HAZWOPER Site Safety & Health Plan Video and DVD Excerpt: The purpose of the site safety plan is to establish requirements for protecting the health and safety of responders during all activities conducted at an incident. It contains safety information, instructions, and procedures. A site safety plan must be prepared and reviewed by qualified personnel for each hazardous substance response. Before operations at an incident commence, safety requirements must be written, conspicuously posted, or distributed to all response personnel and discussed with them. The safety plan must be periodically reviewed to keep it current, and technically correct. In non emergency situations such as long term remedial action at abandoned hazardous waste sites, safety plans are developed simultaneously with the general work plan. Workers can become familiar with the plan before site activities begin. Emergency response generally requires verbal safety instructions and reliance on existing standard operating procedures until (when time permits) a plan can be written. The plan must contain safety requirements for routine and hazardous response activities or unexpected on site emergencies. The plan's scope, detail, and length is based on information available about the incident, time available to prepare a site's specific plan, and reasons for responding. Three general categories of response exist. Emergencies, incident characterization, and redial actions. Considerations for personnel safety is generic and independent of the response category. However in scope, detail, and length safety requirements and plans vary considerably. These variations are determined by the reason for responding or category of response, information available, and the severity of the incident with consideration for dangers to the responder
