Urgent action is needed to reduce the U.S. military's dangerous dependence on foreign suppliers for the raw materials, spare parts, and finished products needed to defend America, according to a new study prepared by Brigadier General John Adams, USA (Ret.).
The Government Accountability Office was asked to evaluate the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) efforts to strengthen its management of chemicals. This report determines the extent to which: (a) EPA has made progress implementing its new approach; and (b) EPA's new approach positions it to achieve its goal of ensuring the safety of chemicals.
The nation remains vulnerable to terrorist and other threats posed by chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) agents. Medical countermeasures can prevent or treat the effects of exposure to CBRN agents, and are available in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) for some of these agents. Children, who make up 25 percent of the population, are especially vulnerable because many of the countermeasures in the SNS have only been approved for use in adults.
The American Society of Civil Engineers is committed to protecting the health, safety, and welfare of the public, and as such, are equally committed to improving the nation's public infrastructure. To achieve that goal, the Report Card depicts the condition and performance of the nations infrastructure in the familiar form of a school report card - assigning letter grades that are based on physical condition and needed fiscal investments for improvement.
On 13 March 2013, President Barack Obama signed into law the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Reauthorization Act (PAHPRA) of 2013. This legislation (H.R. 307) was developed to help strengthen national preparedness and response capabilities for public health emergencies, optimize state and local all-hazards preparedness, enhance the review of medical countermeasures, and accelerate advanced research and development.
On 30 January 2013, the All Hazards Consortium in partnership with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the State of New Jersey, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Infrastructure Protection, held a workshop of the Multi-State Fleet Response Initiative Working Group. The objective of the workshop was to assess lessons learned from Superstorm Sandy and identify opportunities for improving the movement of fleet vehicles in response to emergency events.
The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA), supported by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), and in partnership with the Cumberland Valley Volunteer Firemen's Association (CVVFA) Emergency Responder Safety Institute, announce the availability of a guide to help emergency services departments increase the visibility of emergency vehicles to motorists in order to keep responders safe during roadway operations.
U.S. reliance on imported food increased from 2000 through 2011. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - responsible for ensuring the safety of most imported foods - received new authority under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). FSMA enhances FDA's oversight of food imports, including express authority to establish a system for accrediting third parties - including foreign governments and private auditing firms - to certify compliance with U.S. food safety requirements by foreign food facilities.
This guidance, provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), includes recommendations for protecting personnel responding to a wide-area anthrax attack from developing anthrax as a result of exposure to aerosolized Bacillus anthracis (B. anthracis) spores and for minimizing the amount of exposure in the first week of a response. It is also intended to support ongoing planning and preparation efforts and to lay the basis for plans to protect all those who may respond.
Scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) - joined by scientists from other federal agencies - have developed this guideline, which provides a common framework to carry out microbial risk assessments (MRAs). It also lays out a flexible set of approaches, methods, and tools recommended for use to carry out microbial risk assessments, provide greater transparency to the process, and improve results.
