This book and CD-ROM is excellent as a text for hazardous material emergency response training or as a reference for chemical safety management. It combines a number of references and procedures to provide a very useful resource for both study and application.

The material is divided into four major parts.

• An overview of important federal regulations, labeling requirements and sources of information on hazardous materials;
• A primer on chemistry and toxicology of hazardous materials;
• Emergency response procedures; and
• An overview of hazardous analysis planning and chemical safety inspections and audits.

Appendices include fact sheets on a number of commonly used hazardous chemicals, a sample hazardous material emergency response plan, and a sample respiratory protection plan for SCBA.

Each part consists of several chapters. Each chapter opens with an expected Outcome(s) plus Learning Objectives for the material in the chapter. Following each chapter is a set of review questions for verification of learning. And, as are found in many academic texts, the authors have provided answers to these questions in an additional appendix. This is very helpful for study and clarification of the concepts.

Part 1 includes a chapter overview of hazardous material regulations; a chapter on signs, labels and placards for hazardous materials; and a chapter summarizing sources of information on hazardous materials. This last chapter provides examples of the types of information and level of detail available from these sources.

The Technical Primers in Part 2 are excellent summaries, providing material for both initial learning and review. Chapters are included on Chemistry, Toxicology, Radioactivity and Nuclear Radiation, Fire Chemistry, and Environmental Pollution.
The summaries are framed well-not overly complex nor oversimplified. There are many diagrams and illustrations to help explain the text.

The chapters in Part 3 include: OSHA's Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER), Introduction to Emergency Response Operations, On-Scene Incident Management, Air Monitoring, Personal Protective Equipment, Chemical Decontamination Facilities and Methods, and Containment, Emergency Leak Control and Clean-up. Again, these are formatted well with diagrams, illustrations and case studies.

Part 4 covers Contingency Planning, Chemical Safety Inspections and Environmental Audits. Differences in emergency response plans for SARA Title III and HAZWOPER are outlined, as are benefits and methods for hazard analysis planning.

TOM LAWRENCE, CSP, P.E
Ballwin, MO

Tom Lawrence is a principal with Risk, Reliability and Safety Engineering of Houston, Texas. He provides safety consulting services from an office in the St. Louis area. Mr. Lawrence was elected a Fellow of ASSE in 2000.