Guidelines for Hazardous Materials Response, Planning and Prevention/Mitigation Training

The Guidelines are designed to be used as a working reference manual by public sector managers of hazardous materials training. It is organized and indexed to facilitate user cross-referencing of sections and content. Most material addresses the content of courses and the tools to be used in self-assessment of courses. However, course content constitutes only one factor in the training equation that determines the competency of public sector employees involved in hazardous materials planning and response. Therefore, other HMEP curriculum support programs provide additional information and guidance for the public sector training management responsibilities described above. The Guidelines is organized into four components:

• Introduction
• Hazardous Materials Incident Planning Curriculum Guidelines
• Hazardous Materials Incident Prevention/Mitigation Curriculum Guidelines
• Hazardous Materials/WMD Incident Response Curriculum Guidelines

Hazardous Materials Incident Response Training Modules

PHMSA has partnered with the Department of Homeland Security's National Fire Academy to provide Hazardous Materials Incident Response training modules for first responders and non-responders. The training modules outline the competencies defined in Chapters 4 and 5 of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 472 guidance "Competency of Responders to HazMat/WMD Incidents". The training modules are available at no cost. The training modules may serve as either a component of initial training or as a stand-alone annual refresher training to meet OSHA and your jurisdiction's Awareness and Operations refresher training requirements. Upon completion of each unit, the student will receive a certificate of completion and test score record, which can be submitted into the student's training records system or to their training manager for records credit.

The training modules are available at https://dotnfa.vividlms.com.

Awareness Units (6)

• Introduction
• Anatomy of a Hazardous Materials Response
• Hazardous Materials Transportation Classifications & Hazards
• Using the USDOT Emergency Response Guidebook
• Recognizing & Identifying Hazardous Materials
• Protective Actions

Operations Units (12)

• Responsibilities of the First Responder at the Operations Level
• Non-Bulk Containers
• Toxicology and Physical Hazards
• Rail and Intermodal Containers
• Physical and Chemical Properties of Hazardous Materials
• Fixed Bulk Storage Containers and Pipelines
• Collecting and Interpreting Hazard and Response Information
• Decontamination
• Introduction to Containers
• Personal Protective Equipment
• Highway Containers
• Evaluating the Response