Hazardous Materials Awareness

The Hazardous Materials Awareness course equips participants from diverse professional backgrounds with the knowledge and practical skills needed to recognize and respond safely to hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) incidents at the awareness level. Training aligns with the competencies established in NFPA 470 for hazardous materials/WMD emergency response personnel.

Through classroom instruction and practical activities, participants learn to identify hazardous materials and associated risks; use the U.S. Department of Transportation’s 2024 Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) and hazard communication documents; and determine appropriate protective actions for response personnel and the public.

Key skills developed during this course include:

Recognizing and identifying hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction.
Using the ERG and hazard communication documents to assess hazards and identify recommended protective actions.
Identifying appropriate awareness-level personal protective actions.
Determining appropriate public protective actions.
Communicating essential hazard information to the appropriate response authorities.

The target audience for this course is personnel with awareness-level hazardous materials or weapons of mass destruction responsibilities in their jurisdiction.

To be eligible to attend the course, candidate must have a requirement or responsibility to possess awareness-level knowledge and skills in the identification of hazardous materials and weapons of mass destruction, as well as determining and communicating the appropriate protective actions.

The Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) is an Accredited Provider (AP) of Continuing Education Units (CEU) and is authorized to award the following CEUs for successful completion of this activity:

IACET (International Association of Continuing Education and Training) – 0.8 CEUs