Emergency Planning and Response
The command framework
Responses run on the Incident Command System under NIMS. EPCRA created the SERC and LEPC planning structure and the release notification duty to state and local committees; CERCLA §103 requires immediate notification to the National Response Center, with a written follow-up report. Practically, notification goes to the NRC, the SERC, the LEPC, and the local emergency dispatcher, plus internal reporting.
Response modes
OSHA's 1910.120(q) framework recognizes defensive and offensive response. Awareness-level personnel recognize, isolate, and notify. Operations-level personnel take defensive actions, typically from outside the hot zone, without entering. Technician-level personnel make offensive entries in appropriate PPE. No one enters without backup, a decontamination plan, and a site safety plan.
Zones and the ERG
The hot zone is the exclusion area, the warm zone is the contamination reduction corridor, and the cold zone is support; wind moves from cold toward hot, and the decon line runs through the warm zone. The Emergency Response Guidebook is the first tool: identify the UN number from the shipping paper or placard, turn to the orange guide, and if the material is highlighted on a green page, apply the green table's initial isolation and protective action distances.
Traps
- ERG distances are initial values for a short-duration release, not predictions.
- Placards communicate hazard class, not identity; never identify a material from a placard alone.
- Treat unknown substances as the worst case.
- Decontaminate before transport; do not load contaminated patients into an ambulance.
Worked example. A placarded spill of a green-highlighted material: look up the UN number, take the initial isolation distance for a small spill from the green table, then the protective action distance for the correct day or night condition, establish the zones, and make the notifications.