Chemical emergency response: providing advice or just information?

Many emergency response providers don’t offer advice - but advice is fundamental to the quality of support a caller receives at a live incident. 

46% of organisations don’t know if their emergency response provision provides advice.

Telephone emergency response is a tool that maintains regulatory compliance and can be integrated into wider organisational plans, such as risk management. With so many telephone emergency response providers offering similar features, including 24/7 availability, multilingual service and local numbers, choosing the right one can be difficult.

A poll carried out by Ricardo, found that 46% of organisations don’t know if their emergency response provider offers advice, but it can make a big difference to the level of service you receive.

The difference between information and advice

What is information?

Telephone emergency responders who provide only information will typically gather the facts of an incident and provide the caller at the scene with information from product documentation and safety data sheets. This is often information the caller already has access to.

Emergency responders providing just information may have only generic knowledge of chemicals and be able to give limited information to the caller, which may not be in the context of the incident.  

What is advice?

For an emergency responder to provide advice, they must understand the factual information the caller provides – information from product documentation and chemical databases, and details specific to the incident, obtained by asking questions that allow the caller to explain the full situation. The emergency responder then collates the relevant information and relays tailored advice in plain language, so that actions may be taken to manage the situation quickly and safely.

James Smith, Senior Emergency Responder with Ricardo, says: “Our emergency response team have a number of resources available to them that allow rapid access to product information, as well as degree level qualifications in chemistry. Our experienced responders use the information gathered and their chemical knowledge to explain to the caller how these hazards convert to risks.

They will also look at what risks could occur as the incident evolves: for example, one leaking product may be flammable and the other corrosive, what if they mix, does this add new hazards? Where are the products flowing? Does this take them closer to an ignition source?

Extensive training of this thought process with our team is key to the Ricardo responders providing advice to support all of our callers.

How do you know if an emergency response service gives advice?

If you want to find out if an emergency response service can provide advice, and not just information, there are some questions you should be asking them.

1. Are their emergency responders trained chemists and do they have experience in handling incident calls? 

To provide advice, emergency responders should be knowledgeable in chemicals and have tactical response experience which enables them to support callers at the scene of an incident. A combination of knowledge and experience will enable them to tailor the advice depending on the caller’s understanding of chemicals, making the advice actionable.

Ricardo’s emergency responders’ advice is underpinned by insurance, demonstrating the quality of the advice being provided and the high level of expertise they uphold. 

2. Do their emergency responders ask questions to understand the full scope of the incident?

The quality of advice will always be linked to how well a responder understands the incident. Michele Twilley, a certified industrial hygienist with AIHA and responsible for the organisation’s Emergency Response Planning Guidelines, explains what questions a telephone emergency responder should be asking the caller: “They should be trying to address where the spill occurred? What was released? How much was released and the source of the release?”

The emergency responder will also want to know how stable the chemical is, and whether it is possible for the hazardous product or material to change and cause further harm. Michelle explains: “They need to know what the physical state of the hazardous material is? Is it liquid, multi-phase, gas, vapour, solid? Is the release affected by weather? Are you dealing with a spill in the home, one in a retail establishment, in a chemical plant or refinery, on a road or railway, or near a waterway? All of these have unique considerations. 

“Emergency responders should also be asking, When did the spill occur? Where is it heading? Who is impacted? Was there a triggering event?  Earthquake, flooding, fire, explosion, vehicle accident, terrorism, etc. Are there physical safety considerations? Who is responding to the spill? The permutations are endless.”

Ricardo's emergency responders understand the importance of efficiently gathering all of the relevant data. Starting with questions that encourage the caller to provide a description of the overall incident, before confirming specific details required to formulate the best response.

James adds: “We receive a variety of different callers who dial a chemical emergency advice line.” He added, “Aside from asking the questions Michele outlines above, we also ask questions to understand the competency of the caller to understand to what extent they can deal with the incident, whether they have equipment or PPE available or if we need to be involved in contacting emergency services or remediation organisations.”

Without asking questions to understand the full scope of an incident, an emergency responder is unable to provide advice, and is therefore unable to fully support a caller in effectively managing risk or mitigating the escalation of a chemical release into the environment. 

3. Does the emergency responder provide advice that goes beyond the initial stage of response?

To protect the environment following a chemical incident, an emergency responder must have a strong knowledge of chemicals to advise callers on how to effectively clean up. Michele explains: “After a spill response, we have to consider the impact to air, surface water, sediments, groundwater and soil. Emergency responders need an understanding of the fate and transport characteristics of the chemical that was released to ensure that the clean-up is completed to acceptable levels.”  

High quality support from a robust telephone emergency response service providing advice allows operations to continue, and minimises disruption to the supply chain mitigating reputational damage from impacted stakeholders.

Why you should choose Ricardo as your telephone emergency response partner

1. We put your needs first: we build partnerships with our customers by working to understand your needs and create a bespoke service that supports your organisational requirements, such as global compliance, risk management and sustainability obligations.
2. We are reliable: an experienced and trusted telephone emergency response partner, available at all times to provide advice to callers at an incident. Our emergency responders are qualified chemists with tactical awareness and ‘real-life incident intervention’ experience, which enables them to support callers to safely intervene at the scene of an incident.
3. We provide advice: your emergency response partner can reduce your financial and operational risk throughout the supply chain by mitigating the impact of incidents before they escalate, causing disruption throughout the supply chain and impacting your assets and reputation. Our emergency responders provide advice that is proportionate to the incident, to reduce over-responding that could result in unnecessary costs.

Our service is available 24/7/365 through a network of international telephone numbers and local language speakers, so it looks and feels like a local service. Our team take into consideration your organisation’s needs, as well as any global regulations, to build a service that will meet your requirements, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. 

Learn more about our solutions for the chemical industry

• 24/7/365 emergency response
• Regulatory compliance 
• Horizon scanning and compliance reporting

Or, contact our team of experts today to discuss your requirements.