The threat of domestic terrorism today looms larger than ever. Bombings at the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City's Federal Building, as well as nerve gas attacks in Japan, have made it tragically obvious that American civilians must be ready for terrorist attacks. What do we need to know to help emergency and medical personnel prepare for these attacks? Chemical and Biological Terrorism identifies the R&D efforts needed to implement recommendations in key areas: pre-incident intelligence, detection and identification of chemical and biological agents, protective clothing and equipment, early recognition that a population has been covertly exposed to a pathogen, mass casualty decontamination and triage, use of vaccines and pharmaceuticals, and the psychological effects of terror. Specific objectives for computer software development are also identified. The book addresses the differences between a biological and chemical attack, the distinct challenges to the military and civilian medical communities, and other broader issues. This book will be of critical interest to anyone involved in civilian preparedness for terrorist attack: planners, administrators, responders, medical professionals, public health and emergency personnel, and technology designers and engineers.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is critical for those dealing with toxic, infectious, and radioactive materials. An easily accessible guide for professionals and researchers in all PPE fields, this book takes a fresh look at how PPE is designed, selected, and used in today's emergency response environment where users may need to be protected against deliberately used chemical, biological, or radiological agents in terrorism or warfare scenarios as well as more traditional hazards. Covering the physics, chemistry, and physiology of these hazards, the book explains how PPE protects from various forms of hazards as well as how to use this information to select PPE against these highly hazardous substances for first responder or military users. The design of PPE and components plus relevant performance and evaluation standards are also discussed.

Oil and gas companies are repeatedly cited by regulatory organizations for poor training and maintenance on providing personal protective equipment to their refinery workers. Managers of refinery and petrochemical plants are responsible for instructing their workers with the types of equipment available, how to properly wear the equipment, how to properly care and maintain the equipment, and, most importantly, it's their responsibility to enforce these regulations and safety requirements. While there are many reference materials on the subject, most are too broad to apply directly to the unique and highly volatile atmosphere of an oil and gas operation. Personnel Protection and Safety Equipment for the Oil and Gas Industries answers the call for safety managers onsite as well as workers to understand all the safety equipment available specifically for the energy sector. Condensed into one convenient reference location, this training guide is designed to inform on several types of personnel protective clothing, firefighting protective clothing, respiratory protective devises available as well as many other types of protective equipment, including fall protection and vehicle safety belts and harnesses. Industry-specific examples, multiple illustrations, and a glossary of terms make Personnel Protection and Safety Equipment for the Oil and Gas Industries a must-have on every oil and gas operation. - Know recommended US and international protective safety equipment regulations - Learn the types, classes, and materials of safety and protective equipment specific to the oil and gas industry - Gain knowledge on how to select, test, maintain, and store protective equipment properly

Protective clothing and equipment used for firefighters protect them against their harsh working environment loaded with strong thermal hazards, elevated environmental temperatures, low oxygen concentration and smoke. This book describes an in-depth review of firefighting clothing and equipment, and explicitly addresses the performance of protection and comfort in textile engineering, clothing design, and evaluation. Covered topics include protection and comfort requirements for firefighting clothing and equipment, testing methods, standards and performance evaluation, smart firefighting clothing for first responders and numerical modeling of performance of firefighting clothing. Key Features Presents complete overview about the requirements of firefighters' protective clothing/thermal protective materials Addresses performance of protection and comfort Includes human thermoregulation system and responses to firefighting working environment Discusses SMART firefighting clothing and equipment Suggests "how to improve the wear comfort?

Quick Selection Guide to Chemical Protective Clothing provides the reader with the latest information on Selection, Care and Use of Chemical Protective garments and gloves. Topics in the widely-used reference guide include Selection and Use of Chemical Protective Clothing, Chemical Index, Selection Recommendations, Glossary, Standards for Chemical Protective Clothing, Manufactures of Chemical Protective Clothing and European requirements for chemical resistant gloves. The key feature of the book is the color-coded selection recommendations. The red, yellow or green indications are highly appreciated by the users. This sixth edition of the Quick Selection Guide to Chemical Protective Clothing has been updated, to include approximately 1,000 chemicals/chemical brands or mixture of chemicals more than twice the information provided in the original edition. The performance of 9 generic materials and 32 proprietary barriers are compared against the 21 standard test chemicals listed in ASTM F1001. The color-coded recommendations against the broader list of materials now contain 27 representative barrier materials. This best selling pocket guide is the an essential field source for HazMat teams, spill responder, safety professionals, chemists and chemical engineers, industrial hygienists, supervisors, purchase agents, salespeople and other users of chemical protective clothing.

Protective clothing protects wearers from hostile environments, including extremes of heat and cold. Whilst some types of protective clothing may be designed primarily for non-thermal hazards (e.g. biological hazards), a key challenge in all protective clothing remains wearer comfort and the management of thermal stress (i.e. excessive heat or cold). This book reviews key types of protective clothing, technologies for heating and cooling and, finally, modeling aspects of thermal stress and strain. - Explores different types of protective clothing, their uses and their requirements, with an emphasis on full-scale or prototype clothing, including immersion suits, body armour and space suits - Considers novel and commercial technologies for regulating temperature in protective clothing, including phase change materials, shape memory alloys, electrically heated clothing and air and water perfusion-based cooling systems - Reviews the human thermoregulatory system and the methods of modelling of thermal stress in protective clothing through various conditions, including cold water survival and firefighting

There is an ongoing need to test and ensure effectiveness of personal protective equipment that soldiers use to protect themselves against chemical warfare agents. However, testing using human subjects presents major challenges and current human-size thermal mannequins have limited testing capabilities. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) along with their counterparts from other countries are seeking to develop more human like mannequins, which would include features like human motion, in order to carry out more advanced chemical testing. At the request of DOD Product Director, Test Equipment, Strategy and Support, the National Research Council formed an ad hoc committee to evaluate the feasibility of developing an advanced humanoid robot, or Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin (PETMAN) system that meets the DOD requirements. The book concludes that although most of the individual requirements can technically be met, fulfilling all of the requirements is currently not possible. Based on this conclusion the committee recommends that DOD considers three issues, prioritization of current system requirements, use qualified contractor for particular technical aspects, incorporate complementary testing approaches to the PETMAN system.

This fourth edition provides guidance on why respiratory protective equipment (RPE) should be used, what the law says and how to select RPE that is adequate and suitable. It also includes a useful dos and don'ts list for the management and supervision of RPE use.The guidance is aimed principally at employers and the self-employed who wear, or are responsible for workers who wear, RPE. It will also be useful for health and safety specialists, manufacturers and suppliers of RPE.It has been prepared in consultation with industry and updates the 2005 edition

Thermal Protective Clothing for Firefighters explores the materials, design, and usage of thermal protective clothing. The characteristics of fire hazards are discussed in detail, and the thermal environments faced by firefighters in these fire hazards are also examined. The different types of potential burn injuries and the heat stress that occurs to firefighters' bodies when exposed to such thermal environments are analyzed. Furthermore, the development of various high performance fibers and fabrics for thermal protective clothing is discussed. The test methods and existing standards to evaluate the thermal protective and physiological comfort performances of the fabrics and clothing are critically reviewed. Recent developments in the field of fire- and heat-resistant materials have led to significant improvements in thermal protective clothing. In parallel with this, the complexity and risk levels of fires, especially in industrial-storage facilities, and developments in health and safety cultures have increased the demand for high-performance heat- and flame-resistant clothing and equipment, designed to mitigate skin burn injuries and reduce risk of death from fire hazards. Throughout the work, the gaps and limitations in existing test methods and standards are identified, and approaches are recommended for the development of enhanced test methods. Scenario modeling and its implications for firefighters' protective clothing is discussed, and various factors affecting performance are established. Finally, various key issues related to thermal protective clothing are addressed to guide the future research in the field of thermal protective clothing for firefighters. This book will help materials-textile engineers to develop high performance thermal protective clothing that can enhance the protection, safety, and comfort of firefighters. - Offers a helpful guide to the successful specification and design of high performance protective clothing to meet the high standards of today's regulatory framework - Introduces the new materials technical innovations that are transforming fire protective clothing - Explores the role of clothing from the operational perspective, including technical innovations - Offers a critical review of the test methods and existing standards to evaluate the thermal protective and physiological comfort performances of the fabrics and clothing