Emergency Responders

Emres

Emergency response and recovery workers need to be aware of all the potential hazards they might face while supporting different types of responses. It is essential for emergency responders to have access to training and information that provides basic and advanced knowledge associated to the events they will be working on. Preparation should be provided through all emergency stages, pre-event, during the event and post-event. Pre-event preparedness activities should include training, access to readily available information, field assessments, and equipment availability. Safety management information should be provided to minimize potential deaths, injuries, and illnesses in preparation to the event, although guidance should be given throughout the whole response. During the event and on the post-event phase, it is important for emergency response and recovery workers to attend and clean up the hazards in a timely and secure manner, protecting their health in first place, in this phase the correct use of PPE and the recognition of hazardous environments plays an important role. Given the importance of this information for emergency response and recovery workers, this topic page provides information on safety management, the Ryan White act, bloodborne infectious diseases, use of personal protective equipment and resources for traumatic incident stress.