I was one of those in charge of a “big city” hazmat team for quite a few years. It was my job to evaluate the risks to my crews and the public from various situations that we encountered and also help plan for possible challenges in the future.
If the past year has taught us anything... it has illustrated how shockingly poor the public, politicians, bureaucrats and the media are at calculating any type of meaningful risk assessment. All the media has to do is throw around a few triggering words like radiation, acid, toxins, etc... and they can manipulate the public and politicians into an artificial panic for fun and profit.
Containers made to hold "hazardous materials" often fail and persons such as myself are called on to evaluate what the likely consequences will be, and what actions shoud be taken to stabilize the situation. It is just a fact of life in modern society.
Yes.
Lot of hazardous materials are really not that hazardous.
Lot of it is media hype. Plus, the people who know are often safeguarding to ridiculous levels, just to be covered from lawsuits.
We are overprotected.