Chlorine gas dispersion: Awareness on emergency response of trained residents living near water treatment plant

With socio-economic growth in this era, the use of hazardous chemicals chlorine has increased proportionally with the increasing population and demand for potable water worldwide. Chlorine gas leakage frequently happens causing dispersion that poses life threat and can lead to many health problems among the people living near the potential source of leakage. This research aimed to assess the awareness of emergency response in the event of chlorine gas dispersion for trained residents living near the water treatment plant. A qualitative study was conducted at residences near the plant subjected to the Occupational Safety and Health Act (Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazards) Regulation 1996. The sampling method employed in this study is purposive, targeting individuals who have participated in the Information to Public (ITP) program. Five interviews were conducted, each assessing six factors; demographic characteristics, hazard knowledge, attitudes to risk, previous emergency experience, exposure towards awareness degrees, and ability to respond. Demographic aims to identify the characteristics of the person being interviewed. Meanwhile hazard knowledge is to determine the basic awareness regarding the chlorine gas. Attitudes to risk is to understand the cognitive and interpretive of the interviewees. Previous experience of emergencies objective is to explore the feeling of people related
emergency response. Besides, the exposure towards awareness degrees aims to discover what would they do to increase the awareness. Finally, ability to respond is test their basic preparedness of emergency response. The findings show that the
majority of respondents demonstrated a positive awareness by indicating their knowledge towards emergency response of chlorine gas dispersion. It is essential to assess their awareness to prevent and mitigate the effects of major accidents involving chlorine which can cause harm to the near community. Large quantified surveys can be performed in the future to truly represent the population and reduce systematic sampling error.