Design, creation, and deployment of a sampling kit for hazardous material investigations

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Steven M. DeLisi, MS ◽  
Michael F. Martin ◽  
Timothy R. Croley, PhD
Keyword(s):  
First Responders ◽  
Environmental Crime ◽  
Federal Agencies ◽  
The State ◽  
Hazardous Material ◽  
First Responder ◽  
Legal Cases ◽  
Physical Evidence ◽  
Great Utility ◽  
Chain Of Custody

Response to a hazardous material (HAZMAT) incident and/or an environmental crime often involves a legal investigation. Our laboratory, in collaboration with a number of state, local, and federal agencies, developed and deployed a sampling kit designed specifically for first responders to expedite both collection and transportation of physical evidence to the state laboratory for identification, while maintaining chain of custody. These kits have been used for sampling and transport of samples for a number of legal cases and have shown great utility in and among our local first responder community.

Supporting the Mental Health and Well-Being of First Responders from Career to Retirement: A Scoping Review

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Erin Smith ◽  
Greg Dean ◽  
Lisa Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
First Responders ◽  
Well Being ◽  
First Responder ◽  
Help Seeking Behaviors ◽  
Holistic Approaches ◽  
Pubmed Database ◽  
Health And Well Being

Abstract Introduction: First responders are at greater risk of mental ill health and compromised well-being compared to the general population. It is important to identify strategies that will be effective in supporting mental health, both during and after the first responder’s career. Methods: A scoping review was conducted using the PubMed database (1966 to October 1, 2020) and the Google Scholar database (October 1, 2020) using relevant search terms, truncation symbols, and Boolean combination functions. The reference lists of all relevant publications were also reviewed to identify further publications. Results: A total of 172 publications were retrieved by the combined search strategies. Of these, 56 met the inclusion criteria and informed the results of this overview paper. These publications identified that strategies supporting first responder mental health and well-being need to break down stigma and build resilience. Normalizing conversations around mental health is integral for increasing help-seeking behaviors, both during a first responder’s career and in retirement. Organizations should consider the implementation of both pre-retirement and post-retirement support strategies to improve mental health and well-being. Conclusion: Strategies for supporting mental health and well-being need to be implemented early in the first responder career and reinforced throughout and into retirement. They should utilize holistic approaches which encourage “reaching in” rather than placing an onus on first responders to “reach out” when they are in crisis.

scholarly journals COVID-19 symptoms and SARS-CoV-2 antibody positivity in a large survey of first responders and healthcare personnel, May-July 2020

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara J Akinbami ◽  
Lyle R Petersen ◽  
Samira Sami ◽  
Nga Vuong ◽  
Susan L Lukacs ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
First Responders ◽  
Healthcare Personnel ◽  
First Responder ◽  
Antibody Positivity ◽  
Large Survey

Abstract A SARS-CoV-2 serosurvey among first responder/healthcare personnel showed that loss of taste/smell was most predictive of seropositivity; percent seropositivity increased with number of COVID-19 symptoms. However, 22.9% with nine symptoms were seronegative, and 8.3% with no symptoms were seropositive. These findings demonstrate limitations of symptom-based surveillance and importance of testing.

scholarly journals Historical patterns of wildfire ignition sources in California ecosystems

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon E. Keeley ◽  
Alexandra D. Syphard
Keyword(s):  
Fire Hazard ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Federal Agencies ◽  
The State ◽  
United States Forest Service ◽  
The Past ◽  
Design Fire ◽  
Fire Ignition ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Marked Drop

State and federal agencies have reported fire causes since the early 1900s, explicitly for the purpose of helping land managers design fire-prevention programs. We document fire-ignition patterns in five homogenous climate divisions in California over the past 98 years on state Cal Fire protected lands and 107 years on federal United States Forest Service lands. Throughout the state, fire frequency increased steadily until a peak c. 1980, followed by a marked drop to 2016. There was not a tight link between frequency of ignition sources and area burned by those sources and the relationships have changed over time. Natural lightning-ignited fires were consistently fewer from north to south and from high to low elevation. Throughout most of the state, human-caused fires dominated the record and were positively correlated with population density for the first two-thirds of the record, but this relationship reversed in recent decades. We propose a mechanistic multi-variate model of factors driving fire frequency, where the importance of different factors has changed over time. Although ignition sources have declined markedly in recent decades, one notable exception is powerline ignitions. One important avenue for future fire-hazard reduction will be consideration of solutions to reduce this source of dangerous fires.

scholarly journals Acute Chemical Incidents With Injured First Responders, 2002-2012

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Melnikova ◽  
Jennifer Wu ◽  
Alice Yang ◽  
Maureen Orr
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Human Error ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
First Responders ◽  
Toxic Substances ◽  
Limited Information ◽  
Hazardous Material ◽  
Hazardous Chemical ◽  
Chemical Incidents ◽  
Awareness Level

AbstractIntroductionFirst responders, including firefighters, police officers, emergency medical services, and company emergency response team members, have dangerous jobs that can bring them in contact with hazardous chemicals among other dangers. Limited information is available on responder injuries that occur during hazardous chemical incidents.MethodsWe analyzed 2002-2012 data on acute chemical incidents with injured responders from 2 Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry chemical incident surveillance programs. To learn more about such injuries, we performed descriptive analysis and looked for trends.ResultsThe percentage of responders among all injured people in chemical incidents has not changed over the years. Firefighters were the most frequently injured group of responders, followed by police officers. Respiratory system problems were the most often reported injury, and the respiratory irritants, ammonia, methamphetamine-related chemicals, and carbon monoxide were the chemicals more often associated with injuries. Most of the incidents with responder injuries were caused by human error or equipment failure. Firefighters wore personal protective equipment (PPE) most frequently and police officers did so rarely. Police officers’ injuries were mostly associated with exposure to ammonia and methamphetamine-related chemicals. Most responders did not receive basic awareness-level hazardous material training.ConclusionAll responders should have at least basic awareness-level hazardous material training to recognize and avoid exposure. Research on improving firefighter PPE should continue. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2018;12:211–221)

Posttraumatic Stress and Alcohol Use Among First Responders

2020 ◽  
pp. 32-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lia J Smith ◽  
Maya Zegel ◽  
Brooke A. Bartlett ◽  
Antoine Lebeaut ◽  
Anka A Vujanovic
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Posttraumatic Stress ◽  
Clinical Care ◽  
First Responders ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
First Responder ◽  
Physical Health Outcomes ◽  
Empirical Foundation ◽  
Research Domain

Developing research suggests that the co-occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a significant clinical concern across first responder populations. This comorbidity is difficult to treat and marked by a more costly, complex, and chronic clinical course when compared to either disorder alone. Significant associations between PTSD/AUD comorbidity and various psychological, behavioral, and physical health outcomes among first responder samples have been documented. This chapter provides a theoretical framework and empirical review of the literature relevant to PTSD/AUD in the context of firefighter, police, and other first responder populations (e.g., emergency medical technicians). Future directions, utilizing varied methodologies and assessment tools, and focusing upon varied first responder populations are enumerated to build upon this preliminary, yet clinically meaningful, empirical foundation. This research domain has great potential to inform specialized, evidence-based clinical care for first responders.

scholarly journals The Sacrosanctity of the Holocaust and its Influence on Judaism and the State of Israel

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-247
Author(s):  
Victoria Nesfield
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The State ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Legal Cases ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
Holocaust Memory ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Impact ◽  
State Of Israel

The Holocaust maintains a status of inviolability in the Christian religious public sphere and also the mainstream media. The scale, gravity and sheer atrocity of the Holocaust still commands a response. The article argues that questions demanded by the Holocaust of the Christian church and the free world’s passivity in the face of genocide, led to a Christian support for the State of Israel driven by guilt and a sense of moral obligation which side-lined the impact of the State on the Palestinian people. With the Israel-Palestine conflict in its seventh decade, the imperative to overcome the hegemony of Holocaust memory is more urgent than ever. Seventy years after the Holocaust, its legacy in public and theological memory dominates questions of Judaism within the polity and the State of Israel. Two legal cases, which attracted media attention, illustrate how Holocaust memory is evoked in response to questions of Jewish practice in the European polity. Two further examples demonstrate how the pernicious influence of Holocaust memory and rhetoric colour responses to criticism of the State of Israel.

Federalism and Caudillismo in the Mexican Revolution: The Genesis of the Oaxaca Sovereignty Movement (1915–20)

1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Garner
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
State Legislature ◽  
Federal Agencies ◽  
The State ◽  
Southern Mexico ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Town

On 3 June 1915 the state legislature of Oaxaca in southern Mexico issued a decree which proclaimed that the ‘free and sovereign state of Oaxaca reassumes its sovereignty until such time as constitutional order is restored in the republic’ (i.e. in accordance with the Constitution of 1857). Governor José Inés Dávila therefore declared that the executive and legislative branches of the state government would assume control and responsibility over the federal agencies and services within the state. The justification for this dramatic course of action, taken at the height of a period of intense civil war in Mexico, was the decree issued by Venustiano Carranza in December 1914, which had suspended the Constitution in favour of a ‘temporary’ period of pre-constitutional government over which he was personally to retain strict executive control as First Chief of the Constitutionalist Army – thus effectively dissolving the constitutional base of the federation. The immediate casus belli was the occupation of the town of Pochutla on Oaxaca's Pacific coast on 1 May by a detachment of Constitutionalist troops, in what Governor Inés Dávila described as ‘a preconceived plan of attack on the sovereignty of the state’.

Trump appointees will undercut US federal programmes

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
Government Spending ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Federal Agencies ◽  
The State ◽  
Federal Spending ◽  
Content Type ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Federal Taxes ◽  
Tax Deduction

Significance Some hard-right members of the Republican congressional caucus argue that allowing federal spending to lapse and threatening a government shutdown could force legislators to approve steep cuts to the federal bureaucracy. As congressional factions, leaders and President Donald Trump’s administration weigh in on government spending, debates about the appropriate scope of federal agencies and programmes are likely to feature prominently. Impacts Costly entitlement programmes are unlikely to be targeted for cuts owing to their popularity. Congressional allies of USAID will block Trump’s plan to consolidate it into the State Department. Empty executive branch-appointed positions will hinder the effective functioning of the federal government. The proposed abolition of the state and local tax deduction for federal taxes will place pressure on sub-national government programmes.

Trained Lay First Responders Reduce Trauma Mortality: A Controlled Study of Rural Trauma in Iraq

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (6) ◽  
pp. 533-539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mudhafar Karim Murad ◽  
Hans Husum
Keyword(s):  
Life Support ◽  
Trauma System ◽  
First Responders ◽  
Severe Trauma ◽  
Controlled Study ◽  
Case Control Studies ◽  
First Responder ◽  
Trauma Outcomes ◽  
Randomized Clinical Study ◽  
Transit Times

AbstractIntroduction:Recent studies demonstrate that early, in-field, basic life support by paramedics improves trauma survival where prehospital transport times are long. So far, no case-control studies of the effect of layperson trauma first responders have been reported. It was hypothesized that trained layperson first responders improve trauma outcomes where prehospital transit times are long.Methods:A rural prehospital trauma system was established in the mine and war zones in Iraq, consisting of 135 paramedics and 7,000 layperson trauma first responders in the villages. In a non-randomized clinical study, the outcomes of patients initially managed in-field by first-responders were compared to patients not receiving first-responder support.Results:The mortality rate was significantly lower among patients initially managed in-field by first responders (n = 325) compared to patients without first-responder support (n = 1,016), 9.8% versus 15.6%, 95% CI = 1.3−10.0%.Conclusions:Trained layperson first responders improve trauma outcomes where prehospital evacuation times are long. This finding demonstrates that simple interventions done early—by any type of trained care provider—are crucial for trauma survival. Where the prevalence of severe trauma is high, trauma first-responders should be an integral element of the trauma system.

scholarly journals Action in Law’s Empire: Judging in the Deliberative Mode

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 431-456
Author(s):  
Veronica Rodriguez-Blanco
Keyword(s):  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Practical Reason ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
The State ◽  
Legal Cases ◽  
The Law ◽  
Do So

Dworkin advances the view that judges decide legal cases according to constructive interpretation. The aim of constructive interpretation is to justify the coercion of the State. A trivial implication of this view is that officials and citizens will comply with the law because of the justification that has been advanced by judges in their exercise of constructive interpretation. Consequently, neither officials nor citizens comply with the law because they have been coerced or because they have been simply told to do so. But then, it seems that constructive interpretation cannot really provide any guidance since officials and citizens have been asked to accept the interpretation of the law that has been put forward by the judges since arguably, it is the best possible interpretation of what the law is in this particular case. However, why they ought to do so?I will argue that the mistake of the theory of constructive interpretation lies in a misleading and implausible conception of action that believes that action is raw behavioural data and that therefore we need to ‘impose meaning’, ‘value’ or ‘purpose’ on them. I will defend a more plausible conception of action along the classical tradition that understands practice as originating in agency and deliberation. The outcome is that constructive interpretation and its conception of ‘imposing meaning’ on practice is a theoretical perspective that neglects and misunderstands action and practical reason.

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