"Recipe for Disaster - Just Add Water"
Bruce Brown, Environmental Health and Safety
University of Texas Health Science Center
Houston, Texas
Contents: Emergency Response - Hazard Analysis - Risk Assessment - Waste Disposal
Hi. My name is Bruce Brown and I work in Environmental Health & Safety at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dr. Brad Goodwin has previously explained the event of Tropical Storm Allison and how that effected our institution. I would like to present to you how Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) responded to this emergency inclusive of the critical interaction that occurred between EH&S and the Center for Laboratory Animal Management and Care (CLAMC).
Emergency Response Priorities
• Protect human life and health
– Self preservation
– Others (injured)
• Protect the natural environment
• Minimize property damage
• Promote prompt recoveryAn emergency responder’s priorities are clear and are in this order: protect human life starting with yourself and then with others because you cannot save others if you enter the hot zone and fall flat on your face as you are overcome by a hazardous material. Second priority is to protect the natural environment which may include blocking off storm drains and diking spills. Third is minimizing property damage or in other words, protect the building. Last is to promote a prompt recovery. This last aspect is often overlooked and as you have heard in our case recovery efforts will be measured in terms of years.
Where to Start?
• Hazard analysis
– Identify the hazards that can potentially harm or kill the responder
• Risk Assessment
– Decide how to best manage the hazards presentAn emergency responder begins with a hazard analysis. Trying to identify all of the potential hazards that can hurt or potentially kill the responder. Once all of those hazards have been identified, the responder decides how to best mitigate the hazards. We refer to this as the risk assessment.
As you can see, we had a few hazards to consider and assess. We also had some time to do this as they pumped the water out of the building. This is a view of the loading dock. It took approximately 4 days to pump the water out of the basement.
• Air quality
– Oxygen, CO, VOCS (volatile organic compounds), LEL (lower explosive limit)
• Chemicals
– Laboratories, morgue, hazardous waste storage facility
• Biological
– Sanitary sewer, biowaste storage facility, animals, BSL-3 vivarium, cadaversNow I would like to take you through the list of hazards we identified in the basement of the Medical School. We were concerned about the quality of the air in the basement, whether there was enough oxygen to support life, if there was an accumulation of carbon monoxide from all of the heavy machinery running in the area along with the lack of ventilation, the presences of volatile organic compounds and if we had enough vapors in the air of flammable chemicals to reach the lower explosive limit.
We also knew we had a number of chemicals in the basement including chemicals from the laboratories, the embalming fluid from the morgue, and all of the chemicals collected and stored in our hazardous waste storage facility.
Biological hazards included the sump for the sanitary sewer backing up, the medical waste storage area in the basement, all of the animals in the basement especially the non-human primates and intentionally infected animals, the Mycobacterium tuberculosis lab and the unfixed cadavers in the morgue.• Electrical
–Shock
• Slips, Trips, and Falls
– Ceiling, debris
• Fire/Explosion
– Chemical, electrical, compressed gas
• Radiological
– Radioactive materials, CyclotronIntermittent emergency electrical power was provided and we knew some of the items in the basement were on emergency back up power. In fact, we actually found a freezer on during one trip to the basement.
There was a serious concern about tripping and falling over all of the debris that had been tossed around by the force of the water, plus all of the ceiling tiles had collapsed.
With the mixture of flammable chemicals and electricity a potential existed for an explosion. We also had very large compressed gas cylinders that were for the NMR and MRI units. After contacting the manufacturer in Germany they warned us of the potential of these cylinders to form an ice cap around the pressure relief vent and explode.
For those of you who have not heard of a cyclotron, it is specialized machine that produces radioactive materials. It was actually housed in its own building attached to the Medical school and contained a number of different radioactive sources to be concerned about.
• Hazards present
• Weather
• Time pressures
• Magnitude of hazardous operations
• Accessibility
• MediaNow having a list of the numerous potential hazards, we had to assess how to best manage those risks. As a part of this risk assessment, we also a number of other things to consider including the weather. We did not know if it was going to start raining again. There were tremendous time pressures to remove all of the animal and cadavers plus hazardous materials before we could get additional response personnel in the basement to help with the recovery. Most people also did not understand the magnitude of the hazardous operations. They just thought we could just run down stairs wave our magic safety wand and all of our work would be complete. 100,000 square feet of basement is a lot of area to clean up in the dark. Accessibility was also difficult in that we had to get large refrigerated trucks down to the loading dock to store the waste. And oh yeah, by the way, while your doing all of that could you please deal with the media.
To Do List
• Test water
• Regulatory notifications
• Pump out the water
• Assess the situation
• Remove all hazardous materials
– Animals, Cadavers, Chemicals, Sharps, Radioactive materials
• Waste disposal
• DecontaminationSo after our risk assessment, our to do list look something like this.
Test the water for chemicals, biologicals, and radiation, Notify the appropriate regulatory agencies including the Bureau of Radiation Control, the publicly owned water treatment works, and the City of Houston Health Department. Pump out all 10 million gallons of water, then enter the basement and assess the situation from the inside. Removal of all of the hazardous materials and properly dispose of them. Finally, decontaminate any items that were to be kept and anything that could not be immediately removed from the building such as all of the surfaces (floors, walls, ceilings, benchtops, etc.)
Working Condition Concerns
• Temperature
• Vectors
• Lighting
• Sprains / Strains
• Sharps
• Communication
• Biohazards (prophylaxis administered)
• Possible psychological impactsWhile performing all of this work, there was a number of concerns as you can imagine. June in Houston, Texas is rather hot and humid with lots of mosquitoes. Most days were around 100 F and 90% relative humidity. So wearing all of the necessary protective equipment in that kind of heat is incredibly difficult and potentially dangerous. Without any power we had to bring our own source of light with us into the basement in the form of a flashlight and a miners light attached to the hardhat. Sprains and strains were a significant concern in removing all of the water logged items out of the basement. Being a biomedical research institution, we work with a number of needles and sharps. We had to take extra precaution to avoid injury from these agents. Communication was difficult as it is hard to talk through a full face respirator and having the ability to communicate with folks on the outside in case something happened on the inside. I have previously mentioned the list of potential biohazards. We enlisted our Employee Health group to update or provide any vaccines such as tetanus and they provided antibiotics as preventative measures. The Employee Assistance Program was also available to provide mental health resources as a number of people were severely impacted by the event, both at work and home.
Initial Entry
• Level A
– fully encapsulated suit
• Self contained breathing apparatus (SCBA)
• Intrinsically safe monitoring equipment
• Lights
• KeysInitial entry into an unknown emergency response situation should be performed in level A attire. This includes a fully encapsulated vapor tight suit while wearing a self contained breathing apparatus.
Monitors that are intrinsically safe to not potentially spark an explosion were used to monitor the air so we could down grade to a lower level of protection. We also carried lights and keys to unlock doors.
Once inside the basement this is essentially what we found. Complete destruction of the facility.
Working Ensemble
• Level C
– Tyvek suit with booties and hood, full-face respirator with combination HEPA, OV cartridges, double chemical resistant gloves, steel toe and shank rubber boots, hard hatAfter determining there was sufficient oxygen and there was not an explosive atmosphere, we down graded our personal protective equipment attire to level C which included a tyvek suit, full face respirator, double gloves, steel toe and shank rubber boots, and a hard hat.
Critical Animal Care Assistance
• Location and contents of animal suites
• Instructions on opening cages
• Inventory
• Support functions
• Veterinary technical expertise
• Much, much moreThere was some very vital interaction that occurred between Environmental Health & Safety and Animal Care staff. The staff members and veterinarians provided assistance on the location and contents of each animal suite. They recreated from memory an inventory of each room. In order to remove the animals, they trained us on how to open the cages without destroying them. They also functioned as a support crew doing everything from providing refreshments to checking on our health.
The assistance provided by Animal Care proved to be invaluable in sustaining the effort during the long, hot days.
This picture shows how much chemical waste was brought out of the basement before it was shipped
off to a disposal company.
Waste Disposal
Here are the total amounts and costs for waste disposal broken down by type of waste.
• Biological (7,420 lbs) = $9,506
• Radioactive (325 µCi) = $13,054
• Chemical (11,868 lbs) = $22,144
• Total = $44,704
Decontamination
• Solid nonporous material, ex – stainless steel
• Animal cages, surgical equipment, water bottles, plastic carts
• 20% sodium hypochlorite followed by copious rinse
• Facility ‘demucked’, pressure washed, and fogged with 2% chlorine dioxideAll of the items that were to be kept from the basement such as cages and water bottles needed to be decontaminated upon removal from the basement. The Animal Care staff jumped right in and performed most of these type activities. The items were rinsed off and then sprayed with a concentrated bleach solution followed by a good rinse with copious amounts of water. The actual basement received the same treatment with a pressure washer plus the added step of being fogged with a biocide.
Summary
• Protect human life, the natural environment, property, and promote prompt recovery
• Perform hazard analysis and risk assessment
• Animal Care / Environmental Health & Safety coordination criticalWe followed the priorities of emergency responders. We listed our hazards and then assessed how to best manage those risks. And most importantly, was the critical interaction that occurred between EH&S and Animal Care.
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