DOT Launches APP for HazMat Response

Courtesy of  Norman Transcript and Firehouse: The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration recently announced a free, mobile web app of its Emergency Response Guidebook 2012 (ERG). The new safety tool will provide the nation’s emergency responders with fast, easily accessible information to help them manage hazardous material incidents.

The mobile ERG will make it easier for firefighters, police and other emergency first responders to quickly locate the information they need, thanks to an electronic word search function, and will ensure easy reading, even during nighttime emergencies.

The 2012 version of the ERG includes new evacuation tables for large, toxic gas spills and standard response procedures for gas and liquid pipeline incidents.

“The first 30 minutes are the most crucial when it comes to responding to a hazmat situation,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. “The new app is both mobile and flexible and gives first responders the knowledge they need to protect themselves and their communities in an emergency.”

PHMSA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Library of Medicine joined forces in producing the two free apps.

Links to download the software are available from the Apple iTunes website at ERG 2012 for iPhone and from the Google Play website at ERG 2012 for Android.

A version of the ERG also is available in NLM’s Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders application.

An instructional video for learning how to use the ERG2012 is available on PHMSA’s website.

“This invaluable tool improves the speed and accessibility to hazardous materials response information to those on the front line of accidents and incidents,” PHMSA Administrator Cynthia Quarterman said.

Category: General Update, Management, Transit News