Chemical incidents can affect communities far away from the incident site, and do not respect national borders. An accurate and precise assessment of human health risk is a cornerstone of an effective response strategy and prevention policy. European harmonisation of exposure-response guidelines is ongoing. To facilitate cross-border cooperation in chemical incident management, CERACI will contribute to the interoperability of exposure assessment guidelines, tools and practices.

• Objectives of the project
• Literature review and network of experts
• Web-based survey
• Workshops
• Relevant information and documentation
• Contact us

CERACI (Cross-border Exposure characterisation for Risk Assessment in Chemical Incidents) aims to strengthen the public health risk assessment for the acute phase of chemical incidents by improving exposure assessment. The outcome will contribute to improving planning, preparedness and response capabilities and enhance transnational cooperation and interoperability of organisations involved in health risk assessment.

• Identifying and describing the organisation of environmental modelling and monitoring for health risk assessment during acute chemical incidents in EU Member States.
• Investigating which Member States have organised collaboration and interoperability on environmental modelling and monitoring for health risk assessment nationally and across national borders.
• Identifying and developing best practices for environmental modelling and monitoring for health risk assessment during acute chemical incidents, both technical and organisational.
• Determining if harmonisation and collaboration in this field has the potential to improve EU response capabilities and capacities to respond to acute chemical health threats.

A review of targeted literature sources has led to a preliminary understanding of exposure assessment capability, capacity and organisation during the acute phase of chemical incidents. The review has broadly identified key organisations and agencies across Member States involved in exposure assessment and the health risk characterisation processes during chemical incidents. A range of EU initiatives, arrangements and cross-border agreements are highlighted in the review, providing suitable reference material to be expanded within subsequent CERACI tasks. The results of the review form the basis for the web-based survey.

A paper discussing this information gathering phase of the project has been published in the Chemical Hazards and Poisons Report from the Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Health Protection Agency: CHaPR issue 20 - CERACI (330Kb)

An initial contact network of experts has been created and will be expanded throughout the project.

Building on the literature review, a web-based survey was conducted in 2011 to identify exposure assessment capabilities and best practices for chemical incident response in Member States. Experts from 26 Member States completed the survey. Some examples of our findings are listed below.

Organisation of (international) collaboration

All countries have been identified as having institutions supervising environmental monitoring and public health exposure characterisation in case of a major chemical incident. International cooperation agreements exist at national level.

Best practices:

• Clearly specified scope of each institution’s responsibilities in exposure assessment
• Official protocols and procedures on responsibilities and cooperation
• Effective information exchange
• Regular (international) trainings, conferences, meetings – raising awareness of neighbouring country emergency response capabilities and networking

Field monitoring

Environmental monitoring is usually carried out during and after an incident within the emergency exclusionary zone and off site for assessing public exposure.

Best practices:

• Repeated monitoring, also shelter areas and other areas relevant to human exposure, especially sensitive populations
• Specialist, chemically trained first responders in fire and ambulance services
• Standardisation of reference values for risk assessment
• Mobile field laboratories for both domestic and cross-border use

Laboratory network and modelling

Almost all countries have a national laboratory network. Dispersion models andGISare used by different organisations.

Best practices:

• An interdisciplinary procedure for sampling, detection, identification and monitoring
• Compatible dispersion models and GIS are used by risk assessors on both sides of the border

Information from the survey is currently being used to design workshops. These will be conducted in Spring 2012 to verify and test best practices for exposure characterisation in cross-border chemical incidents. Interested professionals from Member States are invited to contribute to these workshops. Participants will be experts in exposure characterisation and public health risk assessment of chemical incidents with a sound knowledge of national and international arrangements for dealing with these incidents. They will also have a sound knowledge of the co-ordination arrangements between national organisations and agencies that would be involved.

• CERACI poster for the HPA conference Health Protection 2011 (283Kb)
• CERACI flyer (265Kb) 
• A list of references which we have found useful: 
  CERACI - selected literature references (146Kb)
• WHO Human Health Risk Assessment Toolkit - Chemical Hazards: http://www.who.int/ipcs/methods/harmonization/areas/ra_toolkit/en/index.html
• Public Health Response to Chemical Incidents Emergencies Toolkit (CIE Toolkit): http://www.hpa.org.uk/ProductsServices/ChemicalsPoisons/InternationalActivities/CIEToolkit/
• EU website Civil Protection:
  http://ec.europa.eu/echo/civil_protection/civil/index.htm
• WHO Manual - The Public Health Management of Chemical Incidents:
  http://www.who.int/environmental_health_emergencies/publications/Manual_Chemical_Incidents/en/

If you have any questions, please contact us at ceraci@rivm.nl.