Recently released by the Government was guidance for the decontamination of buildings, infrastructure and open environment exposed to Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear (CBRN) materials.
It’s from the ‘civil contingencies’ part of the Cabinet Office, which stresses that the guidance is part of sensible contingency planning and does not mean that there is an increased risk of terrorist attack using CBRN materials. An incident, whether deliberate or accidental (HazMat), involving chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear materials can potentially lead to the loss of life, contamination of the built and open environment, disruption of society and consequential damage to the UK economy. There has never been a deliberate CBRN attack in the UK; however, a number of HazMat incidents have occurred.
The owner or occupier will be expected to:
• co-operate with the local authority or other lead agency to fulfil their responsibility for co-ordinating the recovery phase;
• inform insurers and work with their appointed loss adjusters;
• be responsible for maintaining site security after responsibility has been relinquished by the police;
• be responsible for commissioning contractors to carry out detailed site evaluation (including further sampling) and subsequent decontamination of buildings, systems and contents, and removal of waste;
• be responsible for establishing that the building is safe for reoccupation by obtaining verification of the effectiveness of decontamination from the SCG, the Strategic Co-ordinating Group set up by the police (if necessary, ensuring that further decontamination work is carried out).
Limiting the spread of contamination, and managing decontamination of property will involve co-ordinated action by a range of organisations, directly or in support: police, fire and ambulance services, local authority and health and safety regulators Design and contingency planning for buildings should take into account the possible need for decontamination. Pre-planning will provide the starting point for the response to any particular incident. This planning should form part of a robust business continuity plan, and might include consideration of issues such as decontamination options and management of contaminated waste.
If a hazmat incident is accidental, the principle is that the polluter pays. But who will pay for a malicious attack? The document has this to say: “In the case of a deliberate CBRN attack, responsibility for meeting the costs would, in the first instance, fall to building owners or occupiers – as it would for dealing with other potentially serious incidents, such as fire or flooding. In the public sector, central and local government largely bear their own risk … owners and occupiers of commercial property should consider reserves or additional specialist insurance to provide cover in the event of a CBRN attack, having regard to the risk of their property being affected by contamination, regardless of its origin.” In other words, even if you do not rate highly the risk of such an attack on your premises, if a neighbour is a risk, an incident might affect you nearly as much. The authors admit that the guide is generic rather than try to answer the various potential situations. To download the 54-page document visit the Cabinet Office website.
The Emergency Planning College in north Yorkshire offers courses in resilience, covering CBRN and other emergencies and business continuity. Regular three-day courses for example cover public safety at festivals and mass gatherings; and, with the Football Licensing Authority, public safety at sports grounds and events. Visit epcollege.com
