Major chemical incidents continue to occur accidentally or deliberately in developed and developing countries. Although rare, major chemical incidents such as Bhopal, India (methylisocyante) and Minamata, Japan (methylmercury) have caused many casualties, fatalities and mass disruption resulting in long-lasting effects on the communities involved. The scientific knowledge surrounding the response to the acute phase of major chemical incidents is extensive; however, there is limited information available for the recovery phase. This knowledge gap has been of concern and issues surrounding 'how clean is clean' have been identified as complex and difficult to address.

The response to a major chemical incident in the UK would involve numerous government departments and agencies, public services and other bodies. The response would require appropriate decision making for the relevant recovery and remediation options that should be considered, taking into account a variety of factors that may influence the choice of options (i.e. affected area and local population). 

The Health Protection Agency in collaboration with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Food Standards Agency, Home Office, Northern Ireland Environment Agency and Scottish Government is developing a UK Recovery Handbook for Chemical Incidents (UKRHCI).

The Handbook will be a user-friendly guidance document to aid the decision making process for the implementation of a recovery strategy in the aftermath of a chemical incident , and will provide guidance on how to manage the many facets of a chemical incident.  

The Handbook is aimed at national and local authorities, central government departments and agencies, environmental and health protection experts, emergency services, industry and others who may be affected by a chemical incident.

The handbook will also contain an introductory section describing the different environments (food production systems, inhabited areas, water management), information on chemical life cycles and hazards, physiochemical properties and DIM (detection, identification and monitoring), and information on how to implement a recovery strategy will also be provided.

Duration of the project:

June 2009 until the end of May 2012.

Stakeholder programme

Developing the UK Recovery Handbook for Chemical Incidents has involved extensive consultation with stakeholders from a range of disciplines (e.g. Food Standards Agency, Chartered Institute for Environmental Health, local authorities, water utilities, emergency services and the Environment Agency).  Stakeholder workshops are crucial to the development of the Handbook.

The project team are organising three additional stakeholder workshops, to be held before the end of January 2012, one for each of the environments in the handbook (food production systems, inhabited areas and water management). If you are interested in joining our stakeholder programme please email chemical.recovery@HPA.org.uk. A member of the project team will then contact you with further details on how you can get involved with the project.

Retrospective study of Chemical Incidents

An important step in developing the UK Recovery Handbook for Chemical Incidents is to ensure there is a sound evidence base for the recovery options recommended in the Handbook.

The Handbook project team have developed a recovery options database to capture information regarding chemical incidents, to refine the recovery options recommended in the Handbook. The database is being populated with information from targeted literature searches, chemical incident databases (HPA and external) and by asking stakeholders to participate in a retrospective study of incidents not reported in the literature. 

The project team would like to invite stakeholders and other interested parties to participate in a retrospective study of chemical incidents. This will initially involve completing a short online questionnaire (it should take no longer than 10 minutes), that will be followed-up with either a telephone interview or face-to-face meeting.

If you would like to participate in the study please go to the questionnaire or contact the project team for more information.

Chemical Recovery Handbook project team contact details:

Email: Chemical.Recovery@hpa.org.uk
Nicholas Brooke; Environmental Public Health Scientist
Stacey Wyke; Principal Environmental Public Health Scientist
Shelly Mobbs: Project Manager
Virginia Murray: Project Lead
Telephone enquiries: +00 44(0)207 7811 7154

Publications

Journal of Environmental Health Research; Vol 10 (1): p73-77.
Development of a UK Recovery Handbook for Chemical Incidents [external pdf file]

UK Recovery Handbook for Chemical Incidents: poster (PDF, 285 KB)

UK Recovery Handbook for Chemical Incidents: leaflet (PDF, 219 KB)

Chemical Hazards and Poisons Report - Issue 16, page 60
A UK Recovery Handbook for Chemical Incidents

Chemical Hazards and Poisons Report – Issue 17, page 4
Sulphur Mustard Incident, Swansea 

Chemical Hazards and Poisons Report – Issue 18, page 63
Marine Coastguards Agency exercise 

Chemical Hazards and Poisons Report – Issue 19, page 13
Lead, poultry and the food chain: 3 case studies