sector Facilities

Abstract

In the event of a terrorist attack or catastrophic release involving potential chemical and/or biological warfare agents, decisionmakers will need to make timely and informed choices about whether, or how, to respond. The objective of this article is to provide a decision framework to specify initial and follow-up actions, including possible decontamination, and to address long-term health and environmental issues. This decision framework consists of four phases, beginning with the identification of an incident and ending with verification that cleanup and remediation criteria have been met. The flowchart takes into account both differences and similarities among potential agents or toxins at key points in the decision-making process. Risk evaluation and communication of information to the public must be done throughout the process to ensure a successful effort.

Predicting Response to Reassurances and Uncertainties in Bioterrorism Communications for Urban Populations in New York and California

“…First, the science is still evolving regarding cleanup, restoration, and clearance of environments after a biocontamination event; therefore, some safety and consequence management decisions will be made with incomplete, evolving, or imperfect knowledge. 7,22,58,59 Second, uncertainties and risk communication gaps can have vastly different impacts on individuals …”

“…7,50 As a bioterrorism event progresses, leaders and government agencies can expect numerous scientific uncertainties, technical challenges for decontamination, possible disagreements among scientific experts, persistent doubts about safety among the public, and intense scrutiny of decisions about ''how clean is clean enough'' during decontamination and clearance of environments. 7,50,58,59 Furthermore, uncertainty and the public's communication needs will be affected by whether dispersed biological agents have been weaponized, altered in other ways, or delivered through unexpected or novel means. 7,58,59 These circumstances predict inevitable communication errors and missteps when the demand for timely information is PREDICTING RESPONSE TO BIOTERRORISM COMMUNICATIONS intense and preliminary assessments of the situation are communicated by necessity.…”

Automatic detection of urban traffic incidents and supporting decision model for police dispatching based on travel time

“…There are not many theoretical researches on the modeling of police dispatching decision and the optimization of police dispatching effect. Currently, similar theoretical researches and relevant models related to supporting detection for emergency treatment in other fields (such as medical, nuclear management, biological, chemical and other fields) [5,7,14,20,18] provide enlightenment and reference for this paper.…”

How clean is clean enough? Recent developments in response to threats posed by chemical and biological warfare agents

“…Gaps in documented information tend to be agent-specific. Furthermore, in the public sector, it is important to emphasize that decontamination and cleanup issues are not only agent-specific, but scenariodependent and site-specific as well (Raber et al 2001b). …”