International Emergency Response Summit Presentations

Conceived and sponsored by CHEMTREC, the CHEMTREC International Emergency Response Summit was held February 22-24 in Miami for the purpose of sharing information among chemical industry responders to provide them with a better understanding of the challenges, and possible solutions, associated with responding to chemical incidents in foreign countries.

The 132 Summit participants represented 99 private companies that ship dangerous goods or provide services to those companies (including transportation and emergency response services), 11 countries, 11 emergency centers, and 5 industry associations.

The Summit was structured around facilitated panel discussions during which all Summit participants were encouraged to participate. Two "general session" panels focused on information and response challenges that companies and emergency centers face from the global perspective, including the current and future regulatory climate that impacts emergency response, and a broad look at regional infrastructure and transportation differences. Those panels provided the framework for the regional discussions.

Regional workshops focused on three regions. Those were: Region 1 -- Asia (with a focus on greater China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia); Region 2 -- Central and South America (with a particular focus on Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, and Chile); and Region 3 -- Central and Eastern Europe.

Following the Regional Workshops, participants met in more informal Regional Roundtables for further discussion specific to the regions of focus.

Two additional workshops covered cross-cutting information, communications and performance requirements. One -- titled Emergency Center Models -- allowed for participants to learn about existing emergency center models. The other -- titled People and Portals -- was designed to gauge interest in a potential new CHEMTREC service to make available to industry responders an internet-based information source of emergency response/preparedness related information for countries globally.

The final session summarized and refined the lessons learned from the earlier Summit discussions.

Presentations and pictures from the Summit are now available through the links below. On April 25, CHEMTREC will provide Summit participants with a formal report of the Summit findings. Additionally, CHEMTREC will present the findings of the Summit during the American Chemistry Council's Responsible Care Conference to be held on May 7-9, 2006 in Miami.