Preparing and Responding to a Chemical, Biological or Radiological (CBR) Incident - Guide for Staff

Preparing for a CBR incident

As a member of the SCR and working alongside your security manager, you have an essential role in preparing for a CBR incident.

Your actions during the preparing phase can be captured under three broad areas. These are:

• Understand your building/site, processes and vulnerabilities
• Understand an effective CBR response strategy and any CBR strategy in place on your site
• Understand effective language and messaging 

Reviewing this guidance, alongside other available CBR guidance could improve the outcome of a CBR incident. The following products provide further information to support a broader understanding of CBR incidents.

• Mail Screening Matters campaign (NPSA) – a range of materials to support staff who regularly receive or handle deliveries on recognising suspicious items.
• Recognising Terrorist Threats guide (NPSA) – a guide to improve your understanding of the indicators of terrorist attack methodologies.

1. Understand your building/site, processes and vulnerabilities

Understanding your building is an essential preparatory action not just for a CBR attack but also for other attack methodologies.

It is important to have an awareness of:

• The building/site plans and layout, as well as existing building utilities and technologies and their locations. 
• Any processes in place for modifying the function of lifts, escalators and HVAC systems. This could involve contacting a named individual, such as a security, building or site manager.
• Building/site vulnerabilities that could be exploited during a CBR incident.

Building Plans and Layouts

You should also have an awareness of any conventional safety and security measures, technologies, and their locations and functions such as:

1. Any on site hazards and risks e.g. stored gases.
2. Entrances, exists and evacuation routes that could be used in an emergency. 
3. Building utilities and technologies (including controls that change or shut down building functions): 

• Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, controls and air zones.
• Fire alarm control panel(s).
• Lift and escalator control panel(s).
• Closed Circuit Television (CCTV). 

4. Location of air inlets and outlets.
5.  Location of plant rooms.
6. Location of all fire protection components e.g. onsite fire hydrants, risers.

Processes in Place for Modifying Building Functions

a) Lifts and Escalators

Lifts and escalators should usually not be used during a CBR incident, as they can increase the risk that building/site occupants may become exposed to a CBR hazard. Where possible you should use any relevant processes that are in place for stopping lift functions during an incident, recommending building/site occupants to use stairwells to evacuate the building.

It is important to understand if there are any scenario or building-specific exceptions to this, and any processes should be aligned with existing safety evacuation procedures, including considering the evacuation routes for mobility impaired individuals. The security manager should make you aware of any exceptions to stopping lift functions during an incident.

b) HVAC Systems

HVAC systems are often complex and can vary significantly depending on the building type and age. Altering the functioning of HVAC systems can have a range of effects, which may increase or decrease the impact of an incident. For example:

• Some modern building HVAC systems can provide protection to building/site occupants when operational, and if air is controlled properly can limit the spread of material between areas.
• Other ventilation configurations could cause contaminated air to spread beyond the initial affected area. For example, purging an affected area of contaminated air could cause the contamination to spread further, exposing more building/site occupants.
• In some buildings, turning off HVAC systems in an emergency may reduce the spread of a material and reduce the exposure of building/site occupants.

The location where a CBR substance is released, for example internal or external to a building, can also influence the impact of altering HVAC system function.

Building/Site Vulnerabilities

It is important to have an understanding of potential vulnerabilities that exist in your building/site, as these may be exploited during a CBR incident. Known vulnerabilities may exist as it may not always be possible or proportionate to eliminate vulnerabilities depending on the building/site. Within the SCR, understanding vulnerabilities can help you to prioritise specific areas of the building in your role, such as CCTV.

It is the responsibility of the security manager to support you with this step and provide you with an understanding of any vulnerabilities. Site vulnerabilities can vary significantly depending on the building/site. These could include for example:

• Accessible areas with minimal search and screening.
• Groups of people congregating in vulnerable areas, such as queues at entrances/exits.
• Exposed ground level air inlets. 
• Mail rooms (depending on the mail screening measures in place).

2. Understand an effective CBR response strategy and any CBR strategy in place on your site

To prevent building/site occupants from becoming affected during an incident, your response will potentially involve advising them on their full or partial evacuation from the building or site via unaffected routes, avoiding affected areas. This will be achieved by following a pre-planned CBR evacuation strategy, which should be well understood. The evacuation strategy should be developed and communicated to you by the security manager.

3. Understand effective language and messaging

During a CBR incident, appropriate messaging is critical to reducing the impact of an incident. Understanding effective messaging can significantly improve the outcome of an incident by:

• Ensuring building/site occupants clearly understand what they should do and where they should go.
• Enabling an appropriate Emergency Services response, and ensuring those entering your building are sufficiently informed.

In the planning phase the security manager is responsible for establishing pre-planned messaging that you would convey to building/site occupants, as well as emergency services, during a CBR incident, however it is likely that some tailoring of pre-planned messaging may be required during an incident.

It is important that you understand:

• The content of communications, including the language and terminology you would use.
• The frequency that you would provide communications to building/site occupants.
• The types of communication channels that you would use.

Communications to Building/Site Occupants

There are several guidelines that should be followed when providing information to building/site occupants. Messaging to building/site occupants should advise:

• That an incident is occurring on the site.
• All building/site occupants to avoid the affected area where indicators are present.
• All building/site occupants to evacuate the building via unaffected routes and exits to an unaffected, safe location nearby, to prevent the wider potential spread of CBR material, unless it is unsafe to do so, for example if there are indicators of a secondary threat.

Communications to the Emergency Services

You should also consider the content of any communication with the emergency services, for example when contacting the Emergency Services. A poorly worded conversation with the emergency services could lead to a misunderstanding, and a delay in the dispatch of suitably trained personnel. Therefore, it is essential that the message is conveyed clearly to Emergency Services call handlers.

You may be asked to answer questions relating to ETHANE, in order for emergency services call handlers to understand more about the incident. Refer to Annex B for more information.

Responding to a CBR incident

The following sections focus on the actions for SCR staff during a CBR incident. Your response to a CBR incident will likely differ to other attack methodologies and may include additional considerations and complexities.

The RAR for CBR incidents campaign includes a range of additional materials which can be downloaded to embed effective response principles within an organisation.

There are three main stages to responding to a CBR incident. These are:

• Recognise the indicators of a CBR attack.
• Assess the incident to inform an appropriate response strategy.
• React appropriately to reduce harm to yourself and others.

Recognise, Assess, React (RAR) for CBR  Incidents Campaign – Important Information

The RAR for CBR incidents campaign is a method for effectively responding to a CBR incident and has replaced Steps 1,2,3+.

The first stage – RECOGNISE – involves identifying the indicators of a CBR attack to understand that a potential attack is underway. This is followed by the Assess and React stages which you should rapidly work through. 

Where possible, the activities within the ASSESS stage should be carried out prior to the REACT stage, as the information gathered in the assess stage will inform the most appropriate response activities, with the least risk for additional harm to building/site occupants.

It may not be practically viable however during an incident to conduct a thorough scene assessment prior to initiating response actions. For example, where there are individuals in the direct vicinity of the area where a CBR attack has occurred, or is suspected to have occurred, and there is subsequent threat to life, priority should be given to provide immediate instructions to these individuals to evacuate the area and prevent further access.

The order of activities within the ASSESS and REACT stages should therefore be dynamically considered within the specific context of an ongoing CBR incident, as it is may be necessary to carry out stages in parallel.

The process of recognising, assessing and reacting to an incident should be completed as many times as necessary as the incident changes, for example if a CBR substance spreads to a different part of a building/site.

1. Recognise the indicators of a CBR attack

It is important to have an awareness of the indicators of a CBR attack to be able to recognise before attack initiation or as soon as possible once an attack is underway. This is because the opportunity to reduce the impact of a CBR attack is greatest towards the start of the incident.

Visible signs and symptoms monitored via CCTV or provided from security personnel or building/site occupants are likely to be the primary indicators that a CBR incident has occurred. However, if CBR detectors are fitted, you may be alerted to an incident through the activation of an alarm. The security manager should make you aware if any CBR detectors are installed, and when to know if these have been activated.

Any one of the following signs and symptoms may be an indicator of a CBR incident, and multiple indicators increase the likelihood that an incident is CBR-related. It is important to consider these indicators in the context of your normal environment, to check there is no explainable reason for a given indicator.

Indicators of a CBR incident may include:

1. Unexplained physical symptoms such as:

• Eye and skin irritation
• Twitching and convulsions
• Disorientation and sweating 
• Airway irritation and breathing difficulties
• Nausea and vomiting.

2. Other signs such as:

• Two or more people incapacitated for no explainable reason 
• The presence of unusual/unattended materials, devices or equipment
• Unexplained vapour, mist clouds, powder, liquids or oily drops
• Unexplained smells or tastes
• Withered plant life or vegetation
• Distressed birds or animals.

The onset of some symptoms can occur rapidly indicating that an attack is currently underway. In some circumstances, however, signs and symptoms may not appear for several days after an incident has occurred, and early symptoms could be mistaken for that of a common cold or flu.

2. Assess the incident to inform a safe response strategy

Once a potential CBR incident has been identified, a rapid incident assessment should be conducted to ensure that the response strategy in place is appropriate and minimises further harm to people on the site.

The nature of a CBR incident can change over the course of the incident, for example a CBR material can spread to different parts of a building and routes may become unsuitable to use. It will likely be necessary to adapt any pre-planned response strategy according to the unfolding incident, and the SCR team should continue to assess the ongoing incident throughout to update this strategy. Whilst coordinating a response strategy, you should ensure that any response is adapted appropriately.

There are five key assessment activities that should be carried out rapidly and in parallel to inform the response strategy. These are:

3. React appropriately to reduce harm to yourself and others

After recognising that a CBR incident is occurring and identifying affected areas, you should react to the incident rapidly by carrying out the following actions.

There are six key activities to perform when reacting to a CBR incident.

1. COMMUNICATE…with the Emergency Services as soon as possible, and ‘say what you see’

Call 999 immediately as soon as you recognise that an incident is occurring, even if you are uncertain about its exact nature. For example you do not need to be certain that it is a CBR incident to make contact with the emergency services.

2. COMMUNICATE…with people on the site to move them to an unaffected location, via unaffected routes

Using a pre-planned response strategy tailored to the current incident, provide appropriate clear instructions to people on the site using pre-agreed communication channels and messages that are outlined in the planning phase. These should be provided at a regular frequency, and when changes to the ongoing incident occur, for example, if additional routes become affected and unsuitable to use, additional update announcements should be made. Communications can be given to people on the site using PA systems.

3. COMMUNICATE …REMOVE, REMOVE, REMOVE to all those affected

Messages to building/site occupants affected during an incident should consider REMOVE, REMOVE, REMOVE (see Annex B for more information).

4. ACT …to prevent all but essential access to affected locations

Once you have identified areas that are potentially affected, you should prevent people on the site from entering these areas. By preventing access to affected locations, you reduce the likelihood of people on the site from unknowingly entering an affected area and becoming exposed to a CBR hazard.

Your role in preventing access to affected locations may involve communicating affected locations to security personnel who can prevent entry, or including in your communications to building/site occupants to avoid particular affected areas.

Specialist responders may require access to affected locations in order to provide medical treatment to those affected.

5. ACT …on planned processes to modify building functions e.g. lifts and HVAC systems, if appropriate

Modifying building functions can reduce the impact of a CBR incident by reducing the spread of a CBR material around a building. You should follow the pre-planned process in place for your site to change building functions, for example contacting the HVAC engineer, site or building manager to coordinate any changes.

You should advise building/site occupants to avoid the use of lifts to evacuate the building, as lift functioning should be stopped during a CBR incident.

Alteration of the HVAC system (emergency stop, reverse flow, increase ventilation, etc.) may be considered according to the process in place for your site. For example enacted by the site or building manager, or after consultation with them.

6. ACT …potentially exposed individuals to remain in an unaffected location, separate from those unexposed

It is important that individuals who have been exposed to a CBR material, for example those showing symptoms or who have come into contact with a CBR material, do not leave the general area entirely following an incident (after evacuation), unless it is unsafe to do so, for example if there are indicators of a secondary threat.

Exposed individuals should also be isolated separately to those who are unexposed. This is to reduce the hazard posed to unexposed individuals via the accidental contamination or direct transfer of a CBR material. Isolating exposed individuals will also support more rapid medical treatment by the Emergency Services.

Annex A - Further Support and Guidance

If you require further advice, you should contact the organisation who has remit for your site.

This is likely be the National Counter-Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) and/or your local Counter-Terrorism Security Adviser for PALs and hazardous sites.

Additional NPSA resources and guidance can be found on the NPSA public website and are flagged below.

Annex B - Preparing and Responding to a CBR Incident – B Checklist

The following section provides a summary of actions outlined in this document. It is the role of your security manager to ensure that you have met these actions.

Annex C - Additional Information

The ETHANE mnemonic is an established reporting framework which provides a common structure for responders and their control rooms to understand and share incident information. When security personnel contact the Emergency Services, they will be asked questions to collect the following information.

For more information on the ‘REMOVE, REMOVE, REMOVE’ advice, including a downloadable version visit: https://www.protectuk.police.uk/advice-and-guidance/response/remove-remove-remove-guidance-hazardous-substance-exposure

ETHANE