Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders (WISER) is a system to assist

first responders A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency, such as an accident, disaster, medical emergency, structure fire, crime, or terr ...

in identification of hazardous materials during a response. The system was created by the

United States National Library of Medicine The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. Its ...

Capabilities

WISER has the most likely encountered entries from the Hazardous Substance Data Bank. It simplifies the data with an interface to easily help identify unknown substances. Known substances can be searched for through a variety of different means including:

UN number A UN number (United Nations number) is a four-digit number that identifies hazardous materials, and articles (such as explosives, flammable liquids, oxidizers, toxic, toxic liquids, etc.) in the framework of international trade and transport. Some ...

CAS number A CAS Registry Number (also referred to as CAS RN or informally CAS Number) is a unique identification number assigned by the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), US to every chemical substance described in the open scientific literature. It inclu ...

, and Science Transportation Commodity Code (STCC) number. The system provides health effects, an overview of treatments and occupational exposure levels. Additional tools are available including the

Emergency Response Guidebook The ''Emergency Response Guidebook:'' ''A Guidebook for First Responders During the Initial Phase of a Dangerous Goods/Hazardous Materials Transportation Incident'' (ERG) is used by emergency response personnel (such as firefighters, paramedics an ...

and a Weapon of Mass Destruction Guidebook.

Platforms

WISER has a downloadable application on Microsoft Windows PCs, Windows Mobile devices and Palm OS PDAs. It is also a browser-based application (WebWISER) for both PDA and PC based browsers.

References

External links

WISER at the National Library of Medicine
{{National Institutes of Health Emergency management software