ThemeModule -15
Industrial Disaster Response
DMI
Bhopal
Contents
1. Why emergency response ?? 2. Emergency Levels
3. Causes of the emergencies
4. Characteristics of the released hazardous chemicals
5. Incident Response System (IRS)
5.1. NDMA initiatatives
6. The Incident Response Teams (IRTs) at State and District Levels
6.1. MOEF initiatives
7. Consequences of chemical releases
7.1 Typical impacts on health
7.2 Typical demands on health services
7.3 What the assessment IC should focus on
7.4 Interventions/Response likely to be needed: Specific health/medical
interventions
7.5 Other critical public health interventions
8. What to do in response to a warning
9. What IC needs to do when a disaster strikes
9.1 Sequence of actions
9.2 Preliminaries to be done 'immediately' in all cases 9.3 Points to remember
9.4 Emergency, health and rehabilitation services
9.5 Population Displacements
9.6 Managing stress
9.7 Personal emergency kits
10 Conclusion
11. Glossary
12. References
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1. Why emergency response ?
Since response mechanism in brief at one place is not available especially for the
event of chemical (industrial) disaster, hence this module provides an insight view to
administration for quick response. This module is amalgam of provisions made by
the Ministry of Environment and Forests under Environment (Protection) Act 1986
and the initiatives taken by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
The module provides brief structure for implementing the district level response action and operational coordination for all types of industrial (chemical) accidents. Response mechanism defines basic roles, responsibilities and operational concepts for response across all levels of Government, NGOs and the private sector. The overarching objective of response activities centres centres upon saving lives and protecting property and the
environment.
Presently the status of response mechanism is as:
a. Lack of accountability because of ad-hoc and emergent nature of arrangements
and no prior training for effective performance;
b. Lack of an orderly and systematic planning process;
c. Unclear chain of command and supervision of response activity;
d. Lack of proper communication, inefficient use of available resources, use of
conflicting codes and terminology and no prior communication plan;
e. Lack of predetermined method / system to effectively integrate inter-agency
requirements into the disaster management structures and planning process;
Different disasters require different types of expertise for response. Thus, in case of
rescue and relief in natural disaster, it will generally be the local Police and the NDRF /
SDRF, in case of Fire it will be the Fire department, in case of drought it will be the
Agriculture department, in case of Epidemics and other Biological disasters it will be the Health department, while in case of chemical/industrial disaster along with Police, Health and Fire departments will have to play the lead role and the remaining
departments will have to play the supporting role as per requirement and their core competencies. The Chief Coordinator at the district level is District Collector with the support from various departments.
f. Lack of coordination between the first responders and individuals, professionals
and NGOs with specialised skills during the response phase; and
g. Lack of use of common terminology for different resources resulting in improper
requisitioning and inappropriate resource mobilisation etc.
In view of the paradigm shift towards improved pre-disaster preparedness, there is an
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urgent need for a proper and a well prepared response
system which would have:-
a. Well thought out pre-designated roles for each
member of the response team;
b. Systematic and complete planning process;
c. System of accountability for the IRT (Incident
response team) members;
d. Clear cut chain of command;
e. Effective resource management;
f. Proper and coordinated communication set up;
g. System for effectively integrating independent
agencies into the planning and command
structure without infringing on the independence
Fig-1 of the concerned agencies; and
h. Integration of community resources in the
response effort.
Response doctrine with the four pillars knowledge, experience, skills and attitude can be made effective (Fig-1).
The following five key principles of operations define response mechanism:
1. Engaged partnership
2. Tiered response
3. Scalable, flexible, and adaptable operational capabilities
4. Unity of effort through unified command
5. Readiness to act
The Disaster Management Act 2005 is umbrella act and describes the instruments and
mechanism for all types of the disasters. For chemical (industrial) emergency, provisions
have been made through Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemicals
(MS and IHC) Rules 1989 and Chemical Accidents (Emergency planning, preparedness and response) (CAEPPR) Rules 1996 under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and line ministry is Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF), GOI. The module describes the initiatives of NDMA and the MOEF so that in real crisis the response mechanism should be effective through amalgamation.
2. Emergency Levels
Response mechanism differs with the severity level of emergency. Emergency incidents are classified according to their severity and potential impacts, so that appropriate
emergency response operations can be implemented.
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Emergencies can be categorised into three broad levels on the basis of seriousness and response requirements, namely:-
(a) Level One :: This is an emergency or an incident
which-
(i) can be effectively and sefely safely
managed, and contained within
the site, location or installation by the available resources;
(ii) has no, impact outside the site,
location or installation.
(b) Level two :: This is an emergency or an incident which-
(i) cannot be effectively and safely managed or contained at the
location or installation by available resources and additional support is alerted or required;
(ii) is having or has the potential to have an effect beyond the site,
location or installation and where external support of mutual aid
partners may be involved;
(iii) is likely to be danger to life, environment or to industrial assets or
reputation.
(c) Level Three :: This is an emergency or an incident with off-site impact which could be catastrophic and is likely to affect the population, property and environment inside and outside the installation, and management and control is done by district
administration. Although the Level-III emergency falls under the perview purview of District Authority but till they step in, it should be responsibility of the unit to manage the emergency.
Level I and Level II emergency are generally considered as on-site emergency while Level III is off-site emergency.
3. Causes of the emergencies
Industrial emergency occurs due to release of chemicals from an industry. Chemicals are stored in bulk at various storage conditions like at high pressure and or high
temperature or at cryogenic conditions. Chemicals are either stored in gaseous phase or liquid or in both phases. When these chemicals released out into the atmosphere, then based on their nature these chemicals, either will ignite and may explode or if it is toxic then will spread in a plume in the local area.
The behaviour of the chemicals is shown in Fig-2.
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Start
Data input
chemical properties
meteorological conditions
operating conditions
Initial event
Outflow
4. Characteristics of the released hazardous chemicals
For proper and effective response mechanisms it is essential to know the characteristics of the released hazardous chemicals. The characteristics of the chemicals can be
determined either knowing toxicity or inflammability. The following paragraphs help in understanding the nature of chemicals (MS and IHC rules 1989).
(a) Toxic Chemicals: Chemicals having the following values of acute toxicity and
which owing to their physical and chemical properties, are capable of producing
major accident hazards:
Inhalation
Liquid release Gas release Two Phase release
S.No. Toxicity
Oral toxicity Dermal toxicity
toxicity
LD LD
0 0
LC 0
Fire Explosion Toxic release
Final event Final event Final event
1. Extremely toxic <5
2. Highly toxic >5-50
3. Toxic >50-200
(b) Flammable Chemicals ::
(i) flammable gases: Gases which at 20 o
are ::-
<40 <0.5
>40-200 >0.5-2.0
>200-1000 >2-10
C and at standard pressure of 101.3KPa
Jet fire VCE Heavy
Flash fire BLEVE Light
Pool fire Missiles
Fireball
Final event
analysis
(a) ignitable when in a mixture of 13 percent or less by volume with air, or ;
(b) have a flammable range with air of at least 12 percentage points
regardless of the lower flammable limits.
The flammability shall be determined by tests or by calculation in accordance with methods adopted by International Standards Organisation ISO Number 10156 of 1990 or by Bureau of Indian Standard BIS Number 1446 of 1985.
(ii) extremely flammable liquids :: chemicals which
o
have flash point lower than or equal to 23 C and
o
Mapping visualisation
Stop
Fig-2
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boiling point less than 35 C.
(iii) very highly flammable liquids :: chemicals which have a flash point lower
o o
than or equal to 23 C and initial boiling point higher than 35 C.
(iv) highly flammable liquids :: chemicals which have a flash point lower than
o o
or equal to 60 C but higher than 23 C.
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o
(vi) flammable liquids :: chemicals which have a flash point higher than 60
C
o
RESPONSIBLE OFFICER
but lower than 90 C.
(C) Explosives :: explosives mean a solid or liquid or pyrotechnic substance (or a
mixture of substances) or an article:-
(a) which is in itself capable by chemical reaction of producing gas at such a
temperature and pressure and at such a speed as to cause damage to the
surroundings ;
(b) which is designed to produce an effect by heat, light, sound, gas or smoke
or a combination of these as the result of non-detonative self sustaining
exothermic chemical reaction.
Pollution Control Board and Chief Inspectorate of Factories or Controller of Explosives
will confirm the properties of the released chemicals based on the above properties.
Nodal Officer
(Air operations)
INCIDENT COMMANDER Deputy
Information & Media Officer
Liaison Officer
Safety Officer
Operations Section Planing Section Logistics Section
Fig-3
COMMAND
STAFF
GENERAL
STAFF
5. Incident Response System (IRS) 5.1.1 Command Staff: The Command Staff consists of Incident Commander (IC),
Information & Media Officer (IMO), Safety Officer (SO) and Liaison Officer (LO). They
report directly to the IC and may have assistants. The Command Staff may or may not
To respond the emergency management NDMA has developed guidelines on Incident have supporting organisations under them. The main function of the Command Staff is
Response System (IRS) and guidelines on chemical (industrial) disaster management. to assist the IC in the discharge of his/her functions and it has been discussed in brief
MOEF, has notified the CA (EPPR) Rules 1996. Module will deal in brief one by one: as:-
5.1 NDMA initiatives a. The Incident Commander (IC) will
i. obtain information on situation status like number of people and the area
The Incident Response System (IRS), developed by NDMA in 2010, is an effective affected etc.; availability and procurement of resources; requirement of facilities,
mechanism for reducing the scope for ad-hoc measures in response. It incorporates all Staging Area, Incident Base, Camp, Relief Camp, etc.; availability and requirement
the tasks that may be performed during Disaster Management irrespective of their level of Communication system; future weather behaviour from IMD; and any other
of complexity. Organisation functions through Incident Response Teams (IRTs) in the information required for response from all available sources and analyse the
field, inline with their administrative structure and DM Act 2005. Responsible Officers situation.
(ROs) have been designated at the State and District level as overall in charge of the ii. establish immediate priorities, including
incident response management. The RO may however delegate responsibilities to the search and rescue and relief distribution
Incident Commander (IC), who in turn will manage the incident through IRTs. The IRTs strategies;
will be pre-designated at all levels; State, District, Sub-Division and Tehsil/Block. On iii. assess requirements for maintenance of
receipt of early warning, the RO will activate them. In case a disaster occurs without law and order, traffic etc.; if any at the
any warning, the local IRT will respond and contact RO for further support, if required. incident site, and make arrangements
A Nodal Officer (NO) has to be designated for proper coordination between the District, with help of the local police;
State and National level in activating effective response. iv. brief higher authorities about the
situation;
Apart from the RO and Nodal Officer (NO), the IRS has two main components; v. ensure that adequate safety measures for responders and affected communities
a) Command Staff and are in place;
b) General Staff. The structure is shown in Fig-3. vi. ensure proper coordination between all sections of the IRTs.
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b. Information and Media Officer (IMO) If you are working with a particular newspaper or radio/television station, you may
The news media are important partners in an emergency. The media and individual need to do some research about their editorial style.
journalists can provide vital information; they may have been in areas not visited by Translate materials into local languages. Have regular resource persons/ journalists
anyone from government side and have talked with people of the affected area. IMO available to do this.
should encourage them to keep informed of what they see. Respond when possible.
At all times foster goodwill and cooperation with the news media. Give them c. Roles and Responsibilities of Liaison Officer (LO)
constant updates, informal interviews etc. They will respond with informed reporting. The LO is the focal point of contact for various line departments, SDRF, NDRF,
Encourage them to share your vision for long-term effective assistance. When representatives of NGOs, etc. participating in the response. The LO is the point of