The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently published two companion documents to the EPA’s Protective Action Guide (PAG) Manual that will help emergency responders prepare public communication materials prior to and during a radiological emergency. These communication materials are based on the safety measures in the PAG Manual, and are designed to be used in all types of radiological emergencies.
The third edition of Commercial UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) Expo came to a close last Friday in Las Vegas, Nevada, having attracted 2,000 professionals from 53 countries and every U.S. state, representing a wide range of industries including process, power utilities; civil infrastructure; construction; mining and aggregates, surveying and mapping; precision agriculture; law enforcement, emergency response and search and rescue. The next edition will be held 1-3 October 2018.
For almost 15 years, NPLI faculty have been observing and teaching preparedness and response leaders in federal, state, and local agencies as well as non-profit and private sector organizations. The core of the NPLI curriculum is the meta-leadership framework and practice method. The program meets on the Harvard campus for one week in December and again for a concluding session in June.
FEMA released the refreshed National Incident Management System (NIMS) doctrine. NIMS provides a common, nationwide approach to enable the whole community to work together to manage all threats and hazards. NIMS applies to all incidents, regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity.
First responders and emergency management officials have been calling for high-speed, Long-Term Evolution (LTE) cellular devices with three public safety “mission-critical voice” capabilities: push-to-talk, one-to-many, and direct mode. A new computer modeling tool from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) uses ns-3, an open-source network simulation software to assess factors that could impact the performance of future LTE cellular devices.
The third annual National Geospatial Preparedness Summit provided capacity-building training for the public safety community. The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate First Responders Group provided expertise to support the development of this year’s training program, sessions, workshops, and the functional preparedness exercise based on a real-world flood scenario.
Results from a large randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial in Liberia show that two candidate Ebola vaccines pose no major safety concerns. These vaccines can elicit immune responses by one month after initial vaccination and last for at least one year. The findings are based on a study of 1,500 adults that began during the West Africa Ebola outbreak.
An adequate supply of respirators for first responders and healthcare professionals is critical to protecting the health of workers responding to pandemics and other public health emergencies. To meet this need, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and Applied Research Associates Inc. will partner to advance the development of respirators that can be reused up to 100 times.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) announced a partnership with Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, to determine whether a product for treating patients suffering from thrombocytopenia could be used to better protect people in the event of a nuclear incident.
