The Blair County Hazardous Materials Team is working with Van Zandt VA Medical Center to gain access to a $125,000 device needed for the team to retain a designation that permits it to deal independently with emergency scenes involving unknown substances.
Van Zandt has applied to the Department of Veterans Affairs for emergency management funding for a Thermo Scientific Gemini handheld analyzer that uses two types of electromagnetic energy evaluation to identify potentially problematic chemicals.
If the VA allocates the money, Van Zandt will store the analyzer, which looks like an oversized calculator, in an area of the hospital manned around the clock, so it would be available to the hazmat team when there are problems like derailments with chemical spills or envelopes found with suspicious powders, according to Becky Long, hospital safety director, and Mike Tofano, deputy chief of the Altoona Fire Department — which serves as the hazmat team.
Having access to the analyzer would enable the county hazmat team to proceed to deal with situations involving unknown chemicals immediately — rather than having to wait 45 minutes for the closest analyzer to arrive from State College, Long said.
The device can identify solids and liquids either by Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy or Raman spectroscopy, depending on the nature of the substance.
Both “acquire a spectral fingerprint of an unknown substance, and then compare (that) against a reference library” — measuring “interaction of energy with the molecular bonds in a sample of the unknown material,” stated a brochure provided by Tofano.
FITR measures light remaining after the device has passed light through the substance, according to the brochure. Raman measures the energy scattered after the device has excited the substance with a laser.
The hazmat team needs to have a plan for the spectrometer in place to support a mandatory recertification exercise in early summer, according to Fire Chief Tim Hileman.
Van Zandt expects to find its own uses for the device on occasion, as when there are problematic smells in the building, Long said.
That has happened when vehicles have parked near the air handler vent, she said.
Van Zandt would take responsibility for maintaining the 6-by-10-inch device, which weighs about four pounds.
If Van Zandt receives the money, it won’t diminish other funding received by the hospital for care of veterans, Long said.
The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency imposed the requirement for a chemical-identification spectrometer last year, so Pennsylvania teams conform to federally recognized hazmat team “types,” officials said previously.
The requirement is an “unfunded mandate,” Hileman told the board of the Local Emergency Planning Committee recently.
To maintain a “Type 2” designation, the team also would need a more sensitive flame ionization detector and more radios that can be activated without breaking the seal of a hazmat suit, the officials have said.
The ionization detectors and hands-off radios are not nearly as costly as the spectrometer, officials said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.
