EMS Magazine's Resource Guide: WMD/Terrorism Response
Emergency responders are daily reminded of the perceived terrorist threat level via the Department of Homeland Security's Advisory System.
Threat Levels and What They Mean to You: Explained
FEMA's Fire and Emergency Services Preparedness Guide for the Homeland Security Advisory System
Reviewed by Norm Rooker, EMT-P
Emergency responders are daily reminded of the perceived terrorist threat level via the Department of Homeland Security's Advisory System. But what does this actually mean? I know, threat level yellow is worse than threat level blue and threat level red is the worst of all, but what are we supposed to do differently?
FEMA, through the U.S. Fire Administration, has developed a document to aid emergency responders, supervisors, chief officers, managers and planners in interpreting just that. Like all government documents, the Fire and Emergency Services Preparedness Guide for the Homeland Security Advisory System has its share of initials, acronyms and government-speak, but they are kept to a minimum. What it does provide is a concise and readily understandable explanation of all of the five threat levels and what they mean to you and your organization.
The guide begins with a template for the basic level of preparedness that your department, service or local government should have obtained-or be striving to obtain-for dealing with disasters and large emergency situations. It will lead your department to review and update current disaster plans, improve interagency communications, provide for the needs of personnel through family support networks and information systems, and ensure that your agency can provide food and water for troops who suddenly find themselves working on an extended response.
From there, it provides an explanation of each threat level, along with corresponding templates for what your department should be doing in the following areas:
- Information/Planning
- Facility Security
- Personnel
- Operations
As the threat level increases, the template of suggested actions in each of these areas expands to address that level of threat.
FEMA's 11-page guide concludes with a list of related websites that provide additional useful information. Download the guide free of charge from www.usfa.fema.gov/fire-service/cipc/cipc-jobaid.shtm.
Norm Rooker, EMT-P, is a paramedic firefighter for the San Francisco Fire Dept. and has been active in EMS since 1973. He is a heavy-rescue instructor for the California State Fire Marshal's Office, an EMT-T, and a member of his department's surf and cliff rescue teams and technical rescue committee.
UT Southwestern Researchers Receive Federal Grants to Study Biothreats
Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas have been awarded $15.1 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study anthrax, ricin, plague, tularemia and Lassa fever-all pathogens that can be used as biological weapons. The largest grant is a 4½-year, $8.7 million award to study tularemia, a deadly infection caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis, which, according to the chairman of microbiology at UT Southwestern, is easier to use as a weapon than anthrax. Approximately 50–100 incidences of tularemia occur naturally in the U.S. each year, most often in farmers, veterinarians and hunters. It can be transmitted through a bite from an infected animal, such as a mouse, squirrel or rabbit, or by direct contact with the animal's tissues or fluids.
Tularemia is classified by the government as a Category A biothreat, which is the most dangerous classification. Aerosol dissemination of the bacteria in a populated area would result in a sudden onset of a bacterial infection in a large number of people within 3–5 days.
Ricin, classified as a Category B biothreat, can be administered in food or water, or sprayed as an aerosol. A small dose can produce flu-like symptoms and result in death within a few days. Researchers at UT Southwestern's Cancer Immunobiology Center received a 3½-year, $1.5 million grant to lead a team in developing a vaccine for ricin and for initiating clinical trials. An experimental vaccine has been developed, and the team hopes to begin field trials of the intramuscular vaccine this spring.
