NOAA 2007-027
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ben Sherman
5/4/07
 NOAA News Releases 2007
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NOAA Office of Communications


CAMEO CHEMICALS: NOAA’S NEW ONLINE TOOL FOR HAZARDOUS MATERIALS RESPONDERS

A new online tool for first responders to hazardous chemical accidents has been released by NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration. The new Web site, CAMEO Chemicals, http://cameochemicals.noaa.gov, is the latest component of NOAA’s popular CAMEO (Computer-Aided Management of Emergency Operations) software suite, and the first to be available for use online.

Over the past two decades, the CAMEO suite has brought first responders from an era in which they gleaned emergency response information from maps and reference books spread out on the hoods of their trucks to a time when up-to-date, comprehensive information on chemical plumes, toxicity risks, and susceptibility of chemical mixtures to burn or explode can be displayed with a few strokes on a computer keyboard.

"CAMEO is the most widely used chemical response software in the world," said Capt. Ken Barton, acting director of NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration. "With CAMEO Chemicals, we've responded to user requests to improve access and ease of use of this vital information. While the Web site is newly operational it has already been placed in service with a major chemical release on the Mississippi River and a dangerous train derailment in New York.”

CAMEO Chemicals is an online, easy-to-use version of the most popular components of CAMEO, the chemical database and the reactivity prediction tool. Key features include:

  • Extensive Chemical Database: CAMEO Chemicals uses the same chemical database as CAMEO, which contains response recommendations for over 6,000 chemicals. The database also contains more than 100,000 chemical synonyms and identification numbers, which aid emergency responders in identifying unknown substances during an incident.
  • Critical Response Information: The revised search engine and new ranking order for search results makes finding chemicals easier. Data sheets on each chemical provide physical properties, health hazards, information about air and water hazards, and recommendations for firefighting, first aid, and spill response.
  • Chemical Reactivity: This tool predicts what hazards could arise if chemicals were to mix.

CAMEO Chemicals was developed by NOAA in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard. The Web site is maintained by NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration, a program of the National Ocean Service.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of science and service to the nation. From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

On the Web

NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov

National Ocean Service: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/

CAMEO Chemicals: http://cameochemicals.noaa.gov/

CAMEO Web site: http://www.epa.gov/ceppo/cameo/

NOAA’s CAMEO information online: http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/cameo/cameo.html