substances emergencies. Fifteen state health
were designed to aid emergency department physicians
departments, including Minnesota, participate
and other emergency health care professionals, such as
in HSEES. HSEES captures data on more than
first responders, who manage acute exposures result-
8,000 events annually. Of these, 80% occur at
ing from chemical incidents. ATSDR's toxicological
fixed facilities, and 20% are transportation-related
profiles comprehensively describe health effects; path-
events. Most events occur from 8:00 AM to
ways of human exposure; and the behavior of more
5:00 PM Monday through Friday. Persons most
than 250 hazardous substances in air, soil, and water
often injured are employees.
at hazardous waste sites. The toxicological profiles are
primarily used as a comprehensive resource by health
HSEES generates information for use by states
professionals at all levels. In the last 5 years, more
to conduct presentations on planning prevention
than 3,300 of these profiles have been sent to request-
strategies for industries that account for a
ers, including representatives of federal, state, and
substantial number of spills; conduct hazardous
local health and environmental departments; academic
materials (HazMat) training courses, including
institutions; private industries; and nonprofit organiza-
information about the risk for injury from
tions in Minnesota. ATSDR has also developed exten-
methamphetamine labs; establish and maintain
sive resources for community members.
protection areas for municipal water systems;
assist with the proper placement of HazMat teams;
develop fact sheets on frequently spilled chemicals
or chemicals that cause a disproportionate
number of injuries (e.g., chlorine and ammonia);
develop newsletters for industry, responders, and
environmental groups; and conduct presentations
for state and local emergency planners. A public-
use dataset will be available on the ATSDR HSEES
Web site in the future.
Association of Occupational and
Environmental Clinics
Association of Occupational and Environmental Clin-
ics (AOEC), ATSDR supports an occupational and
environmental health program in Minnesota. This sup-
port is provided to improve education and communica-
tion related to surveillance, diagnosis, treatment, and
prevention of illness or injury related to exposure to
hazardous substances. The member institution in Min-
nesota is Occupational and Environmental Medicine,
HealthPartners-Regions Hospital in St. Paul and in
Minneapolis.
Resource Materials
ATSDR develops materials for public health profes-
sionals and medical care providers to use to assess the
public health impacts of chemical exposures. These
resources are available in print, on the ATSDR Web
site, and on CD-ROM. For example, medical man-
For more information, contact ATSDR toll-free
agement guidelines are available for acute chemical
at 1-888-42ATSDR (1-888-422-8737) or visit the
exposures to more than 50 chemicals. These guidelines
ATSDR Web site at www.atsdr.cdc.gov.
March 2004
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