TCNJ shooting report...

Caught22 is posting updates about the report of a shooting in Travers Hall at The College of New Jersey. An officer said everyone is all right. Developing...
Via the TCNJ Forum

New TCNJ Forum

I have been trying to bring Caught22.com back to life, especially the TCNJ Forum. I think it would be great to have an online bulletin board for The College of New Jersey, the school formerly known as Trenton State. (By the way, when they changed the name, they misspelled the name on a sign: "The College of New Jeresy")

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.

N.J. first to regulate chemical plant security

Here is a story I wrote back in December for a project about New Jersey's preparedness for an attack of chemical terrorism. Here is an information graphic I made prior to the mandate, which explains why a mandate like this took so long, and why it is such big news.

On Nov. 29, the governor's office announced that the New Jersey state government will mandate security requirements at private chemical plants.

It is the first order like it in the nation.

Bradley M. Campbell, the state's environmental protection commissioner, said companies that do not comply can be taken to court and assessed monetary penalties, the Associated Press reported.

"Gov. Codey's action makes it clear that domestic security measures are requirements, not voluntary measures," Campbell said, according to the Associated Press.

The plant security order came four years after Senator Jon S. Corzine, D-N.J., proposed the Chemical Security Act to regulate chemical plant security on a national level — in October of 2001. Until this order, the chemical industry had successfully lobbied against similar legislation.

New Jersey's chemical industry is not pleased.

"Here you have an industry that has been cooperating with the state and acting on our own," Elvin Montero, a spokesman for the Chemistry Council of New Jersey, said according to the Associated Press. "Prior to 9/11, we were working on this, and since then we've spent over $100 million doing it. They are ending that spirit of cooperation by mandating things."

Evan Gottesman, legislative assistant to Corzine who has worked on federal chemical security legislation, said in an e-mail on Nov. 10 that federal chemical plant security legislation has recently gained political support and momentum. "The importance and urgency of this issue has been recognized by national security experts, members of Congress from both parties, and by the Administration," he said.

However, the four year delay has left Americans at risk. "Delays in enacting chemical security legislation are indeed dangerous," Gottesman said. "Unsecured toxic chemicals are the equivalent of prepositioned weapons of mass destruction which could be used by terrorists to kill tens of thousands of Americans."

Gottesman said, "The main problem now is that, while there are many facilities that have taken steps, in the absence of federal legislation, there is no way to require facilities to act, or even a way to know the full extent of the problem." New Jersey is the first state in the United States to no longer have this problem.

Still, more problems remain. The New York Times ran a story in May where a team of reporters wandered into a chemical plant without being stopped.

Mike Kelly wrote for The Bergen County Record on Oct. 1, "In the wake of London's subway bombing, we hear much about bomb-sniffing dogs in New York's subways, rapid-response teams at the U.S. Capitol, and all manner of high-tech gadgetry, costing millions. But in another sense, America's war on terror is being fought by cops in small towns like Kearny on the western edge of Hudson County."

A cop there, he reported, said, "It's basically a shell game we play" and "You can't cover all the bases all the time."

Another cop told him that they should have more officers patrolling the Kuehne Chemical Plant, but homeland security funding ran out. Kelly reported, "Even though security throughout America was upgraded after the London attacks, no extra Kearny cops were assigned to guard Kuehne. The town has no extra money." To read about more problems with homeland security funding, click here.

Kelly also quoted Kuehne's risk management plan, which was filed with the federal government in 1999. It described a worst-case scenario, which explains why so many are concerned about attacks of chemical terrorism: "Fully loaded railroad tank car releases all its chlorine within 10 minutes. The resulting cloud of chlorine vapor would be immediately dangerous to both life and health for a distance exceeding 14 miles. The total population within this radius is approximately 12 million."

"Terrorists could kill more than a million people through an attack on any of seven New Jersey chemical plants, according to a new congressional study that found deadly threats from lax security in general at chemical facilities across the country," The Star-Ledger reported on July 6.

Some say the disaster planning for an attack on a chemical plant is adequate. When there was a harmless chlorine gas leak at a chemical plant in Kearny at the end of September, the plant workers and local health officials put their disaster plan into action.

Neal Buccino, spokesman for the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, said, according to The Jersey Journal, "You can look at this as a chance to practice the local emergency action plan and it went well."

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Sources:
The Associated Press, Wayne Parry, "NJ, chemical plants tussle over security requirements," November 29, 2005.

The Jersey Journal, Michaelangelo Conte, "Went to Disaster Plan," October 1, 2005.

The Record (Bergen County, N.J.), Mike Kelly, "One town's war on terror," July 17, 2005.

The New York Times, David Kocieniewski, "Facing the City, Potential Targets Rely on a Patchwork of Security," May 7, 2005.

The Star-Ledger, Robert Cohen and J. Scott Orr, "113 chemical plants (7 in N.J.) deemed deadliest if attacked," July 6, 2005.

The Pete and Elda's Challenge

Eight guys, including myself, went to Pete and Elda's Bar in Neptune, N.J. over our winter break from The College of New Jersey. We wanted to see if we were up to the Pete and Elda's Challenge: Win a free T-shirt if you can eat, by yourself, one extra, extra large pie!

We piled into an SUV and drove from our base in Toms River, the home of one guy's beautiful and generous family, to the bar in Neptune, about a half hour away. It was chilly outside on that January 6, 2006, evening, but the air was refreshing and kind of gnarly.

We got settled inside around 5:46 p.m. The mingling scents of fresh thin crust pizzas, alcoholic beverages and tobacco products heightened our sense of anticipation.

Some of us had been to Pete and Elda's before, and even completed the challenge, but for the rest of us this was our first time. I think I can safely say that we were all excited, but a little nervous, too.

What if I can't perform? Will that make me less of a man? If I can't finish the job, will they still respect me in the morning? Will I respect myself?

At some point, though, you have to stop thinking about it and just do it. And so, bite by bite, we began to devour our scrumptious pizza pies, washing them down with pitchers of Coke, Sprite, and ice water with five lemon slices.
It was not easy. Many of us struggled toward the end, and one guy even helped another by finishing a piece. This was, of course, in violation of the rules of the challenge.

As we were finishing, Scott said, "I taste blood." Some of the guys dabbed the roofs of their mouths with napkins and came up with red splotches. "The top of my mouth was bleeding," Tyler explained. The constant biting of the crispy crust, and the hot cheese and sauce had taken its toll. A little bit of blood the first time, I imagine, is normal.

The pizza, drinks, tip, and T-shirt came to $20 per person. We had stuffed ourselves to new and certainly unhealthy levels. We slurped icy drinks from Wawa after. We represented cities from all around the state that night: Whippany, Jersey City, East Rutherford, Jackson, Toms River, Point Pleasant, Scotch Plains and Medford, all sharing a taste of the good life in New Jersey.