First Responder Injuries From Non-Petroleum
         Hazardous Substances Emergency Events
       in Washington State,
      1995-2000

Published:  April 2002

                                         Table of Contents

I.   Law Enforcement Officers

Table 1.   Police officers injured during HSSES events by county, by year, 1995-2000

Table 2.   Severity of injuries to police officers during HSEES events, 1995-2000.

Table 3.   Police officer injuries by type of injury sustained during HSEES events, 1995-2000.,

Table 4.   Police officers injured and officer injury HSEES events by county with comparisons
                 to total county events and total county injury events, 1995-2000.

 II.   Fire Department Personnel

Table 5.   Severity of injuries to firefighters during HSEES events, 1995-2000.

Table 6.   Firefighter injuries sustained while responding to HSEES events, 1995-2000.

Table 7.   Firefighters injured (firefighter injury events) during HSEES events by county, by year, 1995-2000.

Table 8.   Firefighters injured and firefighter injury HSEES events with comparisons to 
                 total HSEES events and total HSEES injury events, by county, 1995-2000.

Table 9. Distribution of firefighter injury HSEES events by location of event

Figure 1.  HSEES injury events involving first responders in Washington State by day of week, 1995-2000.

Figure 2.  HSEES injury events involving first responders in Washington State by month, 1995-2000.

Figure 3.  HSEES injury events involving responders in Washington State by time of day, 1995-2000.

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        FIRST RESPONDER INJURIES FROM NON-PETROLEUM HAZARDOUS 
     SUBSTANCES EMERGENCY EVENTS IN WASHINGTON STATE, 1995-2000  

     The Hazardous Substances Emergency Events Surveillance (HSEES) program, sponsored by the Agency for Toxic 
Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR), tracks non-petroleum emergency chemical releases.  Washington State has
been involved in the HSEES program since its inception in 1991.  In 1995, HSEES began keeping specific data on 
injuries to responders related to these events.  By tracking this information it is hoped that there will be increased 
understanding of the risks associated with these events so that future injuries can be minimized or avoided altogether

     During the years 1995 through 2000, a total of 75 law enforcement officers from eleven counties were injured in 
36 non-petroleum emergency chemical release events.  Of these, 68 (91%) were males and 7 (9%) were females.  
There was a wide variance from one year to the next in the number of officers injured and the number of “officer-injury
events” reported, with a “spike” in 1999.  Thirty-one percent of all officer injuries and 42% of all officer-injury-events
occurred in that year.  This anomaly was due almost entirely to the increase in clandestine methamphetamine lab activity.
There were a total of 19 events (53%) in which officers were injured because of meth labs during the six-year period.  
Ten of those events (28%) occurred in 1999.  Table 1 shows the distribution by county and year of law enforcement 
officers injured during HSEES events.  Numbers in parenthesis are officer-injury events.  (For example, there were six 
officers injured in Snohomish County in 1995.  All six injuries occurred during a single event.)

             Table 1.   Police officers injured (officer injury events) during HSEES
                             events by county, by year, 1995-2000.

     Table 2 shows the severity of injuries sustained by officers during HSEES events.  Most of the officers injured (73%)
were treated at hospital emergency rooms and released.  Of the remainder, nine (12%) were treated at the scene, nine 
(12%) were hospitalized for observation only, and two (3%) saw private physicians within 24 hours of the event.  There 
were no fatalities.     

       Table 2.   Severity of injuries to police officers during HSEES events, 1995-2000. 

     Injuries reported by law enforcement officers during HSEES events during period 1995-2000 are shown in 
Table 3.  By far the most frequently reported type of injury to police officers was respiratory irritation (53%) 
including breathing problems, coughing, wheezing, sore throat and shortness of breath.  Eye irritation was the 
second most-frequently reported problem (16%), followed by headache (12%), gastrointestinal problems (6%),
central nervous system (CNS) problems (5%) and skin irritation (4%).  Another 4% of injuries included chemical 
burn, heat stress and thermal burn. 

        Table 3.    Police officer injuries by type of injury sustained during HSEES events, 1995-2000.

          *     Number of injuries is greater than number of individuals injured because some officers had more than one injury.
          **   Chemical burn (3), Heat stress (1), Thermal burn (1). 

       King County, with the highest overall population in the state, had the highest number of law enforcement officer 
injuries as well as injury-events; a total of 24 injuries in 10 events.  Pierce County ran a close second with 21 officers 
injured in 10 events.  By taking the total number of HSEES events for each of the eleven counties, a rate of officers 
injured per 1000 events was computed.  A similar rate was computed using only HSEES events in which injuries 
were reported.  The average rate at which officers were injured for all HSEES events was 47 per thousand events.
When limited to only those events in which injuries were reported, the average was 167 per thousand events.  Five 
counties (Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston, Skagit and Walla Walla) had a noticeably greater than average likelihood of 
officers becoming injured during a HSEES event.  That pattern existed whether the comparison was with all events or 
was limited to injury events.  Table 4 shows this relationship; counties with higher rates are shown in bold type.  

          Table 4.   Police officers injured and officer injury HSEES events by county with 
                          comparisons to total county events and total county injury events, 1995-2000.

       *      Rates computed using the total number of HSEES events in the county multiplied by 1000. 
       **    Rates computed using the total number of HSEES events associated with injuries in the county multiplied by 1000.  

      April and May were the months having the greatest portion of police officer injuries.  A total of 11 (31%) of the 36 
events occurred in those months.  Weekends were noticeably safer than average accounting for only 14% of injury events; 
Mondays were the most dangerous with 10 (28%) events.

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II. FIRE DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL

      During the years 1995 through 2000, 56 firefighters from 11 counties were injured responding to non-petroleum 
emergency substance releases in Washington State.  Of those whose sex was recorded, 50 (91%) were male and 
5 (9%) were female.  Table 5 uses the level of medical care received as an indicator of the severity of injuries.  Most 
injured firefighters (61%) were taken to hospital emergency rooms, treated and released.  Nine firefighters (16%) were 
treated at the scene, five (9%) were admitted to the hospital (four for treatment, one for observation), four (7%) saw 
private physicians and four (7%) experienced and reported symptoms within 24 hours of the event. 

     The most frequently reported injury was respiratory irritation (31%), followed by gastrointestinal irritation  (17%),
headache (11%) and central nervous system problems (10%).  Less frequently reported injuries made up the remaining 
30 percent of the injuries and included eye irritation, skin irritation, chemical burn, trauma, heat stress, chest pain and 
thermal burn.

           Table 5.  Severity of injuries to firefighters during HSEES events, 1995-2000.

          Table 6.   Firefighter injuries sustained while responding to HSEES events, 1995-2000.

         *    Eye irritation (6), skin irritation (6), chemical burn (4), trauma (4), heat stress (3), chest pain (2), thermal burn (1). 
         **  Number of injuries is greater than number of individuals injured because some firefighters had more than one injury. 

    Nearly half  (45%) of all firefighters injured in Washington State during HSEES events were injured in King County.  
Of the total number of HSEES events in which a firefighter was injured, 42% occurred in King County.  The main reason 
for this is that King County had a much larger share of HSEES events in which there were injuries than did other counties.  
Table 7 shows the distribution of firefighters injured by county and by year.