Emergency Response Training

Newswise — The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, ushered in a new era for emergency response training, said Alan Veasey, M.P.H., program director of UAB's Workplace Safety Training (WST). The program, an arm of UAB's Center for Labor Education and Research (CLEAR), traditionally trained first responders to hazardous materials incidents occurring as accidents. Post-Sept. 11 training has shifted to address intentional occurrences. For instance, now training includes recognition of the signs of exposure to nerve, mustard or biological agents. Veasey and other members of the WST staff had written a textbook on dealing with hazardous materials in 1992, "Emergency Responder Training Manual for the Hazardous Materials Technician." When the authors updated the book in 2004, "We had to add a whole chapter on terrorism and weapons of mass destruction because we had this whole new reality to deal with."