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Hazardous Substances Emergency Events Surveillance
Under Florida law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead contact these offices by phone or in writing. ATSDR Hazardous Substances Emergency Events Surveillance, Division of Environmental Health. For more information on this project, contact John O'Malley, Environmental Health Director, Michael McCaskill, McCaskill,
What is a HSEES? *All links open in a new window
Since 1990, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has maintained an active, state-based ATSDR HSEES System. Florida Department of Health (FDOH), Division of Environmental Health, Bureau of Community Environmental Health began monitoring and reporting to HSEES on January 1, 2005. ATSDR?s HSEES supports FDOH through a state-based surveillance system to track acute releases of hazardous substances and prevent injury. The program coordinates data collection of acute hazardous substances releases through other agencies and monitors and reports to ATSDR chemical releases that meet HSEES requirements for a reportable event. The purpose of HSEES is to suggest strategies to reduce the morbidity (injury) and mortality (death) that result from hazardous substances events, which are experienced by first responders, employees, and the general public. There are 15 participating states that collect data from many different sources. The FDOH currently collects data from Department of Community Affairs (DCA), State Warning Point (SWP), Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), National Response Center (NRC) and Local Emergency Management Services, and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
What data elements are captured in HSEES?
Data are entered by participating state health departments into a web-based application that enables ATSDR to instantly access data for analysis. Data collected include the following:
 Time, date, and day of the week
Geographic location and place within the facility where the event occurred
Event type (fixed-facility or transportation related event)
Factors contributing to the release
Specific information on injured persons: age, sex, type and extent of injuries, distance from spill, population group (employee, general public, responders, student), and type of protective equipment used
Information about decontaminations, orders to evacuate or shelter-in-place
Land use and nearby population information to estimate the number of persons potentially exposed
How are FL HSEES data used?
The evaluation of the data will lead to the development of outreach and training in the form of presentations, as well as informational brochures designed to reduce the number of hazardous material incidents and associated injuries. The target for this intervention includes industry, local health departments, local emergency planning committees, first responders, and other stakeholders.
What releases are eligible for inclusion in the HSEES system?
Uncontrolled or illegal releases, which require clean up, are eligible to be included in the system. Threatened releases are also included if the amount that was threatened to be released would have required clean up and the threatened release led to a public health action such as an evacuation. Eligible events need to be reported to HSEES within 48 hours. The system does not study chronic human effects or the impact on the environment from these releases. The HSEES system also documents all reportable acute hazardous substances releases except for those involving only petroleum (for example, natural gas, propane, jet fuel, and gasoline). HSEES events occur at fixed facilities or during transportation.
What are the goals of the HSEES program?
To describe the distribution and characteristics of acute hazardous substances releases.
To describe and report injury of employees, first responders and the general public that is associated with acute hazardous substance releases.
To identify strategies through outreach and intervention to prevent hazardous substance releases and subsequent morbidity and mortality.
What are the benefits of the new program?
One important aspect in establishing a surveillance program is to identify all stakeholders involved in responding to a chemical release. If there is someone designated at the county health department level responsible for monitoring chemical events please contact us so that we may improve the system. Another goal of the program is to provide information on the type of chemical spills and releases occurring in each county to better prepare environmental health personnel to plan for such events in time of disaster. Other projects involve preparedness issues and providing resources to those that respond to a chemical event. The stakeholders input are critical to establishing this network and making it successful.
What data are available? (pdfs open in new window)
All pdfs are <1mb and open in a new window).
CO Fact Sheet (pdf).
2005 final data analysis (pdf)
CO exposure during hurricane season 2005 (pdf)
Chorine Fact Sheet 2007 (pdf)
Point of Contact:
Michael McCaskill, M.P.H.
Chemical Surveillance Toxicologist for Environmental Health
(850) 245-4572
Michael McCaskill
Brian J. Hughes, Ph.D., M.P.H., DABT
Principal Investigator and Preparedness Coordinator for Environmental Health
(850) 245-4115
Brian Hughes
Related Links:
ATSDR Hazardous Substance Emergency Events Surveillance
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