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Volume 21 — Issue 18 | May 6, 2021 |
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In September 2020, American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International held a workshop on fast-tracking standards development to address shortages in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) due to COVID-19. This led to the formation of an ASTM-led global collaboration platform to leverage the capabilities of the global PPE community to more efficiently advance consensus PPE standards. This in turn led to the development of a new, much needed standard for barrier face coverings intended for infection control.
Unlike respirators and surgical masks, barrier face coverings have not had to meet federal standards to confirm their performance. That lack of standardized testing and labeling has left mask users with no way to compare face covering products to make informed decisions when choosing a face covering.
ASTM International, with input from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH), recently developed a new Barrier Face Covering standard (number F3502-21) to establish a set of uniform testing methods and performance measures, providing a consistent baseline that allows comparison of products based on four criteria: filtration efficiency, breathability, re-use potential and leakage.
Additionally, the standard provides design requirements for the general construction of masks, use of nonirritating and nontoxic materials, flammability, sizing and shelf life. Manufacturers can now report that their barrier face coverings meet the baseline performance measures described in the standard. This will help purchasers of infection control PPE and the general public to make more informed choices.
Visit ASTM International’s website on its Global Collaboration Platform for PPE for additional information about the ASTM barrier face covering F3502-21 standard, including a recorded presentation on the new standard and white paper on ASTM’s overall initiative. ASTM International is currently providing no cost public access to its COVID-19 related standards.
Barrier face coverings are not respirators or surgical masks and are not regulated by NIOSH. More information on the NIOSH respirator approval program is available on the CDC NIOSH website.
(Sources: NIOSH, ASTM International)
Public safety professionals, especially law enforcement, have many encounters with the public in an environment of high tension, such as an emergency, crisis, or conflict. Interactions between public safety professionals and citizens can be influenced by many unpredictable psychological and medical factors. This makes the possibility of escalation toward unsafe, aggressive, or violent behavior a real threat if not handled strategically.
De-escalation is more than just talking someone down; it encapsulates a variety of techniques, both verbal and non-verbal. These techniques require practice to ensure they are applied safely and correctly. However, research is lacking on the effectiveness of various de-escalation methods. This is a challenge for public safety professionals, who may receive training on de-escalation without any measurement verifying the training is operationally effective.
To help build the body of evidence identifying which de-escalation methods are effective and in what contexts, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) recently partnered with Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC), the DHS Center of Excellence at Arizona State University’s (ASU) Center for Accelerating Operational Efficiency, the Dallas Police Department and the Smith County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office to study how interactions between officers and citizens affect conflict management.
The study uses video footage of recent police encounters and a video coding and analysis process to document the interaction between officers and civilians in different response settings. The objective of this study is to identify any pattern of behavior that consistently produces positive outcomes, such as lower levels of officer force, reduced citizen resistance levels, and increased citizen compliance and cooperation. The ultimate goal is to produce findings that guide training for federal, state and local law enforcement.
Results from this study are expected to be published for law enforcement and academic communities by mid-summer 2021.
If you are interested in learning more about de-escalation, the International Public Safety Association (IPSA) is offering a webinar on May 20, 2021 from 1:00 to 2:15 p.m. EST. The webinar is based on content delivered in the Force Science Institute Realistic De-escalation Instructor Course. The Force Science Institute is dedicated to scientifically determining and fully understanding the actual physical and psychological dynamics of force encounters through research of human behaviors during rapidly unfolding, high-stress confrontations. The webinar will discuss de-escalation based on two foundational concepts:
- The critical importance of making the tactical decisions necessary to control and stabilize the incident, to properly assess the risk and to determine whether de-escalation is even possible or should be attempted.
- Correctly identifying the type of aggressor (primal or cognitive) since different categories of aggression require vastly different communication styles to be effective.
For more information and to register for this IPSA webinar, visit the registration page. Anyone may register to attend this free webinar, but the recording of the webinar is available to IPSA members only.
For more information about DHS S&T and FLETC’s work with law enforcement and research efforts on de-escalation methods, contact STMedia@hq.dhs.gov.
(Sources: DHS S&T, IPSA)
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The National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) and the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) are leading the 46th annual National EMS Week from May 16 to 22, 2021. This year’s theme is “This is EMS: Caring for Our Communities.” The annual campaign recognizes the heroes who provide emergency medical services in communities across the country. Under the EMS Strong banner, the campaign supports and strengthens the emergency medical services (EMS) community by honoring accomplishments and increasing awareness of the critical role of EMS in communities across the country.
Each day of the week has been assigned a theme:
- Monday – EMS Education Day.
- Tuesday – Safety Tuesday.
- Wednesday – EMS for Children Day, featuring a webinar hosted by ACEP on May 19, discussing pediatric readiness and the upcoming National Pediatric Readiness Assessment.
- Thursday – Save-A-Life Day, including CPR and the Stop the Bleed campaign, produced by the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP).
- Friday – EMS Recognition Day.
Visit the EMS Strong campaign website for more information about the 2021 National EMS Week, including inspiring stories about EMS practitioners, and the annual EMS Week Planning Guide. Also visit ACEP’s website and NAEMT’s website for many additional resources.
(Sources: NAEMT, ACEP)
The Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC) reports, year to date in 2021, there have been more than 750 M1.5 or greater earthquakes that have occurred, as shown on CUSEC’s recent earthquakes map, and a similar map from the United States Geological Survey. These geological events remind us that the ground can begin shaking at any time and individuals and communities should know what to do before, during, and after an earthquake occurs.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is providing six free, web-based training opportunities to the states within the CUSEC region throughout May and June. These training opportunities are part of FEMA’s National Earthquake Technical Assistance Program (NETAP). They support CUSEC’s mission to reduce deaths, injuries, property damage and economic losses resulting from earthquakes in the Central United States.
The six FEMA NETAP webinars are:
- FEMA P-154: Rapid Visual Screening of Buildings for Potential Seismic Hazards, offered May 13, 2021, noon – 4:00 p.m. CST.
- FEMA P-1000: Safer, Stronger, Smarter: A Guide to Improving School Natural Hazard Safety, offered May 27, 2021, noon – 2:00 p.m. CST.
- FEMA P-395: Earthquake Mitigation for Schools, offered June 3, 2021, noon – 3:00 p.m. CST.
- FEMA E-74: Reducing the Risks of Nonstructural Earthquake Damage, offered June 17, 2021, noon – 4:00 p.m. CST.
- FEMA P-767: Earthquake Mitigation for Hospitals, offered June 24, 2021, noon – 4:00 p.m. CST.
- ATC-20: Post-Earthquake Safety Evaluation of Buildings, offered June 30, 2021, noon – 4:00 p.m. CST.
Building officials, engineers, architects, building owners, emergency managers, risk analysts, GIS technicians and other interested citizens and volunteers may benefit from these trainings. Professional development certificates will be provided to registered participants who attend individual sessions. Note that registration is first come, first served.
For more information and to register for any of these webinars, visit the course listings on CUSEC’s Events Calendar. If you need additional information, please contact FEMA's NETAP program administrator, the Applied Technology Council (ATC), at atc@atcouncil.org.
You may also visit CUSEC’s website for many additional resources related to earthquake preparedness and mitigation, including a new earthquake hazard maps resource page, and to register to view free past webinars.
(Source: CUSEC)
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NGA’s Cybersecurity Policy Academy gets rolling with five states
The National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices has named whole-of-state cybersecurity as the theme of its 2021 Policy Academy, and participants are making it clear that they believe stopping threats requires engaging a broad array of partners.
The academy kicked off last month with five participants whose project proposals involve several NGA-recommended topics, with Indiana and Washington focusing on state and local government cybersecurity partnerships, Kansas and Missouri selecting cyber governance and Montana rounding out the group with an effort on cybersecurity workforce development.
The academy aims to help participants tackle initiatives that may be too complex for states to manage on their own, with the hope that the different projects will produce insights, models and warnings about potential problems that could guide other states in future work.
(Source: Government Technology)
New video explains value of LMR encryption in public safety operations
Encryption of public safety radio traffic has taken on new importance as agencies face the challenges of a pandemic and civil unrest added to their traditional mission. While many agencies realize the importance of encryption for protecting sensitive communications, they have questions about its implementation, practical applications, and impact on interoperability. To answer these questions, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a video, Encryption in Three Minutes, which draws on interviews with responders, communications managers and engineers, emergency operations managers, and statewide interoperability coordinators (SWICs) from across the nation. The video covers:
- Encryption’s role in public safety.
- Implementing encryption while maintaining interoperability.
- Choosing the best encryption algorithm.
- Coordinating encryption with mutual aid partners.
- Practical recommendations for planning and implementing land mobile radio (LMR) encryption.
For agencies considering encryption, the brief video offers insights and advice from public safety officials with firsthand experience. To learn more about encryption and view the video, visit cisa.gov/safecom/technology or email FPIC@cisa.dhs.gov
(Source: CISA)
The Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve: A National Guard-like program to address growing cybersecurity vulnerabilities faced by the US government
The SolarWinds cyberattack as well as other recent cyber breaches targeted at the United States has demonstrate the risks of the cyber workforce shortage. Researchers stated there is currently 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs globally, which is enough to fill 50 NFL stadiums. In the United States alone according to cybersecurity research groups, there are an estimated 315,000 unfilled cybersecurity positions.
As cybersecurity threats and attacks continue to grow in scale, occurrence, and complexity, it’s critical that a solution to address the deficiency is put in place. Unfortunately, the pipeline of security talent isn’t where it needs to be to help curb the widespread of cybercrimes we are facing.
In fact, in the past few years there has been a zero-percent unemployment rate in cybersecurity and the opportunities in this field are vast.
To help combat this problem, lawmakers want to create a National Guard-like program to address growing cybersecurity vulnerabilities faced by the U.S. government. This would be like a Civilian Cybersecurity Reserve and it would be voluntary and by invitation only. This would allow our national security agencies to have access to the qualified, capable, and service-oriented American talent necessary to respond when an attack occurs.
(Source: Security Boulevard)
New threat group carrying out aggressive ransomware campaign
Researchers at FireEye Mandiant have observed what they describe as an aggressive new threat group exploiting a recently patched zero-day flaw in SonicWall's virtual private network (VPN) technology to drop ransomware called Fivehands on enterprise networks.
The group, which Mandiant is tracking as UNC2447, has been attempting to extort victims both with the ransomware itself and by stealing data from them and threatening to leak it on hacker forums, like many other ransomware operators recently. The group's victims — mostly in the US and Europe — include organizations across multiple industries such as telecommunications, healthcare, construction and engineering, food and beverage, and education.
(Source: DarkReading)
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The InfoGram is distributed weekly to provide members of the Emergency Services Sector with information concerning the protection of their critical infrastructures. |
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