Background on the Field Guide

Comparison to the Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG)

The First Responder's Field Guide to Hazmat & Terrorism Emergency Response is, in essence, a complete Hazmat First Responder Operations class in a field guide format. It covers your basic responsibilities at a hazmat incident or terrorist event, regardless of the material involved.

The Emergency Response Guidebook (ERG) is more chemical-specific, with hazard information and guidelines on how to handle incidents based on the type of product you may be dealing with. While the The First Responder's Field Guide to Hazmat & Terrorism Emergency Response does provide brief hazard information and guidelines for dealing with products in the various DOT hazard classes, this comprises only a small portion of the book.

Other things the book includes that you won't find in the ERG include an entire chapter on container recognition, information on assessing the hazards at an incident, a review of terminology you might see on an MSDS or shipping papers, and several chapters on dealing with terrorist events.

Based on National Standards and Regulations

The First Responder's Field Guide to Hazmat & Terrorism Emergency Response is based on 29 CFR 1910.120 and the 2002 editions of NFPA 472 and 473 (the national standards for hazardous materials emergency response). I also incorporated proposed updates for the 2007 editions of NFPA 472 and 473.

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