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Chemical Hazards and Poisons Report issue 24

The PHE Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards has published Chemical Hazards and Poisons Report 24 [1] comprising the following articles presented under four main thematic categories:

Incident response

� two articles describing the public health risk assessments undertaken following a large fire � reputedly the largest ever in the region � at a paper and plastics materials recycling and waste management centre in the West Midlands of England in June 2013

� lessons learned following an atmospheric release, from a chemical plant in northern France in January 2013, of a very low odour-threshold chemical that presented no public health risk but generated significant public concern in southern England

� sewers, culverts and other underground pipes � an under-recognised pathway for chemical exposures in acute incidents

� acute risks from contaminated land

� MSC Flaminia � public health assessment and contribution to the places of refuge assessment

Emergency preparedness and response

� collaborative working with local resilience forums to prevent an environmental major incident

� transition to new health arrangements: Public Health England’s exercise assurance programme

� two articles concerned with PHE’s role in implementation of the COMAH Regulations, including the development of off-site emergency plans

� implementation of the EU Decision 1082/2013 on cross-border threats to health from biological, chemical and environmental events

� Alerting, Reporting and Surveillance System for Chemical Health Threats, Phase III (ASHTIII) � update report

� European Chemical Emergency Network (ECHEMNET) � update report

� the development of tools to assist with evaluation of recovery strategies following CBRN events

� assessment of the Government Decontamination Service framework for CBRN scenarios

� impact of response actions on recovery � the importance of a consolidated approach to UK resilience

� a quick tour of social media and emergency preparedness, resilience and response

Environmental and toxicological research

� estimating local mortality burdens associated with long-term exposure to particulate air pollution

� Environment and Health Atlas for England and Wales: a printed and online tool

� asbestos: review of toxicology and epidemiology and an approach for human health risk assessment of low level environmental exposures

� use of fumigants in the transport of goods by sea � health impact

� risk communication in non-infectious disease cluster investigations: a summary of the literature

Natural hazards, extreme events and climate change

� the oak processionary caterpillar and public health: the Dutch approach

� improving the response to flooding: changes implemented in Gloucestershire since the summer 2007 floods

� effective flood resilience in health providers: flooding at a major NHS Blood and Transplant facility

Reference

1. Chemical Hazards and Poisons Report issue 24, 28 August 2014, ISSN 1745-3763.