WSLH Honored for Work with Wisconsin’s HazMat Teams

The Wisconsin Association of Hazardous Materials Responders (WAHMR) gave the WSLH its Coordinators Service Award at its annual conference earlier this month. The award was given “in grateful appreciation for your many years of dedication and diligence to the response community of Wisconsin.”

WSLH Chemical Emergency Response Coordinator Noel Stanton and Assistant Coordinator Meshel Mork accepted the award on behalf of the WSLH.

WSLH staff in the Communicable Disease Division first began working with Wisconsin’s hazardous materials (HazMat) teams in the late 1990s. The focus those first few years was on training for responding to biological terrorism events.  Over time the focus switched to an all-hazards approach. Since HazMat teams, which are part of local fire departments, respond to unknown chemical emergencies more often than biological ones, WSLH support has evolved to focus more on unknown chemical incidents.

That support comes in a variety of ways:

• WSLH staff provide testing in our lab for the HazMat teams when needed. This can be for situations where the team has identified a threat or exposure risk, or when the team encounters an unknown substance they can’t identify with their field equipment and they need to know more.

• In order to assure we receive a valid sample for testing, WSLH staff provide collection material kits so HazMat teams have what they need in their mobile response units. The collection materials are suitable for biological as well as chemical agents.

• For HazMat teams with field testing capabilities, the WSLH serves as a resource when they’re in the field responding to an event. WSLH staff also have contacts that can provide a higher level of technical expertise, if needed.

• The WSLH provides a voluntary, no-cost unknown substance characterization program for HazMat teams – basically a proficiency testing program for HazMat. WSLH staff make samples and send them to the teams who characterize the samples based on their unit’s capabilities. After the team sends in their results, WSLH staff provide feedback.

The latest support effort is a ½ day training course for HazMat teams developed by former Chemical Emergency Response Assistant Coordinator (and now WisCon Industrial Hygiene Consultant) Al Spallato. HazMat teams will be instructed on how to properly assess a situation and receive hands-on experience collecting vapor, liquid and solid substances to submit to the WSLH for analysis. The course is being offered in collaboration with Wisconsin Emergency Management and two of the HazMat responder teams.  A pilot course was held right before the WAHMR conference and garnered very positive feedback from participants. The first official training session will be held in late February.

“The award was presented to the WSLH for years of service and Al has been instrumental in that,” said Stanton. “With Meshel taking over for Al, the HazMat teams will continue to receive a very high level of support from the WSLH.”