What’s on your P.L.A.T.E?

How to Respond to a HazMat Call

Imagine this, you’ve received a call and responding to a situation where workers at an industrial site have been exposed to an unknown liquid. You know that decontamination is a must but what’s next?

The establishment of high quality, consistent decontamination practices is important for every first responder. After all the purpose of decontamination is to make an individual and/or their equipment safe by physically removing toxic substances quickly and easily. How decontamination is carried out and how thorough it needs to be, depends upon several factors. The most important factor is the contaminant itself. Typically, the more harmful the contaminant the more thorough decontamination must be.

The P.L.A.T.E. Method

When asking yourself how to respond to a hazmat call, consider the P.L.A.T.E. method:

Physical and Chemical Properties

Location of Contamination

Amount of Product

Time of Exposure

Environmental Considerations

Once a plan of action is determined, procedures must be communicated to everyone responding to the emergency. In some cases, knowing and understanding how to decon can be the difference between life and death.

If you want to increase your team’s confidence and overall capabilities, we encourage those in the field to learn more on this concept by taking our Hybrid Decon Awareness course.