Table Of ContentIncident Safety and Health
Management
Handbook
(ISHMH)
Joselito S. Ignacio, CIH, CSP, REHS, MPH
ISHMH
Incident Preparedness and Response Working Group
Disclaimer
This document is neither a comprehensive treatment of issues concerning incident safety and health management nor a stand-alone
resource. Scientific and practical knowledge in this area are rapidly accumulating and evolving. It is intended to complement policies
and procedures put into practice by other disciplines within an incident management environment and should be used by the
industrial hygienist in conjunction with existing information.
AIHA and the authors disclaim any liability, loss, or risk resulting directly or indirectly from the use of the practices and/or theories
discussed in this handbook. Moreover, it is the reader’s responsibility to stay informed of policies adopted specifically in the reader’s
workplace.
Specific mention of manufacturers, membership organizations, and products in this guideline does not represent an endorsement by
AIHA.
Copyright © 2008 by the American Industrial Hygiene Association
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, in an electronic retrieval system or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.
Stock Number: SEPH08-744
ISBN: 978-1-931504-93-5
Published by American Industrial Hygiene Association
2700 Prosperity Ave., Suite 250, Fairfax, VA 22031
www.aiha.org
Printed in the United States of America.
ii American Industrial Hygiene Association
Table of Contents
ISHMH
Foreword......................................................................................vii Appendix I – Cold Injury Prevention.....................................119
Appendix II – Heat Inquiry Prevention Quick Reference...121
Chapter 1 – Common Responsibilities.......................................1 Appendix III – Safety Officer Deployment List....................123
Chapter 2 – Safety Staff Organization and Appendix IV – Food Safety Quick Reference........................127
Responsibilities..........................................................................7
Appendix V – Fire Safety Quick Reference...........................131
Chapter 3 – Operations Planning Cycle...................................13
Appendix VI – Hazards Associated with Rescues...............135
Chapter 4 – Hazard Risk Analysis............................................35
Appendix VII – Hazards Associated with Confined
Chapter 5 – Site Safety and Health Plan..................................49 Space Entries..........................................................................137
Chapter 6 – Air Monitoring Plan and Execution....................65 Appendix VIII – Hazards Associated with Boating
Chapter 7 – Decontamination Guidelines...............................85 Operations..............................................................................139
Chapter 8 – Respiratory Protection..........................................95 Appendix IX – Hazards Associated with Body Recovery
Chapter 9 – Personal Protective Equipment..........................113 and Evidentiary Collection..................................................141
Appendix X – Hazards Associated with Working in and
around Damaged Structures...............................................143
Appendix XI – Safety Display Board.....................................145
Appendix XII – Dive Operations............................................147
Appendix XIII – List of Acronyms..........................................151
Incident Safety and Health Management Handbook (ISHMH) iii
Chapter 1
ISHMH
Common Responsibilities
All assigned incident safety officers, or their support Arrival at the Incident
staffs, should follow this checklist to ensure proper
• Know where the check-in locations are. They may be lo-
items or affairs are taken care of. cated at the
Receipt of Assignment from One’s Company – Base camp where the reader will lodge;
– Incident command post;
or Government Agency
– Staging area;
• Job assignment designated (e.g., position);
(Note 1: If instructed to report directly to an on-scene assign-
• Brief overview of the type and magnitude of the incident;
ment, check in with the designated incident commander or desig-
• Travel instructions, including reporting location and re-
nated incident safety officer via radio or telephone communication.)
porting time;
(Note 2: Always check-in. Incident command staff and gen-
• Any special communications instructions (e.g., cell
eral staff need to know of arrivals.)
phone numbers of persons to contact at the incident);
• Incident-related information from the media, internet, • Receive a brief from the incident commander or deputy
or other sources; incident commander. Assistant safety officers should re-
• Personal equipment readiness should be checked; ceive the briefing from the incident safety officer. Tech-
• Travel information should be given to supervisor, family nical specialists (THSP) should receive the briefing from
members, and friends, as appropriate; the planning section chief or the deputy;
• Review this handbook; and • Read and if possible, get a copy of the incident action
• After preparations are complete,relax. plan and the incident safety plan;
Incident Safety and Health Management Handbook (ISHMH) 1
• Acquire other necessary work material; Getting Organized
• Know the organizational chart, who are the
• Incident safety officers need sufficient workspace, de-
agencies/parties involved, etc. pending upon the number of assistant safety officers
• Participate in meetings and briefings as required; and technical specialists assigned. Assume that the same
• Report unsafe conditions that may have been noticed workspace for the incident safety officers is co-located
coming in; with the incident command post, and will be used by
• If designated as theincident safety officer, one should each work shift. Also, consider that some assistant
know where their people are at all times. Implement a safety officers may need to be attached with division or
sign-in/sign-out board if necessary. Have a contact ros- group supervisors in the field versus working out of the
ter for their cell phones or radio frequencies; incident command post.
• When communicating, always use clear text and ICS ter- • Recordkeeping files should be kept in either an accor-
minology in all radio communications; dion-type folder or filing cabinet. It is recommend that
• One should begin writing the unit log from the time that the files be indexed, as a minimum:
they report in until they are relieved at the end of the – Incident action plans
operation. They should keep copies for themselves at – Site safety plans (Note: approved versions with
the end of the the duty operation. appendices)
• Report any signs/symptoms of extended incident stress, – Unit logs (Consolidate from the staff at the end of
injury, fatigue, or illness for oneself or coworkers to the each operational period)
supervisor; – Contact lists
• Brief shift replacements on ongoing operations when re- – Air monitoring logs
lieved at operational periods or rotation out; and – Accident reports
• Carry out all assignments, as directed, within the legal, – Hazard and risk analysis worksheets; and
ethical and health/safety standards. Use good – Other indexed files as appropriate.
judgment. • Office and IT-support requirements:
2 American Industrial Hygiene Association
– Dedicated telephone for incident safety officers. If As a minimum, the following people should be met
staff increases to six personnel, request an additional early on:
telephone line
• Incident commander or members of the unified com-
– Pens (Medium or fine-point) —1 box
mand (If the reader is the incident safety officer for the
– Pencils —1 box
overall response operation)
– Field notebooks —1 packet
– Writing Easel with permanent markers —1 each • Deputy incident commander; (Note: Performs duties of
– Laptop or desktop computers —1 per Safety Officer a chief of staff)
staff • Operations section chief and his/her deputy
– Shared printer • Members of one’s own safety staff
– Shared Fax machine • Planning section chief
– Safety display board —refer to Appendix XI • Situation unit leader
– Two-drawer filing cabinet or two accordion-type fold- • Division/group supervisors
ers for filing • Logistics section chief
– Shared copy machine • Finance section chief
– Flash memory —1 each • Medical unit leader
People to Meet Eventually, you will meet their respective staff sections
as you and your staff members move up the planning “P”
Very early into the arrival, incident safety officers should
process.
begin to identify and work with key stakeholders whose jobs
will be directly impacted during this response. They can
Demobilization
simply walk over to introduce themselves, and their official
incident staff function. • Respond to demobilization orders and brief subordi-
nates regarding demobilization;
Incident Safety and Health Management Handbook (ISHMH) 3
• Brief shift replacements on ongoing operations when re- commander and the unified command. Tell them the
lieved at operational periods or rotation out. hazards, the risks associated with those hazards, and the
• Prepare personal belongings for demobilization. priority recommendations to control them. Although the
• Return all issued equipment before departing the AO; IC/UC may disagree, the SOFR ’s job is to advise and
Follow the check-out procedures, which should be im- recommend. Don’t take things personally, particularly
plemented. in an incident.
• Participate in after-action meetings and file the appro- • Early on, the incident safety officer has to earn the trust
priate reports for lessons learned. and respect of the IC/UC, fellow command staff, the
• Upon demobilization, notify the incident safety officer, general staff, and the response and recovery workers. To
the deputy and incident commander, the resource unit accomplish this, the SOFR should give respect to every-
leader (RESL) at the incident site, and the home one that they meet and work with.
company/agency of a safe return. • Work as a team with the safety staff.
• The SOFR may get assigned an aspect of safety and
Keys to Successful Incident Safety and Health health that they are not totally familiar with. Ask ques-
Management tions, read up on any available field books, and if possi-
Although there are a myriad of different ideas on how to ble,
best approach safety and health in an incident, there are access the internet.
basic tenets to follow regardless of the size and scope of a
2. Be Clear and Concise in Communication.
response:
• If one has difficulty being clear and concise, using bul-
1. Maintain professionalism always. leted statements to convey the health and safety risks,
• Focus at the tasks at hand. then they should pick someone in the staff that can.
• Be courteous, yet decisive and clear on actions to • The response workers and most senior members of an
recommend and to implement. IC/UC will NOT be familiar with industrial hygiene,
• The incident safety officer works for the incident safety, or environmental health information.
4 American Industrial Hygiene Association
• Keep briefings, and written words short and to the point • Remember, the site safety and health plan is a key com-
• Also, lengthy explanations within your safety and health ponent to an incident action plan. The SCFR shouldn’t
plans or messages WILL NOT be read thoroughly. Time let the entire process wait for them to catch-up on their
is running short. decision making.
• Also, if safety officers see a very serious hazardous event
3. Triage Safety and Health Risks.
about to happen, Stop the operation!That is the incident
• Remember, the existence of an incident command staff
safety officer’s job, and why the IC/UC depends on
is to support the operations in the field.
them to do it.
• Focus on high priority controls that can prevent or
minimize hazards intended to: 5. Keep Improving the Program.
– Prevent immediate death; and • The biggest mistake is to stop with the “low-hanging
– Prevent immediate serious and debilitating injury. fruit” when it comes to advising and preventing health
• Remember that the incident safety officer is attempting and safety hazards and their risks.
to effectively manage an entire incident response or re- • Definitely address these issues and fix them early on,
covery operation from a health and safety perspective. If but the SOFR should remember who they are.
there are specialized tasks required, like air monitoring
– If the SOFR is an industrial hygienist, they should
or occupational medical surveillance, formally request
start executing a more thorough exposure assessment
subject matter experts for those more focused and time
strategy looking at chronic exposures both dermal
intensive tasks.
and inhalational routes.
4. Be Decisive. – If the SOFR is a safety engineer, they should get mov-
• Make a decisionon the hazards, their risks, and the ing on conducting more thorough engineering and
controls necessary to prevent or minimize their structural analysis.
occurrence. – If the SOFRis an environmental health professional,
• Avoid lengthy, philosophical discussions until meal they should consider developing an on-site hazard
breaks or off-shift hours. analysis critical control point (HACCP) program,
Incident Safety and Health Management Handbook (ISHMH) 5
particularly when dealing with large food-service Reference
operations serving hundreds of responders and
1. U.S. Coast Guard: U.S. Coast Guard Incident Manage-
support staff.
ment Handbook (COMDTPUB P3120.17A). Washington,
• Don’t ever settle for just enforcing safety and health
DC: U.S. Coast Guard, 2006.
recommendations from the first produced incident site
safety and health plan.
6 American Industrial Hygiene Association
Chapter 2
ISHMH
Safety Staff Organization and Responsibilities
Safety Officer (SOFR) 7) Investigate accidents that have occurred within the inci-
dent areas, to include support locations such as the base
The SOFR function is to develop and recommend measures
for assuring the personnel safety and to assess and/or antici- camp or staging areas;
pate hazardous and unsafe situations. Only one primary 8) Assign assistants, as needed;
SOFR will be assigned for each incident. 9) Review and approve the medical plan by coordinating
The SOFR may have assistants as necessary, and these as- with the medical unit leader;
sistants may also represent assisting agencies or jurisdictions. 10) Develop the site safety plan and publish the site safety
Safety assistants may have specific responsibilities, such as air plan summary as required;
operations, hazardous materials, or maritime operations. 11) Develop a work safety analysis worksheet as required;
The major responsibilities of the SOFR are: 12) Ensure that all required agency or company forms, re-
ports, and documents are completed prior to demobi-
1) Review the common responsibilities listed in Chapter 1;
lization;
2) Participate in tactics and planning meetings, and other
13) Brief command on safety issues and concerns; and
meetings and briefings as required;
14) Have a briefing with the IC prior to demobilization;
3) Identify hazardous situations associated with the incident;
4) Review the IAP for safety and health implications;
Assistant Safety Officers (ASOF)
5) Provide safety and health advice in the IAP for assigned
responders; These individuals function to support the responsibilities of
6) Exercise emergency authority to stop and prevent the SOFR. As with any leadership tenet, the SOFR retains the
unsafe acts; responsibilities listed in paragraph 1, but can delegate
Incident Safety and Health Management Handbook (ISHMH) 7
