Action level: The existence of a contaminant concentration in the environment high enough to warrant action or trigger a response.
Acute exposure duration: Exposure by the oral, dermal, or inhalation route for 24 hours or less. 69
Aerosol: A suspension of liquid or solid particles in air.
Agent: Historically, “agent” has referred to weaponized preparations of chemical or biological materials. In this document, agent refers to a causative substance without regard to military use (e.g., a causative source of hazard).
Biased sampling: Biased sampling is used in areas where samples previously tested positive and can be applied during clearance at specific locations that were found to be contaminated during the characterization phase. Biased samples are samples collected adjacent to areas of known contamination, high-traffic areas, or surfaces likely to be encountered by occupants following re- occupancy.70
CERCLA: Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (42 USC 9601 et seq.), as amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986. Authorizes the President and EPA (by delegation from the President) to respond to releases or substantial threats of releases of pollutants, contaminants, or hazardous substances that may present an imminent and substantial danger to the public health or welfare.
Characterization phase: Process of obtaining specific information about an agent, such as its identity, composition, formulation, physical properties, toxicological properties, ability to aerosolize, and persistence, and about the nature and extent of contamination of the agent, such as locations or items contaminated and the amount of contamination. Characterization of the agent and of the contamination at an affected site generally occurs after First Response and before cleanup.
Characterization sampling: Environmental sampling intended to assess the nature (identity and
properties) and extent (location and quantity) of contamination of an area or items. Generally occurs after First Response and before cleanup.
Chemical warfare agent (CWA): Chemicals listed by the Chemical Warfare Convention as chemical warfare agents.
The Convention defines CWA within these criteria:
- “Chemical Weapons” means the following, together or separately:
- Toxic chemicals and their precursors, except where intended for purposes not prohibited under this Convention, as long as the types and quantities are consistent with such purposes;
- Munitions and devices, specifically designed to cause death or other harm through the toxic properties of those toxic chemicals specified in subparagraph (a), which would be released as a result of the employment of such munitions and devices;
- Any equipment specifically designed for use directly in connection with the employment of munitions and devices specified in subparagraph (b).
- “Toxic Chemical” means: Any chemical which through its chemical action on life processes can cause death, temporary incapacitation or permanent harm to humans or animals. This includes all such chemicals, regardless of their origin or of their method of production, and regardless of whether they are produced in facilities, in munitions or elsewhere.
- “Precursor” means: Any chemical reactant which takes part at any stage in the production by whatever method of a toxic chemical. This includes any key component of a binary or multi- component chemical system.
Chronic exposure duration: Repeated exposure by the oral, dermal, or inhalation route for more than 30 days, up to approximately 10 percent of the life span in humans (approximately 90 days to 2 years in typically used laboratory animal species). 71
Cleanup: Process of containing, removing, or treating a contaminated site and/or items.
Clearance: Process of determining that clearance criteria have been met for a specific contaminant in or on a specific site or item. Occurs before re-occupancy.
Clearance criteria: Measures that serve as the basis for determining whether a site can be opened for resumed use/re-occupancy either on an unrestricted or limited basis (with site controls). Clearance criteria are based on the clearance goals and the consideration of other issues such as technical feasibility, analytical capability, stakeholder concerns, etc.
Clearance goal: Amount of residual contamination for a specific contaminant in or on an area or item that provides acceptable protection to human health and the environment for protracted exposure durations.
Clearance phase: The phase of a response when actions are taken following decontamination of a site. This phase involves clearance sampling and analysis and making a determination as to whether the site is cleaned up sufficiently to release for resumed use/re-occupancy.
Clearance sampling: Environmental sampling conducted after decontamination that is intended to provide a basis for determining if clearance criteria have been met.
Concentration level: Estimated or measured level of an agent (e.g., chemical) in materials and surfaces (e.g., air), usually in units of milligrams per cubic meter (mg/m3) for air, micrograms per centimeter squared (µg/cm2) for surfaces, or parts per million (ppm) and milligrams per liter (mg/L) for other media.
Consequence management: An emergency management function of response that includes measures to protect public health and safety, restore essential government services, and provide emergency relief to governments, businesses, and individuals affected by the consequences of a chemical incident.
Containment: Actions taken to prevent the spread of a contaminant from a particular area or movement within the area. Also, an action taken to seal a site prior to fumigation.
Contamination: Deposition and/or absorption of chemicals on and by structures, areas, or materials and surfaces (e.g., soil, air, water) which renders them unfit for human use by the presence of those agents, including chemicals, radioactive elements, bacteria, or organisms.
Course of Action: An overall plan that describes the selected strategies and management actions intended to achieve Incident Objectives, comply with Incident Requirements, and are based on current and expected conditions.
Critical infrastructure: Systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital that the incapacity or destruction of such may have a debilitating impact on the security, economy, public health or safety, environment, or any combination of those sectors, across any FSLTT jurisdiction. As established in the National Infrastructure Protection Plan, this includes the sectors of agriculture and food; drinking water and wastewater treatment systems; dams; public health and healthcare; emergency services; government and commercial facilities; defense industrial base; national monuments and icons; information technology; telecommunications; energy; nuclear reactors materials and waste; transportation systems; banking and finance; chemical; and postal and shipping.
Crisis management: A law enforcement function that includes measures to identify, acquire, and plan the use of resources needed to anticipate, prevent, and/or resolve a chemical incident.
Decision-maker: Person charged with determining and directing appropriate actions in response to a potential or actual incident at a particular site.
Decontamination: Process of inactivating or removing a contaminant from humans, animals, plants, food, water, soil, air, areas, or items through physical, chemical, or other methods to meet a clearance goal.
Decontamination applies to both disinfection and sterilization processes. (Generally occurs as part of cleanup.)
Emergency Operations Center (EOC): Physical location at which the coordination of information and resources to support domestic incident management activities normally takes place. An EOC may be a temporary facility or located in a more central or permanently established facility, perhaps at a higher level of organization within a jurisdiction. EOCs may be organized by major functional disciplines (e.g., fire, law enforcement, and medical services), by jurisdiction (e.g., FSLTT), or by some combination thereof.
Environmental justice: The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. This goal will be achieved when everyone enjoys: the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.72
Environmental sampling: Sampling conducted on inanimate surfaces or in air, water, or soil for the purpose of detecting the presence of a specific agent.
Exposure level: Measured or estimated amount of an agent (e.g., chemical) to which an individual or populations of individuals is exposed, usually expressed as concentration over a defined period (e.g., ppm for one hour).
First responder: Designation for a person who, in the course of their professional duties of responding to emergencies, and in the early stages of an incident, is responsible for the protection and preservation of life, property, evidence, the environment, and for meeting basic human needs. May be a member of a FSTTL emergency public safety, emergency response, emergency medical, law enforcement, fire and rescue, military, or other recognized agency and authority including a volunteer or private organization, as well as other skilled support personnel (such as equipment operators, administrators, security personnel, etc.) who provide immediate support services during response and protection operations.
First response phase: Phase of a response in which actions are taken immediately following notification of a chemical incident or release. In addition to search and rescue, scene control, and law enforcement activities, first response includes initial site containment, environmental sampling and analysis, and public health activities, such as treatment of potentially exposed persons.
Fourth Generation Agents (FGAs): A group of Soviet Union/Russian-developed nerve agents; also known as Novichoks or A-series agents. FGAs were developed after the third generation of chemical warfare agents (V-series nerve agents).
Hazard: Something that is potentially dangerous or harmful, often the root cause of an undesired outcome. Health and Safety Plan (HASP): Written plan required under the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s (OSHA’s) Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response standard (29 CFR 1910.120). This standard requires a written HASP, which identifies site hazards and appropriate controls to protect employee health and safety. 73
Incident: Occurrence or event, natural or human-caused, which requires an emergency response to protect life or property. Incidents can, for example, include major disasters, emergencies, terrorist attacks, terrorist threats, wild land and urban fires, floods, hazardous materials spills, nuclear accidents, aircraft accidents, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, tropical storms, war-related disasters, public health and medical emergencies, and other occurrences requiring an emergency response.74
Incident Action Plan (IAP): An oral or written plan containing general objectives reflecting the overall strategy for managing an incident. It may include the identification of operational resources and assignments. It may also include attachments that provide direction and important information for management of the incident during one or more operational periods.
Incident Commander (IC): Individual responsible for all incident activities, including the development of strategies and tactics and the ordering and release of resources. The IC has overall authority and responsibility for conducting incident operations and is responsible for managing all incident operations at the incident site.
Incident Command Post: The field location where the primary functions are performed. The Incident Command Post may be co-located with the incident base or other incident facilities.
Incident Command System (ICS): A standardized on-scene emergency management construct specifically designed to provide for the adoption of an integrated organizational structure that reflects the complexity and demands of single or multiple incidents, without being hindered by jurisdictional boundaries. ICS is a management system designed to enable effective incident management by integrating a combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications operating within a common organizational structure, designed to aid in the management of resources during incidents. It is used for all kinds of emergencies and is applicable to small as well as large and complex incidents. ICS is used by various jurisdictions and functional agencies, both public and private, to organize field-level incident management operations.
Joint Field Office: Central office where the operations of the various federal entities participating in a response at the local level are collocated. This improves the efficiency and effectiveness of federal incident management activities.
Joint Information Center (JIC): Focal point for the coordination and provision of information to the public and news media concerning the federal response to the emergency.
Long-term duration: Repeated exposure by the oral, dermal, or inhalation route for more than 30 days, up to approximately 10 percent of the life span in humans (more than 30 days up to approximately 90 days in typically used laboratory animal species).75
Local government: Public entities responsible for the security and welfare of a designated area as established by law. Includes county, municipality, city, town, township, local public authority, school district, special district, intrastate district, council of governments, regional or interstate government entity, or agency or instrumentality of a local government; an Indian tribe or authorized tribal organization, a native village or native cooperation; or a rural community, unincorporated town or village, or other public entity; state governments are separate entities and are not included in the definition of local government.
Media: Refers to the air, water, soil, or surface that has been or is potentially contaminated by an agent (e.g., chemical).
Mitigation: The capabilities necessary to reduce the loss of life and property from natural and/or man- made disasters by lessening the impacts of disasters.
Mode of release: Method of dispersal that could include explosion, aerosolization, injection, ingestion, or vector diffusion. Releases may also be covert leading to unintentional cross-contamination.
Monitored natural attenuation: Destruction or inactivation of agents via natural, environmental mechanisms such as heat, light, biochemical, or chemical reactions. The dilution, dispersion, (bio)degradation, irreversible sorption, and/or natural decay of contaminants causing a net reduction of contaminant mass, toxicity and human and ecological risk.
National Incident Management System (NIMS): System mandated by HSPD-5 that provides a consistent, nationwide approach for FSLTT governments; private-sector; and NGOs to work effectively and efficiently together to prepare for, respond to, and recover from domestic incidents, regardless of cause, size, or complexity. To provide for interoperability and compatibility among FSLTT capabilities, the NIMS includes a core set of concepts, principles, and terminology. HSPD-5 identifies these as the ICS; multiagency coordination systems; training; identification and management of resources (including systems for classifying types of resources); qualification and certification; and the collection, tracking, and reporting of incident information and incident resources.
National Response Framework (NRF): Homeland Security Act of 2002 and the HPSD-5 directed the DHS to develop an NRF. The NRF is a guide to how the nation responds to all types of disasters and emergencies. It is built on scalable, flexible, and adaptable concepts identified in the NIMS to align key roles and responsibilities across the nation.
Nationally significant or large-scale incident: A designation to distinguish events from day-to-day responses. This is generally an incident that because of the magnitude, complexity, toxic potency or deliberate nature requires federal assets and exceeds the capability of state, tribal, territorial, or local agencies.
Non-persistent: Agent that is readily dispersed, de-activated, and poses no long-term hazard.
Non-Traditional Agent (NTA): NTAs are a broad group of chemicals that fall outside the traditional chemical agent categories.
Normalcy: Pre-event condition and/or operation status.
Notification phase: The first set of actions to take place after the release of a hazardous chemical. This includes such activities as receiving and assessing information, identifying potential release sites, and relaying key information to appropriate agencies.
Novichok : A group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet Union/Russia; also known as Fourth Generation Agents, FGAs, or A-series agents. These agents are lesser characterized, weaponized organophosphate agents. The use of known Novichok agents in warfare is banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997. Novichok agents are considered more potent than VX gas and can be applied in unitary and binary forms. Like other nerve agents, Novichok agents irreversibly bind acetylcholinesterase and produce a cholinergic toxidrome. Uniquely, these agents are thought to also target neurons in the peripheral nervous system. Delayed treatment or massive exposure may therefore cause a debilitating neuropathy. The recent 2018 assassination attempt of a Russian dissident and his daughter in the United Kingdom highlights the importance of recognizing the potential lethal effects of these nerve agents. Treatment of Novichok agent poisoning is similar to management of other nerve agent.76
Persistent: Agent that remains active in the environment or resists decontamination efforts. These agents are likely to pose long-term hazards.
Prevention: The capabilities necessary to avoid, prevent, or stop a threatened or actual act of terrorism. In national preparedness guidance, the term “prevention” refers to preventing imminent threats.
Recovery: The capabilities necessary to assist communities affected by an incident to recover effectively.77
Remediation phase: The phase of response where actions are taken between the Characterization Phase and the Clearance Phase. This includes selecting and implementing decontamination technologies and procedures, formation of a remedial action plan, waste disposal, source reduction, and verification of decontamination parameters.
Removal action: Short-term response actions taken to address releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants that require a prompt response. Performed in accordance with the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan and under the authority of CERCLA.78
Resumed Use/Re-occupancy: Process of renovating a facility, monitoring the workers performing the renovation, and deciding when to permit reoccupation. Generally occurs after a facility has been cleared but before occupants are permitted to return.
Residual contamination: Amount of contaminant remaining after an area has been decontaminated. Residual contamination may be below the ability to detect its presence.
Resources: Personnel and major items of equipment, supplies, and facilities available or potentially available for assignment to incident operations and for which status is maintained. Resources are described by kind and type and may be used in operational support or supervisory capacities at an incident or at an EOC.
Response: The capabilities necessary to save lives, protect property and the environment, and meet basic human needs after an incident has occurred.
Restoration: The process of renovating or refurbishing a facility, bringing it back to an unimpaired or improved condition after decontamination, and making a decision to permit occupants to return.
Restoration generally occurs after a facility has been cleared but before occupants are permitted to return.
Risk: Probability that a substance or situation will produce harm under specified conditions. Risk is a combination of two factors: (1) the probability that an adverse incident will occur (such as a specific disease or type of injury) and, (2) the consequences of the adverse incident.
Risk assessment: Gathering and analyzing information on what potential harm a situation poses and the likelihood that people or the environment will be harmed. A methodological approach to estimate the potential human or environmental risk of a substance that uses hazard identification, dose–response, exposure assessment, and risk characterization.
Risk communication: Interactive process of exchange of information and opinion among individuals, groups, and institutions. It often involves multiple messages about the nature of risk or expressing concerns, uncertainties, opinions, or reactions to risk messages or to legal and institutional arrangements for risk management.
Risk management: Process of identifying, evaluating, selecting, and implementing actions to reduce risk to human health and to ecosystems. The goal of risk management is scientifically sound, cost-effective, integrated actions that reduce or prevent risk while taking into account social, cultural, ethical, political, and legal considerations.79
Sampling: Act of collecting representative portions of an environmental materials and surfaces that help to specify the number, type, and location (spatial or temporal) of contamination. Samples are selected to determine if contamination is present, and if so, to determine the approximate locations of contamination and estimation of the contaminant levels.80
Sampling and Analysis Plan (SAP): Plan that describes the methods, strategies, and analyses for characterization sampling, verification sampling (if applicable), and clearance sampling for a contaminated site.
Screening: Systematic examination or assessment done specially to detect an unwanted substance, attribute, person, or undesirable materiel
Short-term exposure duration: Repeated exposure by the oral, dermal, or inhalation route for more than 24 hours, up to 30 days.81
Site characterization: Process of gathering site-specific data, including overall descriptions of the site, material types present at the site, potential human exposure pathways, and environmental conditions in order to estimate the extent of contamination. Site characterization occurs as an early step in consequence management.
Targeted sampling: Sampling in which sites are allocated to specific locations of concern for the purpose of trying to answer site-specific questions.82
Technical Working Group: Group of technical experts assembled by the Incident/Unified Command to provide guidance during the planning and implementation of cleanup operations.83
Toxicity: Degree to which some agent is poisonous or harmful, often inversely related to the amount of the agent that causes the harmful or fatal effect(s).
Toxic industrial chemical (TIC)/toxic industrial material (TIM): Any industrial chemical hazard that is toxic and/or lethal and not designed specifically for military purposes; however, a TIC/TIM may be employed as a chemical warfare agent.
Uncertainty: Imperfect knowledge concerning the present or future state of the system under consideration; a component of risk resulting from imperfect knowledge of the degree of hazard or of its spatial and temporal distribution.
Unified Command (UC): Application of ICS used when there is more than one agency with incident jurisdiction or when incidents cross political jurisdictions. Agencies work together through the designated members of the UC to establish their designated IC at a single Incident Command Post and to establish a common set of objectives and strategies and a single IAP.84