Manual for the Public Health Management of Chemical Incidents
The World Health Organization (WHO) and The Inter-Organisation Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC) have published a Manual for the Public Health Management of Chemical Incidents.
“On 2-3 December 1984, the city of Bhopal, India, was hit by what is still believed to be the worst chemical incident in history. The hundreds of thousands of people affected by the Bhopal incident were victims of a combination of circumstances that made any potential incident in the industrial facility that produced pesticides particularly dangerous. This deadly combination of circumstances could have been avoided if a number of well-established security and safety principles had been followed before, during and after the chemical incident.
“The purpose of this manual is to provide information that will help countries minimize the health risks of chemical incidents, such as the Bhopal disaster, by raising awareness of their health impacts and by providing suggestions for preventing and managing their occurrence.”
“The prevention and mitigation of chemical incidents and their health consequences is a broad field requiring specialists from many backgrounds. Public health has an essential role to play in preventing the ccurrence of chemical incidents, and minimizing their negative impacts on both the exposed population and the environment should they occur. The purpose of this document is to introduce principles and recommendations about the public health role in prevention and mitigation of chemical incidents. The target audience is public health and environmental professionals and policy-makers, as well as any party involved in the management of chemical incidents.
“This publication will help facilitate the effective fulfilment of such public health involvement, including by establishing or refining the public health role in the development of a preparedness plan for management of chemical incidents and to enhance capacity planning and assessment for chemical incidents. This document can also be used as an aid to improve the performance of all professionals with responsibility for managing risks posed by chemical incidents. While this manual presents the principles and functions of the public health management of chemical incidents, the specific organizations or government agencies that carry out these functions may vary between countries.”
See Manual for the Public Health Management of Chemical Incidents
Tags: chemical incidents, Data collection, Environmental exposure adverse effects, Environmental exposure prevention and control Environmental monitoring, Hazardous substances, HazMat, Inter-Organisation Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals, IOMC, Public health practice, risk assessment, WHO, World Health Organization
