Abstract
Chemical incidents, whether deliberate or accidental, have the potential to cause widespread harm to human and environmental health. Whilst incident prevention is desirable in an increasingly industrialised society, accidents can and do happen so a well-structured multi-agency approach to incident response is essential. The project has focussed on the role of public health, since limited experience combined with the lack of standard procedures for managing incidents has resulted in problems being dealt with on an ad hoc basis from a public health perspective. A framework for incident management is proposed and tools and guidance to support and facilitate the public health response to a chemical incident presented, including a scale to rapidly assess and communicate the potential health impact of an incident. Public health practitioners have welcomed this guidance, which has been demonstrated to be both functional and effective. In protecting human health it is imperative that pollution streams are not diverted to the environment and from one environmental medium to another. In the past soil was frequently used as a sink for contaminants and until recently has not been granted the same level of protection as air or water. Land contamination presents an interesting challenge since establishing a relationship between soil contamination and adverse health effects can be both complex and expensive. As a result, resources specifically for managing land contamination incidents have been developed. Although this project has focussed on the needs of public health practitioners, the generic framework is available for other agencies involved in incident response to use and refine to suit their respective needs. The advantages of all agencies using the same basic framework include improved communication, minimised use of jargon, better understanding of roles and responsibilities and ultimately a more coherent and effective response.