A place for the latest news, information and discussion regarding disasters, terrorism, emerging infectious diseases, disaster response, mitigation and preparedness!
Intro: By now I’m sure you’ve heard that someone with a possible bomb has taken over Hillary’s campaign office in Hew Hampshire. Reports are conflicted if 1 or both the hostages have been released. The suspect is being “talked down.” Meanwhile, we turn to events in Chicago:
AFP, 11/30/07: An Amtrak passenger train smashed into a freight train in Chicago Friday seriously injuring five people, officials said.
Among the injured were the train engineer and other train employees, fire department spokesman Larry Langford told CNN. Two were in critical condition.
While some of the 150 or so passengers suffered bruises and scrapes, most escaped injury because the passenger car remained upright on the track, he said.
“The vast majority of people are in good shape, Langford said.
“We have about 100 passengers who will be checked out. We have them categorized as walking wounded.”
The engine of the passenger train was knocked off its track and fell on top of the back of the freight train.
Local television stations showed footage of firefighters helping passengers off the train and walking down the track and through a field.
NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs Washington, DC 20207
November 28, 2007
Release #08-104 CPSC Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: (301) 504-7908
CPSC Warns: Avoid Hazards Related to Holiday Decorating
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Holiday decorations, like candles and Christmas trees, add to the festive mood of the season; but when decorations are not used properly, they can result in fires, injuries and death. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is urging families to keep safety in mind when stringing holiday lights, purchasing Christmas trees, and lighting candles this holiday season.
CPSC estimates there are more than 14,000 candle-related fires each year, which result in about 170 deaths and $350 million in property loss. Dried-out Christmas trees are involved in about 200 fires annually, resulting in 10 deaths, and about $10 million in property damage. During November and December of each year, about 10,000 people are treated in hospital emergency rooms as a result of falls, cuts, shocks and burns related to holiday decorating.
“Consumers can keep holiday decorating traditions from becoming tragedies by following a few simple safety tips,” said Acting CPSC Chairman Nancy Nord. “Keep the holidays festive by creating a fire-safe home.”
To help prevent holiday-related incidents, CPSC is monitoring the marketplace and Internet for dangerous holiday lights and decorations. CPSC also continues to work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to identify and prevent unsafe holiday decorations from being distributed in the U.S.
Use the following safety tips when decorating this year:
Trees and Decorations:
When purchasing an artificial tree, look for the label “Fire Resistant.” Although this label does not mean the tree won’t catch fire, it does indicate the tree is more resistant to burning.
When purchasing a live tree, check for freshness. A fresh tree is green, needles are hard to pull from branches and do not break when bent between your fingers. The bottom of a fresh tree is sticky with resin, and when tapped on the ground, the tree should not lose many needles.
When setting up a tree at home, place it away from fireplaces and radiators. Because heated rooms dry out live trees rapidly, be sure to keep the stand filled with water. Place the tree out of the way of traffic, and do not block doorways.
Use only non-combustible or flame-resistant materials to trim a tree. Choose tinsel or artificial icicles of plastic or nonleaded metals. Leaded materials are hazardous if ingested by children.
In homes with small children, take special care to avoid sharp or breakable decorations, keep trimmings with small removable parts out of the reach of children who could swallow or inhale small pieces, and avoid trimmings that resemble candy or food that may tempt a child to eat them.
To avoid eye and skin irritation, wear gloves when decorating with spun glass “angel hair.”
To avoid lung irritation, follow container directions carefully while decorating with artificial snow sprays.
Lights:
Indoors or outside, use only lights that have been tested for safety by a nationally-recognized testing laboratory, such as UL or ETL/ITSNA. Use only newer lights that have thicker wiring and are required to have safety fuses to prevent the wires from overheating.
Check each set of lights, new or old, for broken or cracked sockets, frayed or bare wires, or loose connections. Throw out damaged sets.
If using an extension cord, make sure it is rated for the intended use.
Never use electric lights on a metallic tree. The tree can become charged with electricity from faulty lights, and a person touching a branch could be electrocuted.
When using lights outdoors, check labels to be sure they have been certified for outdoor use and only plug them into a ground-fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) protected receptacles or a portable GFCI.
Turn off all holiday lights when you go to bed or leave the house. The lights could short out and start a fire.
Candles:
Keep burning candles within sight.
Keep lighted candles away from items that can catch fire and burn easily, such as trees, other evergreens, decorations, curtains and furniture.
Always use non-flammable holders and keep away from children and pets.
Extinguish all candles before you go to bed, leave the room or leave the house.
Fireplaces:
Use care with “fire salts,” which produce colored flames when thrown on wood fires. They contain heavy metals that, if eaten, can cause intense gastrointestinal irritation and vomiting. Keep them away from children.
Do not burn wrapping paper or plastic items in the fireplace. These materials can ignite suddenly and burn intensely, resulting in a flash fire.
Place a screen around your fireplace to prevent sparks from igniting nearby flammable materials.
Get a free brochure with holiday decorating and toy safety tips at CPSC’s web site www.cpsc.gov (pdf)
Send the link for this page to a friend! The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction. Deaths, injuries and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $700 billion annually. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children. The CPSC’s work to ensure the safety of consumer products – such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals – contributed significantly to the 30 percent decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.
To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, call CPSC’s hotline at (800) 638-2772 or CPSC’s teletypewriter at (800) 638-8270, or visit CPSC’s web site at www.cpsc.gov/talk.html. To join a CPSC email subscription list, please go to www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.aspx. Consumers can obtain this release and recall information at CPSC’s Web site at www.cpsc.gov.
A strong earthquake struck the eastern Caribbean yesterday, damaging buildings on several islands and killing at least one person.
France’s overseas minister, Christian Estrosi, told French television that about 100 people on the French island of Martinique had required medical treatment for minor injuries.
A woman died at an old people’s home after suffering a heart attack during the quake, which measured 7.4 on the Richter scale, officials told the news agency AFP.
Six people were injured when they jumped through windows, including one who was in a serious condition, according to local officials.
Estrosi earlier said a British man had died from heart failure on the island during the quake, but local officials said this happened before it struck.
The epicentre of the earthquake was 14 miles (23km) north-west of Martinique’s coastline. More than 31,000 people on the island were without electricity last night, said local officials.
“My house shook so hard I thought it was going to fall,” said a caller to Radio Martinique. “The door, the windows, everything shook.”
Buildings also collapsed in Barbados where a woman was trampled as workers fled an office building in the capital, Bridgetown. She is in hospital in a stable condition. Another woman broke her leg while trying to rush out of her home, according to a police report.
The quake, which struck at 2pm EST (7pm GMT), also slightly damaged some homes and water pipes in St Lucia, St Vincent and other nearby islands.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii said the depth of the quake, at 90 miles, was too deep to generate a destructive tsunami.
“I wouldn’t expect major damage because the quake has some depth,” said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Centre in Golden, Colorado.
Scientists at the Seismic Research Unit at the University of the West Indies, in Trinidad, said the quake was the second strongest since the unit began monitoring the Caribbean tectonic plate in 1952.
COMMENT: If you are utility dependent, or know someone that is…..contact your local utility provider for information on their program. It could save a life….maybe yours.
Form will help during natural disasters
By Kathryn Kennedy
The Daily Reflector
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Greenville Utilities customers will notice an extra flyer with their usual billing packet this month. The pink sheet of paper is an effort to ensure people with special medical needs can be cared for in the case of emergency or evacuation.
The voluntary form requests contact, transportation and medical information for those with disabilities or health care needs so services can be provided for during crisis situations.
The forms are part of an effort under way since 2001 to help people with medical needs during countywide emergencies.
The need for specialized help was realized after Hurricane Floyd hammered the area in 1999. Many people with chronic and life-threatening conditions flocked to area hospitals when all they really needed was a site equipped with a generator to run life-supporting equipment, REAL Crisis Executive Director Mary Smith said.
This is the third mailing Pitt County Emergency Management has sent out since 2001, after launching the Disaster Planning Committee. There are currently fewer than 100 people with special medical needs in the database REAL Crisis maintains for the county. Beverley Wheeler, Emergency Management’s special medical needs coordinator, said they are only a fraction of people who require aid.
“We can not be adequately prepared unless these folks are registered,” Wheeler explained.
The mailing will reach over 60,000 people, she said, but only Greenville Utilities customers will receive them.
“We’re still not reaching those that are not on the line,” said Smith.
To cover that gap, the county is giving forms to water providers, city halls and “anywhere people go to pay bills” across Pitt County. They would send mailings more often, Wheeler said, but it’s very costly. The first mailing cost $1,600, and she said this round was “twice as much or more.” A grant from the Pitt County Health Department paid for the printing. Regardless of cost, Smith and Wheeler say the service is vital.
“We will know they are out there what the need is, where they’re located,” Wheeler stressed.
The agencies plan to send another mailing sometime next year. The REAL Crisis Center takes applications all year. To register, call during business hours at 758-4357.
IHT, 11/23/07: Firefighters in major U.S. cities are being trained to take on a new role as lookouts for terrorism, raising concerns of eroding their standing as trusted American icons and infringing on people’s privacy.Unlike police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel need no warrants to enter hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings each year, which puts them in position to spot behavior that could indicate terror activity or planning.
There are fears, however, that they could lose the faith of a skeptical public by becoming the eyes of the government, looking for suspicious items like building blueprints or bomb-making manuals or materials.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Americans have surrendered some privacy rights in an effort to prevent future strikes. The government monitors telephone calls and e-mails; people who fly have their belongings searched before boarding and are limited in what they can carry; and some people have trouble traveling because their names are similar to those on terrorist watch lists.
The American Civil Liberties Union says using firefighters to gather intelligence is another step in that direction. Mike German, a former FBI agent who now is national security policy counsel to the ACLU, said the concept is dangerously close to the Bush administration’s 2002 proposal to have workers with access to private homes, such as postal carriers and telephone repairmen, report suspicious behavior to the FBI.
“Americans universally abhorred that idea,” German said.
The Homeland Security Department is testing a program with the New York City fire department to share intelligence information so firefighters are better prepared when they respond to emergency calls. Homeland Security also trains the New York City fire service how to identify material or behavior that may indicate terrorist activities. If it is successful, the government intends to expand the program to other major metropolitan areas.
As part of the program, which started last December, Homeland Security gave secret clearances to nine New York fire chiefs, according to reports obtained by The Associated Press.
“They’re really doing technical inspections, and if perchance they find something like, you know, a bunch of RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) rounds in somebody’s basement, I think it’s a no-brainer,” said Jack Tomarchio, a senior official in Homeland Security’s intelligence division. “The police ought to know about that; the fire service ought to know about that; and potentially maybe somebody in the intelligence community should know about that.”
Even before the federal program began, New York firefighters and inspectors had been training to recognize materials and behavior the government identifies as “signs of planning and support for terrorism.”
When going to private residences, for example, they are told to be alert for a person who is hostile, uncooperative or expressing hate or discontent with the United States; unusual chemicals or other materials that seem out of place; ammunition, firearms or weapons boxes; surveillance equipment; still and video cameras; night-vision goggles; maps, photos, blueprints; police manuals, training manuals, flight manuals; and little or no furniture other than a bed or mattress.
The trial program with Homeland Security opens a clear information-sharing channel that did not exist before between the fire service and Homeland Security’s intelligence division.
“We’re there to help people, and by discovering these type of events, we’re helping people,” said New York City Fire Chief Salvatore Cassano. “There are many things that firefighters do that other law enforcement or other agents aren’t able to do.” He added, “A normal person that doesn’t have this training wouldn’t be looking for it.”
Cassano would not discuss specifics, but he said some terror-related information has been passed along to law enforcement since firefighters and officers began the training three years ago. “They’ve had some hits,” Cassano said. “It’s working.”
Separately, the fire services in Washington, the nation’s capital, Phoenix, Arizona, and Atlanta, Georgia, also have received terror-related intelligence training. Los Angeles County provides intelligence training so firefighters and inspectors can spot dangerous chemicals or other materials that could be used in bombs. And the fire service is also represented in at least 13 state and regional intelligence “fusion” centers across the country, where local, state and federal agencies share information about terror and other crimes.
In Washington, the fire service made its first foray into the intelligence world about two years ago, and now District of Columbia Fire/EMS has access to the same terrorism-related intelligence as the police, said Larry Schultz, an assistant fire chief in charge of operations.
D.C. firefighters and Emergency Medical Service providers are in 170,000 homes and businesses each year on routine calls, Schultz said.
“So we see things and observe things that may be useful to law enforcement,” he said. “We can walk into your house. We don’t need a search warrant.” If an ambulance team should show up at a house and see detailed maps of the district’s public transit system on the wall, that is something the EMS provider would pass along, he said.
“It’s the evolution of the fire service,” said Bob Khan, the fire chief in Phoenix, which has created an information-sharing arrangement between the fire service and law enforcement through terrorism liaison officers.
Because firefighters are on the front lines, the fire service needs to know about intelligence that could somehow affect what they do, said Gregory Cade, who as head of the U.S. Fire Administration is the nation’s top fire chief.
If, for example, Washington is hosting an International Monetary Fund meeting where there will be a large group of protesters and a truckload of gasoline has been stolen in Baltimore, firefighters need to know about intelligence from overseas that terrorists are trying to make explosive devices out of gasoline, Schultz said.
“Getting appropriate, actionable intelligence is important for a fire chief in deciding what to do and how to allocate resources and to know what’s going on,” Cade said. “No one is expecting us to be the analyst person who is sitting down, trying to connect all of this stuff together and determining, ‘Oh, yes, this looks like a terrorist plot.’”
But Cade said that until recently, there has been no mechanism for fire departments to share what they learn with law enforcement and intelligence analysts who could use it.
“If in the conduct of doing their jobs they come across evidence of a crime, of course they should report that to the police,” said the ACLU’s German. “But you don’t want them being intelligence agents.”
It’s of particular concern for communities already under law enforcement scrutiny. “Do we want them to fear the fire department as well as the police?” German asked.
The Detroit, Michigan, area, which has one of the largest concentrations of Arab-Americans in the country, does not conduct this type of intelligence training, nor does it plan to. “That’s a touchy area,” said Detroit’s deputy fire commissioner, Seth Doyle. Detroit firefighters receive training about hazardous materials, but not the details New York and D.C. firefighters are now on the lookout for.
A structural diagram of the Ambassador Bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, materials and literature to make a bomb and a bomb prototype are things firefighters should pay attention to, Doyle said. But the bridge diagram by itself might not be enough. “I don’t want our folks to be put in a position where they’re reporting something that creates a situation where there was really no real problem in the first place,” Doyle said.
The “Live-To-Be-1000″ Health Nazis are now targeting our sodium intake. Why not? They’re on a roll. Vegetables in McDonald’s. Soda banned from schools. Smoking only allowed on the planet Venus — but only during months that end in “G.”
So what is the FDA going to do? Proscribe saltshakers from restaurants? Better yet — leave the salt and add Lasix to the pepperoni pizza! They could also force saltshaker manufacturers to add an alarm system to the shaker and if you shake it more than once and ear-piercing wail will force you back on the road to bland.
Intro: Umbrellas may be hazardous to your health. Can’t the NY Times find something more substantial to write about? I’m almost embarassed for my colleague for having to discuss something as banal as this. One possible solution to resolve this lethal dilemma: Change the name “umbrella” to “mohammed.” This way the hazardous instrument will be banned and then no one will get hurt. Except for the manufacturers. They’ll get 40 lashes.
NY Times (11/29, Cohen) reported that many “urbanites who venture out in the rain are now weaving and ducking to avoid being stabbed in the eye.” While “there is no public-health emergency, doctors and hospitals have treated results of more than a few mash-ups between people and umbrella spokes.”
Sheldon Jacobson, M.D., FACEP, chairman of emergency medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, said, “Most of the time they say they were walking and minding their own business, trying to keep out of the rain, and all of a sudden — bang! — from nowhere they got poked.” Dr. Jacobson noted that “facial lacerations and bruises and scratched corneas” are often “caused by carelessly brandished bumbershoots.” I wouldn’t mind losing an eye if I could look as debonair as Steed.
…1994, almost 1,000 people are forced to abandon the Achille Lauro in the Indian Ocean
after it catches fire and ultimately sinks.
BBC, 1994: Almost 1,000 people have been forced to abandon a luxury cruise ship in the Indian Ocean after it caught fire.
A “Jonah” of the high seas
The Achille Lauro – which made headlines in 1985 when it was hijacked by Palestinian guerrillas – was sailing 50 miles off the Somali coast when the fire started in one of the cabins.
Two people died and eight were injured during the transfer of passengers from life rafts to a waiting tanker, according to Coastguard officials.
Starlauro, the ship’s Naples-based owners, said it had not established the cause of the blaze but confirmed it did not suspect foul play. Crew battled with the flames for almost seven hours as passengers – many of whom had paid £2,500 for the trip – gathered on deck.
The captain gave the order to abandon ship at 0500 local time (0200 GMT) after the fire began to burn out of control.
Panamanian registered tanker Hawaiian King was the first of a dozen ships which answered the Achille Lauro’s dawn SOS call and rescued most of the passengers.
As night fell, most of the survivors were recovering on the tanker, which had been supplied with extra food by the US Navy cruiser Gettysburg.
It is expected they will now be taken to the Kenyan port, Mombasa, or the Seychelles, which would have been the liner’s next port of call.
Dimitrios Skapinakis – captain of another tanker involved in the rescue operation – told reporters he thought the ailing 24,000 ton ship would sink within the next 12 hours.
“The Achille Lauro is listing by at least 40 degrees and you can still see smoke and flames – the passenger decks on the stern side are burning and flames are licking halfway up the vessel,” he said.
PromEDmail, 11/26/07: We report 2 cases of falciparum malaria from Punta Cana in the
Dominican Republic. A couple, both aged 71 years, traveled from
Germany to Punta Cana from 27 Oct to 10 Nov 2007. Remarkably, neither
of them left Punta Cana to travel the country.
No malaria prophylaxis was taken, in accordance with current
recommendations in Germany. However, repellents were used. After
return to Germany, both developed diarrhea, chills and subsequent
fever. On 25 Nov 2007, the patients were admitted to the Staedtisches
Krankenhaus in Kiel, Germany. The working diagnosis of malaria was
confirmed at the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine in
Hamburg, Germany. Parasite density was < one percent, species
_Plasmodium falciparum_ in both patients. Because of pre-existing
renal insufficiency, we advised treatment with Mefloquine. The
patients are currently in stable clinical condition but still
hospitalized. Alertness and further surveillance is warranted.
ProMEDmail Commentator: These are the 1st new malaria cases in tourists reported by ProMED
since December 2006, and they demonstrate that there still is a risk
in tourist areas. The WHO and CDC advise chemoprophylaxis with
chloroquine in the provinces bordering Haiti and in all areas of La
Altagracia Province, including resort areas. This recommendation is
still relevant.
Reuters, 11/30/07: A new strain of the deadly Ebola virus has infected 51 people and killed 16 in an area of Uganda near the border with Democratic Republic of Congo, U.S. and Ugandan health officials said on Thursday.“The mysterious disease outbreak in Bundibugyo has now been confirmed to be Ebola disease,” Dr. Sam Zaramba, the Ugandan Health Ministry’s director of health services, said in a statement.
Genetic analysis of samples taken from some of the victims shows it is a previously unknown type of Ebola, Dr. Tom Ksiazek of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
“This virus didn’t behave as would be expected of some of the known strains,” Ksiazek said in a telephone interview. “That tipped us off that this is probably a novel or new strain of Ebola.”
Ugandan health officials have said that the virus appears to be unusually mild, but Ksiazek said it is not yet clear whether this is the case. He said experts need to check to see how many diagnosed patients are still alive.
“It’s definitely a different strain. There’s not much bleeding — most died of fever,” said Dr. Sam Okware, head of Uganda’s national hemorrhagic fever task force.
“From the beginning we’ve been isolating cases … but we can’t say it’s contained. There may be other people in those villages unknown to us,” Okware said.
Ebola is a hemorrhagic fever, meaning it can cause internal and external bleeding. Victims often die of shock but symptoms can be vague, including fever, muscle pain and nausea.
It is known to infect humans, chimpanzees and gorillas.
FIFTH STRAIN
There are four identified strains of Ebola, Ksiazek said. The two strains that cause the most human disease are the Zaire and Sudan strains, named after the countries in which they first appeared.
A strain called Reston caused an outbreak in a primate facility in the Washington, D.C. suburb of the same name, while a single human case in Ivory Coast was caused by the Cote d’Ivoire strain.
The Zaire strain killed 80 percent of victims while the Sudan strain had just over a 50 percent mortality rate.
The new strain would be the fifth identified. Ksiazek said it had not yet been named.
Uganda was last hit by an epidemic of Ebola in 2000, when 425 people caught it and just over half of them died.
An outbreak in neighboring Congo this year infected up to 264 people, killing 187, the World Health Organization says.
Ugandan health officials originally suspected Marburg, a close Ebola cousin that infected three people in a different part of western Uganda the month before, killing one.
But samples had tested negative.
The government said it was taking steps to prevent the epidemic from spreading further.
“A response team is being strengthened to conduct contact tracing and public education … All close contacts of the suspected cases are being closely followed up,” Zaramba said.
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I wouldn’t mind losing an eye if I could look as debonair as Steed.
A “Jonah” of the high seas
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