A Guide for Assessing Community Emergency Response Needs and Capabilities for Hazardous Materials Releases

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
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Author(s):  
Nasrin Mohabbati-Kalejahi ◽  
Alexander Vinel

Hazardous materials (hazmat) storage and transportation pose threats to people’s safety and the environment, which creates a need for governments and local authorities to regulate such shipments. This paper proposes a novel mathematical model for what is termed the hazmat closed-loop supply chain network design problem. The model, which can be viewed as a way to combine several directions previously considered in the literature, includes two echelons in the forward direction (production and distribution centers), three echelons in the backward direction (collection, recovery, and disposal centers), and emergency response team positioning. The two objectives of minimizing the strategic, tactical, and operational costs as well as the risk exposure on road networks are considered in this model. Since the forward flow of hazmat is directly related to the reverse flow, and since hazmat accidents can occur at all stages of the lifecycle (storage, shipment, loading, and unloading, etc.), it is argued that such a unified framework is essential. A robust framework is also presented to hedge the optimization model in case of demand and return uncertainty. The performance of both models is evaluated based on a standard dataset from Albany, NY. Considering the trade-offs between cost and risk, the results demonstrate the design of efficient hazmat closed-loop supply chain networks where the risk exposure can be reduced significantly by employing the proposed models.


2012 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 830-835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Changing Ren ◽  
Xiongjun Yuan ◽  
Jie Wang ◽  
Xin Zhang ◽  
Jin Li

Author(s):  
Craig Slatin ◽  
Eduardo Siqueira

Waste management activities are widespread throughout most industrial sectors, and hazardous materials are a component of the waste of almost every aspect of industry. Workers with a collateral duty to engage in emergency response activities to a hazardous materials incident require health and safety protection. OSHA has failed to appropriately acknowledge this threat to workers and has been confusing and inconsistent in the interpretation and enforcement of its regulatory requirement for training workers with such a collateral duty. This article will discuss efforts on a national level to secure these protections, and provides an example of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) training program for workers with such a collateral duty in Toledo, Ohio. This evidence suggests that the provision of training to a majority of workers and supervisors involved in municipal waste management can greatly improve both worker and community health and safety. OSHA should revise 29 CFR 1910.120 and make its interpretation and enforcement of the standard consistent, in order to better protect workers with a collateral duty to respond to hazardous materials emergency incidents.


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