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TRANSCAER_Risk

Is it Worth the Risk?

July 10, 2023 | Tom Miller, TRANSCAER West Virginia State Coordinator

First Responders are used to facing and taking risks every day – that is a part of the job description. We use our knowledge, training, and experience to make critical decisions in often challenging situations. We often rely on communication centers, on-scene resources, and other available intelligence to help us make those decisions. Effective risk assessment, management and planning can help prevent bad situations from getting worse and decrease the threat potential (life, property, environment) posed by an event.

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AR App

New Opportunities in Hazmat Transportation Safety Education: The TRANSCAER Augmented Reality App

July 10, 2023 | Erica Fischer, CHEMTREC, Director of Training and Community Outreach

In an era of technological advancements, the transportation industry is no stranger to embracing innovative solutions for enhanced safety. One example is the TRANSCAER (Transportation Community Awareness Emergency Response) Augmented Reality App. This cutting-edge tool offers new opportunities in hazmat transportation safety training by blending augmented reality elements with real-world scenarios, empowering users to gain knowledge and skills in an interactive and engaging manner.

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Resilience Blog Image

Beyond a Buzzword: The Importance of Resilience Building and Tools to Build it

April 27, 2023 | Bethany Elliott, Industrial/Organizational Psychologist, CHEMTREC

Resilience was the word of the year in 2022, according to the Harvard Business Review (Amico, 2022). While resilience is crucial in any field, certain fields require a higher level of resilience, such as first responders. The responder community has long recognized the need for increased resilience to accommodate the high-pressure nature of work, but there needs to be more of a focus on preventative resilience building. In this article, we will define personal resilience, discuss its importance to the responder community, and provide tangible tools that you can use to boost your levels of resilience.  

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Chlorine Institute Kit “C”

NEW RESOURCE - Chlorine Emergency Kit Inspection & Storage Guidance

December 7, 2022 | Robyn Kinsley, Vice President of Transportation & Emergency Preparedness, The Chlorine Institute

The Chlorine Institute (CI) has many chlorine emergency response resources, including instruction booklets and videos for the Chlorine Institute Emergency Kits “A” (A-Kit), “B” (B-Kit), and “C” (C-Kit).  CI and its members often receive questions regarding the replacement recommendations for the kit gaskets.  Through these inquiries, we have discovered that some parties keep their Viton® gaskets much longer than the four-year shelf-life recommendation or the gaskets are not stored in a condition that allows them to last as long as four years.

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Anderson Drill

Responding to a Hazmat Event with Minimal Resources:

October 13, 2022 | Gareth Black, Senior Crisis Consultant, CHEMTREC

Anderson County, Kansas has a population of just under 8000 residents. It’s emergency services, like many across the country are largely staffed by volunteers and lack the resources of larger metropolitan departments. Despite this, the county still must contend with many high hazard industries and high hazard vehicles on its roads and railroads. This reduced capacity, combined with the potential impact of an incident was recently put to the test when CHEMTREC’s Crisis Solutions team ran a live exercise scenario in Garnett, Anderson County.

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