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NCEC Hazmat Event 2009 Review

The second annual NCEC Hazmat Event in Manchester built on last year’s success, meaning that the Unmanned Aircraft System demonstrated wasn’t the only thing to take off successfully by the end of the two day event held on 24-25th February.

Launch of NCEC “Hazmat” Forum

The main event was preceded by an evening drinks reception to launch NCEC’s Hazmat on-line forum. NCEC’s Head of Emergency Response, Bill Atkinson.  It is aimed mainly at Hazardous Materials and Environmental Protection Officers (HMEPO) as a means of opening up debate, sharing experiences and best practice across UK FRS with regard to Hazmat response. Current topics of interest on the site include sources of on-line information, pictures from pollution incidents and the risk from car airbags. The forum requires registration and is monitored by NCEC. Although aimed mainly at HMEPOs, other organisations such as the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and Scientific Advisor companies also expressed interest in being able to communicate with the Fire Services via the forum.

Bill Atkinson commented...
“When we had the idea for the forum, it was as a means of Hazmat Officers communicating with us and between themselves. But at the event, there was a lot of interest from other agencies and from the chemical industry representatives present as well.......On reflection, this could open up a whole new channel of communication between these people, who might normally only see each other in the thick of an on-going incident, if at all.”

Conference Overview

The delegate feedback from the event overwhelmingly reinforced the positive benefits of this event as a chance to network with other hazmat professionals, sharing experiences and learning from a wide range of expert speakers. Comments such as “a meeting of like-minded people with enough time to talk and exchange information” seemed to sum it up.

While it was difficult to cater for such a diverse audience containing delegates from different organisations and many different levels of experience and knowledge, everyone managed to take something from the event.

The NCEC’s forum should also enable the collaboration to continue all-year round and even help set the agenda next time for what another delegate commented as “a long-awaited, valuable forum”.

The Main Event

Day one

Four firefighters from Athens and around 60 UK Hazmat Officers were among the 100 plus delegates attending the event. Others present included police officers and those from the chemical and transport industries involved with the consignment and movement of Dangerous Goods.

That such an array of delegates had the time and opportunity to meet, share experiences and to take in some technical presentations had been one of the main achievements of last year’s inaugural event. That this year’s event was more widely attended offered even more opportunity for these interactions.

Barry Jones of Greater Manchester FRS reiterated the point when he opened the main conference proceedings by saying that last year’s event proved “…Hazmat [Responders] can effectively communicate with each other [and] learn from each other’s experiences”.

In this vein, Dave Barrow, recently retired from Greater Manchester Police outlined how a response was formulated to an incident in which a leaking gas tanker caused the total closure of the M60 motorway. Another case study presented was the serious bromine release in Antwerp docks in 2005. John Parkinson outlined the response and how product specialists were mobilised to the scheme as part of the industry Bromaid mutual-aid scheme. The incident itself posed many difficulties in response, not least due to the quantity of bromine released and that the collision ruptured a drinking water main.

Joanne Dunn of Yara talked about how solid fertilisers react in fire and how the industry has collaborated to provide mutual assistance and remove problems such as potential ‘cigar burner’ fertilisers which, as the name suggests, could be self-heating.

Some of the common problems of transporting pallet loads or IBCs of Dangerous Goods were highlighted by Ali Karim of the Hazchem Network pallet service in his usual inimitable way before George Kowalczyk, a toxicologist with the Health Protection Agency discussed asbestos – the hazards of the various colours and he also raised the old “one fibre can kill” chestnut. He pointed out that while there may be no proven safe limit for asbestos, in practice we are all continuously exposed to naturally occurring asbestos fibres. Therefore he agreed with one of the questioners from the floor that there was a need to develop more practicable and evidence-based guidance for FRS in responding to incidents involving asbestos. He outlined the guidance already developed for Local Authorities by the HPA and contained on their website.

Pat Mika of West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service, presented the Unmanned Aircraft System that MW Power has developed to obtain pictures and infra-red images quickly and easily in places where hand-held photography could be difficult or dangerous. The UAS has previously been featured in Fire Magazine but the up-close demonstration certainly seemed to wow its audience. The expression about the difference between men and boys being the size of their toys once again sprung to mind!

The first day’s programme was concluded by presentations from Eric Quatreville on the plume monitoring and modelling system as developed by SAFER Systems and on Imbiber Beads by Barrie Dannenberg from Industrial Apparatus, which are able to selectively absorb hydrocarbon and other organic chemicals using a special technology developed by the company.

After the event dinner and Ali Karim sharing some more of his experiences as a chemist involved in shipping hazardous chemicals, the second day of the programme opened with David Hanlon of Oxfordshire FRS presenting information on radiation and highlighting a RTC in which a van carrying packages containing radioactive materials caught fire.

Day two

The work of the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) and its organisation of the Chemsafe scheme was outlined by John Roche, its Head of Responsible Care, before the NCEC’s Hugh Roberts highlighted the emerging technology of hydrogen fuel cells and the risks they could pose to emergency responders, for example in responding to RTCs involving vehicles powered by them.

The practical demonstrations on the second day came from Braemar Howells who showed their chemical response vehicle and by Hampshire FRS and REMPLOY who had jointly developed a multi-layer protection suit for use in Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) environments where hazmat officers could be present, as Peter Crook explained.

The presentations continued in the afternoon with Mark Appleyard of Agility Logistics Solutions outlining the role and responsibilities of Dangerous Goods Safety Advisors (DGSA) – a theme Gordon Cameron of the Freight Transport Association took up by offering the carrier’s perspective and their reliance on accurate information from the consignors of Dangerous Goods.

This includes correct classification and labelling of chemicals and Gill Pagliuca of NCEC gave an update on how labelling will change with the implementation of GHS (Global Harmonisation Systems) through the  new Classification, Packaging and Labelling (CLP) Regulation.

The final two presentations saw Kim Pedley of BOC discussing gas tanker rollover incidents and Barry Jones of GMFRS giving an update on the work of the Acetylene Stakeholder Working Group and how services such as his own and London had changed their procedures for dealing with acetylene cylinder incidents.