According the International Association of Fire Chiefs, 98% of U.S. fire chiefs responding to a survey consider hazmat placards critical and essential to emergency response.

The removal of hazmat placards from railcars and other containers continues to be a topic of discussion among homeland security officials, said a statement from the IAFC, which opposes the termination of the current placarding system until an effective replacement system has been found and fire officials fully trained in its use.

The IAFC sent the survey electronically to 7,340 IAFC members to determine the fire service's reliance on placards, signs on containers carrying hazardous materials that tell first responders what substances are inside. The survey's key findings are:

• 98% of respondents said they use hazmat placards in their emergency response.
• Nearly every respondent replied that hazmat placards are critical or very important to their operations, with 70% responding “critical” and 28% responding “very important.”
• Only 12% of respondents said they are aware of even potential alternatives to placards.

“The IAFC's survey underscores the importance of these placards to effective response,” said IAFC President Chief Bob DiPoli. “Without them, America's first responders would have no idea what kinds of substances they are dealing with, posing a tremendous danger to America's communities and to the responders who protect them.”

Survey respondents indicated that without hazmat placards, the lives of the people surrounding a hazmat incident and responding firefighters would be in danger. Many respondents also said that responses would take longer and costs would increase because they would have to treat every hazmat incident as a worst-case scenario.

“Placards are placed [on containers] because there is a need. Without them, calls will be extended while research is done to identify the contents, costing more money and risking more lives,” one respondent wrote.

Removing placards, another respondent wrote, “would cause us to change how we evaluate risk in the early stages of response. This would cause delays in protecting people, property and the environment. It may also lead to very costly incident actions, such as an evacuation that was not needed.”

In June, the IAFC will hold the 22nd International Hazardous Materials Response Teams Conference in Hunt Valley, Md. More information, including a registration form, is available at www.iafc.org/conferences/hazmat/index.asp.