N.J. health personnel prepare for chemical terrorism, an interview with Algernon Ward

This is another story from December. I'm trying to get some interesting content on here, and I think this is one worth sharing.

New Jersey's preparedness for an attack of chemical terrorism has been "steadily improving" since the anthrax mailings in 2001, but "we've still got a ways to go," the state's assistant chemical terrorism coordinator said in an interview on Dec. 1.

The biggest improvement to the chemical terrorism preparedness infrastructure has come about only recently.

At the beginning of November, over 200 people representing local health departments, boards of education, emergency medical squads, hospitals and fire departments attended clinics held around New Jersey to coordinate response plans in the event of an act of chemical terrorism.

The conference, called "Chemical Terrorism: A Clinical and Public Health Response," had the stated objective of instructing health officials and technical experts on how to collect, package, label and ship clinical specimens to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention for emergency analysis.

Algernon Ward, the assistant chemical terrorism coordinator for the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services who organized the clinics, said the conference was also intended "get the people who would have to act in the same room together."

The goal, Ward said, was to "get us all on the same page" and put together a comprehensive response plan.

"Up until now everyone was doing their own thing," he said. "There are a lot of players on the field. They need to be on the same team and playing from the same playbook."

Ward said that, as far as he knows, this was the first statewide conference of this nature in the nation.

"It's been a mountain of work," he said, motioning to a long shelf stuffed with thick binders — binders with titles like "The Medical NBC Battlebook," "Standardized Analytical Methods for Use During Homeland Security Events" and "Chemical Terrorism Chemical Agents Reference Data."

He added, "I've got another mountain of information I can't even fit in my little cubicle."

Those who attended the conference were asked to fill out evaluation forms at the end. A sampling of the forms showed the response to be positive. One participant said that, as a result of the conference, the institution they were representing would establish "policies within the labs for the handling of specimens."

One said that the instruction on packaging samples was particularly effective.

Another said they planned to establish a "Terrorism response plan (chemical)" as a result of the conference.

Some of the materials distributed at the conference were "Hospital Emergency Departments: A Planning Guide for the Management of Contaminated Patients" and "Managing Hazardous Materials Incidents: Medical Management Guidelines for Acute Chemical Exposures."

"Medical Management Guidelines" gives medical personnel easy access to an index of toxic chemicals and the risk each chemical poses in secondary exposure.

This was important, Ward said, because health workers are sometimes affected if they don't handle the chemicals and patients properly. When nerve gas was released on a subway in Japan in 1995, the hospital staff did not take the necessary precautions and ended up "joining the victims," he said.

Ward said the conference was run using free services that were available to the state. "I'm proud of the fact that we were able to do it with a zero budget," he said.

In fact, when Ward asked for $40 to buy bags so the attendees would have something to carry the materials, he was turned down. He ended up using bags from the tourist bureau, he said.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention did provide money for printing.

Despite the no frills approach, attendance at the conference was better than expected. As a result, there were not enough of the printed materials to go around, Ward said. He is presently working on a way to get the information to those people who did not receive them.

Although this conference was run with no budget, the state has been spending money to prepare for an attack of chemical terrorism, Ward said.

"Preparation, equipment and expertise is expensive," he said, and the state government has been "continually making an investment."

Some of the funding to prepare for an act of chemical terrorism has gone to the NJDHSS testing lab. Ward said the lab was originally designed to analyze lakes, streams and drinking water, but is now in the realm of the military.

The lab recently obtained two mass spectrometers costing $500,000 total to identify harmful chemical agents. The lab is outfitted with sensitive scales and refrigerators to store urine samples at negative 71 degrees Celsius and blood at negative 20. There are robots, electric resistant tiles and fingerprint identification security measures. The NJDHSS is also preparing to move the environmental and chemical lab to a new location.

The CDC has also provided equipment and assistance, he said.

However, a lack of funding is keeping the state from taking some desired steps. Ward said that state policymakers are presently discussing the importance of bio-monitoring studies and whether the state can fund the great expense of running a bio-monitoring program. To read more about problems with homeland security funding, click here.

Ward said the federal government is not funding bio-monitoring studies. The studies would provide pertinent data for health experts, he said, by establishing what chemicals people have been exposed to. "There is a lot of wisdom in doing these studies," Ward said.

He said he fears that over time interest in chemical terrorism preparedness will wane. "When it's no longer a hot topic, that's when they'll start to cut back on our capabilities," he said, "and that's when we'll be vulnerable."

He added, though, that the state is "not invulnerable" and that "we're not where we want to be yet."

Ward said his motto is, "Don't be scared, be prepared." That is how he likes to end his talks, he said, and it is a message he has emblazoned across informational posters.