September is Emergency Preparedness Month. To mark this event, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) announces the new NIOSH Emergency Preparedness and Response Directory web page.
The page will help our stakeholders find resources faster and easier for preventing injury and illness among responders in the line of duty. The web page is coordinated by the Emergency Preparedness and Response Office (EPRO) in the NIOSH Director’s Office. EPRO has three main goals: (1) to be the Institute’s focal point for technical expertise on our area in emergency preparedness and response (protecting emergency responders), (2) to help with rapid and specific on-site support, and (3) to advance research into emergency preparedness and response to better safeguard responder safety and health in the line of duty, and promote collaborations that enhance current efforts.
This work has included support and new knowledge for responder safety and health associated with responses to Gulf Coast hurricanes, Deepwater Horizon response, Southeast Asia tsunami recovery assistance, anthrax and ricin incident responses, BioWatch and biohazard detection system alarms, and response supporting U.S. Border security. Through these efforts, EPRO supports NIOSH’s mission and expertise in responder safety and health.
EPRO is coordinating NIOSH participation, specific to NIOSH’s mission of advice and guidance for protecting health care workers and responders from job-related risks, as part of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) response to the Ebola outbreak in five African countries. NIOSH’s activities include the following:
- Helping occupational groups select and use personal protective equipment and other protective measures.
- Reviewing and clearing
