Emergency Preparedness (HMEP) Curriculum

Background

This initiative originated in the Federal Government's effort to address the problem of solid waste in general and hazardous waste in particular. The effort was first addressed by the Resource conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976, which regulates disposal of both solid and hazardous wastes. In 1980, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) was passed to protect public health from hazardous waste. As additional information became available regarding health and safety issues, the 1986 Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) Title I, Section 126(a)(b)(c), was enacted to require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop standards for health and safety. This in turn led to the Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response, 29 CFR 1910.120 (1989), also referred to as OSHA 1910.120. OSHA 1910.120 describes minimum levels of emergency responder skills, knowledge, and functional levels to meet the safety and health needs of emergency response personnel for both RCRA/CERCLA sites and response off-site. To further define these areas, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) developed a standard to define competencies for personnel responding to hazardous materials emergencies. This document is known as NFPA 472. The levels of training recommended in the most recent (1997) edition of NFPA 472 exceed the minimum levels required by OSHA. However, the basic principle that effective response is based on the competency of the responders, not on the number of training hours experienced, is fully shared.

The effort to better define training requirements that would lead to full competency of public sector responders was continued in HMTUSA Section 117A, which provided the impetus to develop Guidelines. In this document, the scope of personnel for whom training needs are defined is expanded from those participating in incident response to include those involved in planning for the response. In the response section, the Guidelines also bridges technical differences between current editions of OSHA and NFPA definitions of response competencies. The measurement of courses is expanded from length of training and general competencies to the identification of specific objectives and how student competency is measured. In the Guidelines, the terms hazardous substances, hazardous materials, hazardous chemicals, and hazardous waste are considered interchangeable. The focus is on the general reduction of releases and exposures as well as on the general improvement of public sector response and planning, and the material is intended to support, without preference, various Federal agency requirements and terminologies. The Guidelines is written for hazardous materials training managers. It assumes that users are experienced in hazardous materials training; are familiar with OSHA 1910.120, NFPA 472, and the challenges of training program management; and have the ability in their organization to evaluate their hazard analysis and response capability as well as training requirements.

Managing Hazardous Materials Training

Managing hazardous materials training at the State and local levels is a complex task. The challenge is to conduct training with limited resources that meets the public sector response training requirements of OSHA 1910.120(q) and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) 40 CFR 311 (EPA 311). This challenge is compounded by the additional responsibility to ensure that all public sector employees involved in planning and prevention are properly trained to perform their roles. The tasks the public sector should perform to meet these training responsibilities include:

Guidelines for Public Sector Hazardous Materials Training is intended to be a reference manual to assist training managers and public sector employers in accomplishing these tasks.

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The Guidelines is designed to be used as a working reference manual by public sector managers of hazardous materials training. It is organized and indexed to facilitate user cross-referencing of sections and content. Most material addresses the content of courses and the tools to be used in self-assessment of courses. However, course content constitutes only one factor in the training equation that determines the competency of public sector employees involved in hazardous materials planning and response.

Therefore, other HMEP curriculum support programs Guidelines provides additional supportive information and guidance for the public sector training management responsibilities described above.

The Guidelines is organized into four components:

The guidelines describe in detail the recommended and the required substance of training courses for response and planning for hazardous materials and terrorist incidents, and for prevention of hazardous materials incidents. The information consists primarily of competency requirements to be addressed.

Objectives are organized by the pubic sector planning and response functions for which training should be conducted. Included are recommendations for the organization and structure of courses in each specific area, including considerations such as length of training, course methodology, exercise and activity design, equipment and facilities needed, topic-specific testing and evaluation considerations.

The training objectives in each topic area also are organized and coded to support self-assessment of courses by State, Tribal, Territory and local public sector employers and training managers. Instructions for self-assessment of courses are provided under separate cover by the HMEP curriculum program.