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Updated: Mar 14, 2026
08:17
Chemical Analysis of Water-accommodated Fractions of Crude Oil Spills Using TIMS-FT-ICR MS
Published on: March 3, 2017
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Enabling Science Support for Better Decision-Making when Responding to Chemical Spills
Journal of Environmental Quality
|October 4, 2016
Summary
Chemical spills pose significant risks, yet traditional emergency responses often lack adequate scientific support. Integrating external scientific expertise into incident command structures (ICSs) can improve responses to chemical spills, especially non-petroleum ones.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Disaster Management
- Public Health
Background:
- Chemical spills contaminate environments and disrupt societies globally.
- Over 172,000 chemical spills impacted US waterbodies (2004-2014), with over 8,000 involving non-petroleum chemicals.
- Traditional incident command structures (ICSs) may not fully meet emergency response teams' science support needs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze the effectiveness of US ICS in responding to chemical spills.
- To highlight the benefits of external scientific support for ICS during chemical spill incidents.
- To propose a framework for integrating scientific expertise into emergency response.
Main Methods:
- Review of US ICS as an emergency response model for chemical spills.
- Analysis of case studies where external scientific support enhanced ICS effectiveness.
- Development of recommendations for immediate, near-term, and long-term science support activities.
Main Results:
- External scientific support from research personnel has demonstrably benefited ICS emergency responses, particularly for non-petroleum chemical spills.
- Current ICS may not adequately incorporate necessary scientific expertise for complex chemical incidents.
- A need exists for formal mechanisms to integrate external scientific knowledge into spill response.
Conclusions:
- Formalizing external science support for ICS is crucial for effective chemical spill response.
- Such integration will benefit rapid responders, advance crisis-response science, and aid societal recovery.
- Continued research and development are needed for both spill prevention and incident response science.
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