The Illinois Emergency Medical Response Team is in need of Health and Safety Professionals across the state to volunteer to be a part of their team serving as IMERT Safety Officer. They have requested the assistance of the Chicago AIHA Local Section to solicit Health and Safety Professionals to join. The attached Word document contains an initial position description for the team Safety Officer. A membership application is also attached. The next orientation session is January 15th in Oak Lawn so if interested please submit an application as soon as possible (other dates and locations are listed below).

This is an excellent opportunity for the Health and Safety Community to get involved in community emergency response and to share your expertise. All too often we have been left out of this area. The time commitment is not great. An initial "boot camp" to get a team orientation takes 6 to 8 hours and they are held on various dates across the state. Participation is required at your choice of periodic team training meetings several times a year and one or two exercises a year. Also the Safety Officers will conduct some of the Health and Safety related training. These are also held at various locations across the state and on many different dates so there is a lot of flexibility as to when and where you attend.

There are four teams that make up the IMERT, Downstate, Central, Northern, and Chicago. Each geographic team in turn has several subteams which rotate oncall time periods of around two weeks at a time. People assigned to one of the teams need to be ready to respond to a call during that oncall period. If out of town during part of that time an alternate needs to be contacted to cover should an incident occur. Volunteers are needed for all of these teams, at least 12 to 16 Health and Safety Professionals joining IMERT would be great.

There are also many Health and Safety programs to get developed for IMERT and the specific roles during an incident will need to be defined further still. This is something the team Safety Officers will work on as a group once this part of the team is completed.

The team does not operate in a hot zone so HazMat Tech qualifications are not needed but would be helpful.

The mission of the IMERT is:

"The Illinois Medical Emergency Response Team (IMERT) will respond to and assist with emergency medical treatment at mass casualty incidents, including, but not limited to, chemical, biological, and radiological incidents, when a need is identified. The team will respond when activated by the Director of Public health or designee. In addition, members of IMERT will coordinate and participate in educational programs throughout Illinois to EMS System participants."

Eugene Satrun CIH CSP LIH
Vice-President Chicago Local Section AIHA

Staff Industrial Hygienist
Exxon Mobil Corporation - Safety, Health, & Environment
Global Medicine & Occupational Health, Joliet Refinery
PO Box 874
Joliet IL 60434
(815) 521-7739

IMERT Boot Camps
(Several locations and dates to choose from during the first part of the year.)
8:30 AM - 4:00 PM

3/12/2005 Mt. Vernon, Illinois
4/3/2005 Glenview, Illinois

Volunteer application form & more information at www.imert.org.

View the IMERT volunteer cover letter.