Over a five-year period, the cause of ignition in the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) was unknown in almost three out of every five home fire deaths. Recognizing the reporting gap in NFIRS, the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) has launched a free, online training program for the fire service.
Public health’s role is often synonymous with biological events such as Ebola, H1N1, and SARS, but the field of public health offers many capabilities that are relevant to chemical, radiological, nuclear, and explosive events as well. To leverage these capabilities, a joint effort from the federal, state, and local levels must make public health a national priority.
A new federal resource equips healthcare providers with a valuable information repository. This resource also offers a way to request technical assistance and provides a forum for peer-to-peer discussions. Decontamination is just one of the many in-depth topics addressed by subject matter experts in the healthcare field.
Security checkpoints help law enforcement officers enhance public safety by detecting chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, explosives, and other threats. With advancements in multiplexed luminescence technologies, the detection of trace amounts of explosives can expand beyond stationary checkpoints using handheld tools that are cost-effective and simple to use.
There is no single solution to cybersecurity concerns. Technology is advancing, but nothing can
replace solid planning and training. All three pillars are necessary to balance cyberthreats. If too
much emphasis is placed on one pillar, the vulnerability gap will expand. Ensuring the constant growth
and evolution of this trilogy is currently the best way to thwart threats that are ever evolving.
Science-based research is useful in analyzing and reducing risks through the development of new technologies for detecting, sampling, and studying various contaminants and unknown substances. Teams of scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory play a large role in ensuring that first responders have the necessary tools to perform their critical tasks.
A decade after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast region, the effects of underprepared healthcare systems are still apparent. Nearly a year after the first case of Ebola was diagnosed on U.S. soil, the West African nations most affected by the disease remain burdened by insufficient infrastructure to properly isolate and treat patients on a large scale.
In this electronic age, there is a constant struggle between sharing critical information and protecting individual privacy with adequate security to prevent data and documents from falling into the wrong hands. To address these concerns, expectations of privacy, knowledge of liabilities, and development of policies must be examined.
Federal spending on public health emergency preparedness, response, and recovery has been falling since 2005, and Congress is now considering how much to spend in the 2016 fiscal year. The final spending figure will play a key role in determining how well the American people are protected from disease, injury, and death in times of emergency.
From a presidential executive order to comprehensive workforce protection, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s infectious disease protection process is constantly evolving. The department’s centralized guidance/decentralized execution planning paradigm with reliance on a robust lessons learned process ensures an increasingly resilient workforce against biological threats and hazards.
Over a five-year period, the cause of ignition in the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) was unknown in almost three out of every five home fire deaths. Recognizing the reporting gap in NFIRS, the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) has launched a free, online training program for the fire service. 
Science-based research is useful in analyzing and reducing risks through the development of new technologies for detecting, sampling, and studying various contaminants and unknown substances. Teams of scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory play a large role in ensuring that first responders have the necessary tools to perform their critical tasks. 
In this electronic age, there is a constant struggle between sharing critical information and protecting individual privacy with adequate security to prevent data and documents from falling into the wrong hands. To address these concerns, expectations of privacy, knowledge of liabilities, and development of policies must be examined. 