The 20th annual "Continuing Challenge" Hazmat Workshop is being held at the Sacramento Radisson through Friday, Sept. 11.

Hosted by the Sacramento Fire Department, the workshop provides a forum for emergency response teams and other interested individuals to become familiar with the hazmat industry's cutting-edge equipment and services. More than 70 industry groups are in attendance.

Walking around the Radisson courtyard, surrounded by advanced computer equipment, detection devices and polymer-lined chemical suits, one wouldn't expect that nearly thirty years ago the industry was practically nonexistent.

Jan Dunbar, event coordinator and retired chief of special operations at the Sacramento Fire Department, explained that until the late 1970s, the current hazmat response did not exist. "For many years, the Fire Department would respond to hazmat situations by just washing (the contamination) down with water."

This all changed when fire officials throughout the country were forced to rethink their 'wash-down' policies. Safety concerns dramatically rose after responses to major contaminations resulted in the deaths of firefighters. According to Dunbar, in one hazmat response in Kingman, Ariz., "12 firefighters died instantly."

And in the 1970s, he said, the federal Environmental Protection Agency began citing fire departments for their 'wash-down' policies. "This was an era when the fire service of America took a look at itself and decided it could do better," Dunbar said. That's when a whole new response service -- the hazmat team -- was born.

In 1980, several major East Coast fire departments launched their first hazmat teams. In 1981, Dunbar was selected to start Sacramento's first such team.

Although fire departments responded to safety and environmental concerns by creating hazmat teams, the industry at that time was unable to provide departments with adequate protection and detection devices, Dunbar said. It "was disorganized, (with) no standards, no self-imposed direction. Everything had been stagnant. When I looked at chemical suits in 1980, they were totally unacceptable," he said.

Dunbar explained that much of that era's equipment was developed during World War II. Nearly 40 years had passed and there was little technological development.

"Professional organizations in the fire departments demanded that the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) create committees for the purposes of writing standards (for the hazmat industry)," Dunbar said. "Within a very short period of time, 1989 to 1990, standards were published and manufacturers had to follow those standards."

The standards were very strict, Dunbar said, but the industry met and exceeded those goals within several years. As a result, the standards became even more rigorous.

Looking over the Radisson courtyard filled with vendors from an industry he helped to create, Dunbar said, "The technology was always there, (industry) just needed a kick in the pants to do it."

To learn more about the "Continuing Challenge" Hazmat Workshop, please visit: www.hazmat.org