Your team is facing a hazardous material leak in the field. How do you ensure their safety?

Don't freak out...well maybe a little. As long as no one is hurt, take these initial steps with deliberate caution. You should also have already had a procedure in place to deal with emergency spill response (if not, get that done). Your first steps should be about containment, you don't want it getting bigger, going further, or diving deeper. Call your emergency response company (if you don't have one, get one). Get your smartphone and take lots of pictures (you will want them later for your report). Please also keep the eager frontline guys from getting it all over them, you don't need a medical emergency to complicate things.

1. Evacuate the Area Immediately Benefit: Quickly removing personnel from the affected area reduces the risk of exposure to hazardous substances. Action: Instruct your team to leave the area immediately, following a pre-established evacuation route. Ensure everyone moves to a safe distance upwind from the leak to avoid inhaling toxic fumes. 2. Alert Authorities and Emergency Services Benefit: Professional responders are equipped to handle hazardous material incidents safely and effectively. Action: Contact local emergency services (e.g., fire department, HAZMAT team) as soon as possible. Provide them with details about the nature of the leak, the type of material involved, and the exact location. Follow any instructions they provide.

3. Use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Benefit: PPE minimizes exposure to hazardous substances and protects against physical harm. Action: If it is safe and necessary to remain near the site, ensure that all personnel are wearing appropriate PPE, such as respirators, gloves, protective suits, and safety goggles. Check that the PPE is properly fitted and functioning. 4. Contain the Leak (If Safe to Do So) Benefit: Containing the leak can prevent further spread of the hazardous material, minimizing environmental impact and risk to others. Action: Only attempt to contain the leak if it can be done without endangering anyone. Use spill containment kits or barriers to stop the spread of the material.

Choose your PPE based on how hazardous your waste is. Always keep it ready and in good condition. Make sure it fits and there is plenty of it. Connect your PPE use with your emergency drills. Make it a practice run that your ERT actually puts on their PPE. They might find that the best/most protective PPE is restrictive, so give your team is ready and comfortable with it.

Go TEXAS size with your signs. Don't take the cheap easy way out and make small 8.5x11 inch signs about evacuation routes and muster points. If people know or can intuit where to go, then your evacuations will be much smoother.

I'm 90% sure that most of the spill kits at your site are partial or empty. People are using them for cleaning up their routine leaks. If your spill response equipment isn't ready, then you aren't ready. Make these spill kits a bit harder to get to or open (not locked) and make a routine mess cleanup easily available, but keep the EMERGENCY spill kit for emergencies.

Just like there is a floor warden for building evacuations that is the POC, you need to make it clear who are your Lead people for spill emergencies. Consider giving them a certain color hard hat or sticker - make them visible. If they are offsite or rotate between sites, set up a Group Chat (like WhatsApp) that can have a message blast go out - "We had a spill at X. Who can respond?" This gets the message out to everyone and the most available person can respond.

Consider these three factors: # of people involved, size of the release (quantity or area impacted), and hazard/toxicity of your Worst Case release. If the spill/release is so big, then you need experts that have lots of equipment and super well trained staff. If that is the case, let them deal with decon. But if you are doing this in house, then be prepared to have a place where your team can clean themselves and their equipment. Your drill scenarios will help you evaluate how to prepare for this step of the process.