As a supplement to its nationwide training tour to educate safety officials on how to respond to anhydrous ammonia release incidents, the TRANSCAER Anhydrous Ammonia Training Tour training materials and resources are now available online.
TRANSCAER (Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response) is a voluntary, nationwide outreach effort that helps communities prepare for and respond to hazardous material transportation incidents.
Earlier this spring, TRANSCAER launched its nationwide Anhydrous Ammonia Training Tour, a multi-stakeholder effort to educate and train officials in across the country on emergency response to anhydrous ammonia release incidents. To date, the tour has held hands-on educational training workshops in more than 30 cities in 11 states.
The new website, www.transcaer.com/aa-tour, is a “one-stop shop” for an online training program on anhydrous ammonia. Materials available include Anhydrous Ammonia Tour training videos, handbooks, PowerPoint presentations, and instructor and student guides that address emergency response, chemical properties, transports and nurse tanks, and railcars, as well as promotional print materials including posters and brochures.
The website contains practical tools that give emergency responders information they need to manage an anhydrous ammonia release incident. The “Emergency Response” section of the online training module reviews: Real-life plume modeling used to calculate air pollution concentrations; weather impacts on ammonia releases; how to determine and protect downwind threats; other environmental impacts and controls; and containment options for anhydrous ammonia releases.
A listing of cities and states where the tour is taking place is available at www.TRANSCAER.com/events. More locations will be added throughout the year and into 2012.