For many safety professionals, when an emergency happens, evacuation is the only option. But evacuation often involves traveling through the danger zone, e.g., in the event of a chemical spill. This is one of the reasons sheltering-in-place often represents a better alternative.

Incorporating Sheltering-In-Place into Emergency Planning

Sheltering-in-place allows workers to take refuge in a designated safe area of their workplace when a release of hazardous materials has occurred. Last week, we reviewed some of the few essentials involved in creating this safe area. If sheltering-in-place seems like a viable option for your organization, let's look at how you can incorporate it into your emergency response plan.

Step 1: Review Your Present Emergency Plans

Perform a risk analysis considering plans and vulnerabilities within your community. This assessment will help you determine whether a sheltering-in-place plan is warranted.

Step 2: Create Committee to Research Sheltering-In-Place

Establish a committee that includes all major players, including skilled and non-skilled members of your labor force. Don't forget to look to your community for potential members. The committee should be involved in the feasibility of sheltering-in-place. Some points to consider:

Also take into account the Emergency Response Guidebook. For example, it lists the protection of persons downwind for a large spill in daytime hours of Chlorine is 1.5 miles.

Step 3: Create a Sheltering-In-Place Policy

Come up with a draft and have all departments comment. Through tuggle and struggle, you can agree on a process for sheltering-in-place. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the American Red Cross have many documents that can help you set up a policy.

Step 4: Practice Sheltering-In-Place Procedure

Don't just place your plan on the shelf to collect dust. Once you have an approved policy and plan, conduct drills. Identify the weak points and make corrections. Practice makes perfect.

Step 5: Review Sheltering-In-Place Plan

Stay abreast within your community for the buildup of chemical industries and keep informed about what chemicals travel near your business. If you're in a rural community, your involvement may be limited. However, if you're in a large community near a major highway system, you would be surprised at what's traveling near you.

Conclusion

A fellow researcher commented that sheltering-in-place has been an option since the beginning of mankind. When being pursued by wild animals, cave dwellers would run and hide in a secured location - a cave. We've always had to be aware of our surroundings and act quickly to survive. Considering present realities, your workplace should be prepared to do the same!

"HOLY HEALTH HAZARDS, BATMAN!"

What You Should Know About Bats (Part 1 of 3)

By Ted Morrison

Those who follow the adventures of Gotham's Dark Knight are aware that tangling with bats can lead to bruises, contusions and in some cases death. So they also shouldn't be astounded to find that his namesake can be just as dangerous.

A Two-Faced Threat

Bats are rodents, and as such, can carry many of the lesser evils we associate with other ones, such as fleas and ticks. However, bats can also be the source of two grave threats to life and health: rabies and histoplasmosis.

Rabies

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report that most recent human cases of rabies in the USA originated in bats.

Rabies is a viral disease that affects the nervous system, usually passed through saliva. It is degenerative and fatal. Most infections occur when the patient is bitten by a rabid animal. Rare cases have occurred when saliva enters the body through a wound or other non-bite contact. You cannot contract rabies through handling a bat or bat carcass, through simply being in a bat nesting area, or through urine or droppings.

Bat Signal?

There's no way to tell if a bat is rabid. So the best approach is to avoid handling or touching bats. If you encounter a bat in an unusual place, such as lying on the ground, or in a bedroom, or if you see a bat that is active during the day, it is more likely to be rabid.

If you are bitten, wash the affected area thoroughly. Capture the bat for testing, if possible, by waiting until it lands, covering it with a coffee can or large jar, and sliding a piece of cardboard across the opening. Seek medical attention even if you see no bite marks but have reason to believe you have been bitten.

Always seek medical attention if you find a bat in a room with a pet or child even if you see no obvious bite marks. Bats have small teeth.

Next week, what your workers needs to know about bats and the risks of histoplasmosis.

And now for something completely different.

POP QUIZ

Are You Safer Than a 5th Grader?

By Catherine Jones

Fox network's hit TV game show Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? has publicly humiliated many good-natured adults. Apparently, what they're teaching kids in schools these days is better than we suspected. So if fifth graders are smarter than the average North American adult, are they safer, too? Let's find out. We scoured the curricula of Canadian and American fifth graders and compiled some safety-related questions. Are your workers game enough to test their safety knowledge? How about you? Take the test here.

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