Just eight years later -- with the threat of terrorism a constant in our lives -- the Advanced Hazmat Life Support(c) course (the only course of its type in the world) is offered internationally and has trained more than 1,000 emergency responders from throughout the world. Participants have included paramedics, nurses, physicians, pharmacists, toxicologists, industrial hygienists, waste-management and risk-management personnel from more than 26 countries, including the United States, Canada, Greece, Mexico, Brazil, Switzerland, Italy and Australia.
Whether from intentional acts of terrorism, inadvertent hazardous materials (hazmat) transportation or industrial incidents, natural disasters causing toxic releases, or an individual exposure to a toxic substance, the threat of hazmat exposures is at an all-time high, says Frank Walter, MD, course director and chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at the UA Department of Emergency Medicine.
Before Sept. 11, however, few would have thought, for example, that innocuous crop-dusting planes might be used for chemical or biological assaults on U.S. citizens, potentially dwarfing the death toll from the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. Thus, the course has taken on even greater significance in the past several months. Offered by the Arizona Emergency Medicine Research Center (AEMRC), a Center of Excellence at the UA College of Medicine, in collaboration with the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology (AACT), the course focuses on educating emergency responders in the proper assessment and medical treatment of hazmat victims.
"The success of this course on the state and then the national level became the catalyst for its development into an international program," says Harvey Meislin, MD, AEMRC director and acting head of the new UA Department of Emergency Medicine.
AEMRC has conducted the three-day program twice a year since 1994 when it was developed by Drs. Walter and Meislin with assistance from Tucson Fire Department Capt. Raymond Klein, and later with assistance from Richard Thomas, PharmD, and other experts from AACT.
The program covers important hazmat properties; decontamination; rapid assessment and medical treatment of hazmat-exposed patients; antidotes and drug therapy; and establishment of hazmat-response systems in the community.
Board-certified or board-prepared toxicologists and emergency medicine physicians are the course directors. The AHLS program trains other medical personnel to become AHLS instructors in order to bring the course to their regions of the country.
U.S. Department of Transportation data shows that every state is affected by HAZMAT incidents, some of which result in deaths and major injuries. USDOT data from 1998, found that damage from HAZMAT incidents cost more than $45 million. The costs of the Sept. 11 incident dwarfs that number.
A hazardous material is defined as any substance -- solid, liquid or gas -- capable of harming people, property or the environment. Five hundred years ago, Paracelsus, the father of modern toxicology and pharmacology, established a fundamental principle of toxicology when he said, "All substances are poisons, only the dose differentiates a poison from a remedy." In other words, hazardous materials are everywhere. "Hazmat exposures pose a common threat to communities and individuals in the U.S. and internationally," Dr. Walter says. "AHLS enables health care providers to become the guardian angels of the front-line heroes -- the firefighters, medics and law enforcement officers who respond to HAZMAT incidents and terrorist attacks. AHLS also enables health care providers to provide state-of-the-art medical therapy for victims of HAZMAT incidents and toxic terrorism."
New York Class Scheduled: Just two days following the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Advanced Hazmat Life Support Course will be conducted for the first time in New York City, Sept. 13-15, 2002, at Roosevelt Hospital, 1000 10th Ave.
Some of the other upcoming courses include:
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