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 and

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

s) in Canada,

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

, and the United States when responding to a transportation emergency involving

hazardous materials Dangerous goods, abbreviated DG, are substances that when transported are a risk to health, safety, property or the environment. Certain dangerous goods that pose risks even when not being transported are known as hazardous materials ( syllabi ...

. First responders in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and Colombia have recently begun using the ERG as well. It is produced by the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States an ...

Transport Canada Transport Canada (french: Transports Canada) is the department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of road, rail, marine and air transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transporta ...

, and the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (Mexico). The principal authors of the ERG are Transport Canada's Michel Cloutier and U.S. DOT's George Cushmac.

Guidebook Contents

The ERG is primarily applicable for hazardous materials transported by highway and railway, but also is applicable for materials transported by air or

waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary ...

, as well as by pipeline. It was first issued by the US Department of Transportation in 1973, but later became a joint publication of the Department of Transportation (US DOT), Transport Canada (TC), and the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT) of Mexico, with collaboration with the Chemistry Information Center for Emergencies (CIQUIME) of Argentina. The ERG is issued every 4 years, with editions now being published in Spanish (''Guía de Respuesta en Caso de Emergencia'') and French. In 1996 it was published as the ''North American Emergency Response Guidebook'', but by the next publication in 2000 "North American" was removed due to its use by several

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...

n countries). The ERG "is primarily a guide to aid first responders in quickly identifying the specific or generic hazards of the material(s) involved in the incident, and protecting themselves and the general public during the initial response phase of the incident"http://www.phmsa.dot.gov/staticfiles/PHMSA/DownloadableFiles/Files/Hazmat/ERG2012.pdf 2012 Emergency Response Guide, page 356 and should only be used for the "initial response phase" ("that period following arrival at the scene of an incident during which the presence and/or identification of dangerous goods is confirmed, protective actions and area securement are initiated, and assistance of qualified personnel is requested.") of an incident . It is divided into six color-coded sections (white ncolored yellow, blue, orange, green, and a second white ncolored. The ERG includes 62 "Guides" (found in the Orange Section) that identify the primary hazards associated with the applicable general category of hazardous material and general guidance on how to respond to incidents involving that general category of hazardous material. The primary purpose of ERG is to direct the emergency responders to the most appropriate of these guides, based on the incident. The ERG also provides guidance regarding recommended evacuation distances, if applicable, in the Green Section.

Sections

White Section (front)

The first section, with white page (uncolored) borders, provides the following: *Information regarding shipping documents *Instructions on how to use the guidebook *General guidance for responding to any hazardous material incident *Basic information on the hazard classification system and the associated

placard A placard is a notice installed in a public place, like a small card, sign, or plaque. It can be attached to or hung from a vehicle or building to indicate information about the vehicle operator or contents of a vehicle or building. It can also re ...

s/labels *Recommendations the proper guides based transporting vehicle types and/or

s (when the material in question cannot be further identified otherwise) *General safety precautions *Specific guidance for incidents involving pipelines

Yellow Section

The second section, with yellow page borders, references the material in order of its assigned 4-digit ID number/ UN/NA number (which is often placarded with the other hazardous materials placards) and identifies the appropriate guide number to reference in the Orange Section). Items highlighted in green in this section will have evacuation distances included in the Green Section.

Blue Section

The third section, with blue page borders, references the material in alphabetical order of its name and identifies the appropriate guide number to reference in the Orange Section). Items highlighted in green in this section will also have evacuation distances included in the Green Section.

Orange Section

The fourth section, with orange page borders, includes the actual response guides. Each of the 62 guides provides safety recommendations and directions on how to proceed during the initial response phase (first thirty minutes) of the incident. It includes "health" and "fire or explosion" potential hazard information (with the more dangerous hazard listed first). For example, "the material gives off irritating vapors, easily ignited by heat, reactive with water"; "highly toxic, may be fatal if inhaled, swallowed or absorbed through skin"; etc. Next this section includes information for responders on appropriate protective clothing and possible evacuation information for either spill or fire is given. It also includes information on fighting fires (example, do not apply water to

sodium Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable ...

), warnings for spills or leaks, and special directions for first aid (example, not to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation if the materials are toxic). In the event of an unknown material, Guide #111 should be followed until more information becomes available.

Green Section

The fifth section, with green page borders, suggests initial evacuation or shelter in place distances (protective action distances) for spills of materials that are Toxic-by-Inhalation (TIH). These distances vary based on the size of the spill (small or large) and whether the incident occurs during the day or at night. Only materials that were highlighted in green in the

Yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In ...

and Blue Sections are included in the Green Section. This section also includes information regarding toxic gases that are produced when certain materials are spilled in water (as identified previously in this section). Finally, this section includes some very specific evacuation details for six common materials.

White Section (back)

The sixth section, with white page (uncolored) borders, provides the following: *Additional instructions on how to use the guidebook *Information regarding protective clothing and equipment *Instructions on fire and spill control *

BLEVE A boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE, ) is an explosion caused by the Fracture, rupture of a Pressure vessel, vessel containing a Compressed fluid, pressurized liquid that has reached temperature above its boiling point. Because ...

(boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion) safety precautions *Beginning with the 2004 edition, information specifically for hazardous materials being used for

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

Glossary A glossary (from grc, γλῶσσα, ''glossa''; language, speech, wording) also known as a vocabulary or clavis, is an alphabetical list of terms in a particular domain of knowledge with the definitions for those terms. Traditionally, a gl ...

of terms used in the ERG *Contact information for the various countries

References

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music ...

1996 Edition
- At Internet Archive Other links * - The United States

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is a United States Department of Transportation agency created in 2004, responsible for developing and enforcing regulations for the safe, reliable, and environmentally sound opera ...

* - Transport Canada webpage
Press release
announcing 2016 edition ERG release {{Portal bar, United States 1973 non-fiction books 1996 non-fiction books 2000 non-fiction books 2004 non-fiction books 2008 non-fiction books 2012 non-fiction books Handbooks and manuals Firefighting Emergency management Firefighting in the United States Hazardous materials