Environmental Hazards and Health Effects Program: Chemical Emergency Preparedness and Response Activities

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  National Center for Environmental Health (U.S.). Environmental Hazards and Health Effects Program.
• Description:
  The release of a chemical weapon of mass destruction (WMD) could result in hundreds or thousands of casualties, and the source of the release likely would be obvious to public health officials. However, the source of an accidental chemical release, or the hidden, intentional contamination of food or drinking water, would be more difficult to identify. During the past century, chemical releases accounted for as many as 50% of the 350 WMD incidents that have occurred worldwide, according to the Monterey Institute of International Studies, which maintains an open-source database of criminal and terrorist incidents involving WMD agents.+++
  
  Various programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) work to detect, respond to, and prevent human illness caused by a chemical release. CDC’s Environmental Hazards and Health Effects Program (EHHE) is involved in the following activities:
  
  • Supporting an early warning surveillance system
  
  • Providing medical toxicological expertise and clinical guidance
  
  • Creating chemical-specific resources for clinicians, public health officials, and the public
  
  • Developing educational Web/satellite broadcasts
  
  • Building collaborative relationships at all levels of public health, medicine, and government
  
  • Providing “on-call” experts
  
  • Cooperating with states and other partners
  
  overview.pdf
  
  
• Subjects:
  Chemical Hazard Release Chemical Warfare Agents Emergencies Environmental Exposure/adverse Effects Environmental Monitoring Hazardous Substances/adverse Effects Public Health Surveillance
• Series:
  Chemical Emergencies
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Fact Sheet
• Pages in Document:
  2 numbered pages
• Collection(s):
  Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:910d2662dd27b9be9f6f575d477ff1913412bcb3e988d09dc74ed4605c730f1796e352f12eb97e401aea3736484b3629fb4a6f6e99641039402c994c304c0cff
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/130734/cdc_130734_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 79.96 KB ]