HAZMAT pharmacy prevents Incirlik from having a blast

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman William A. O'Brien
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Many of the chemicals used around base, even things as simple as cleaning supplies, pose the potential to be hazardous. The Airmen of the hazardous material pharmacy store these items safely, ensure they're serviceable when customers receive them and train on how to react if they were to spill.

"We store different types of batteries, acid, oil, gas cylinders and other things," said Wyatt Bristol 39th Logistics Readiness Squadron supply HAZMAT technician. "We store anything that could cause harm to the environment or the person working with it. Even things like Pine Sol."

Everything in the warehouse is stored in different areas based on its hazardous properties.

"For every item in here there's a (material safety data sheet). What that does is brake down every hazard for each item, said Bristol.

The MSDSs are used to inform the technicians about how much of a particular item is stored in a given container and what to do in the event of an emergency.

"It breaks down every hazardous aspect of that particular item down," said Bristol. "The damage it will cause, how much is contained in each container, how to react to it if it spills, what to wear if it spills and what harm it will cause to your body. From that, we are able to react."

In addition to the six weeks of training they receive at technical school, to prepare for the different potential spills, the team does regular training to ensure they can safely mitigate each hazard

"Once a month we do different spill scenarios so everyone's up to date on what we need to do if it spills," said Bristol. "We will pretend something spilled or something spilled onto somebody and we practice how we would react."

Doing this, allows the younger Airmen to better understand the career field.

"As an (Airman 1st Class) at my first base, my favorite part about the job is learning it," said Airman 1st Class Michael Brown, 39th LRS HAZMAT technician. There is a lot of information to work with, but it's intriguing because I get to observe and learn different methods used to complete a task. That and getting to know my coworkers who give me insight on what they've done before, how to execute the mission now, and what to expect in the future."

When organizations need hazardous items, they can purchase them through the enterprise, environmental, safety and occupational health management information system, which is a computer program that tracks where all hazardous chemicals are going and how much is being taken.

"For everyone who orders things through the hazardous market, they're required to have a (EESOH-MIS) account," said Bristol. "Basically, what that is, is a environmental computer program that ensures the (organization) that is ordering products that are considered hazardous by the government is authorized to order it and has a use for it. Everything they order must be in specific quantities so it doesn't get wasted because we don't want to generate hazardous waste."

"Through that system, they order things and we check what they're ordering and how much and from there we respond by calling them and asking why they need it. Once we are given a purpose, we go into the supply system and charge them for what they're ordering."

To ensure organizations are getting quality products when they order them, every technician is certified to extend the shelf life of an item by half of the original shelf life if it expires and is still in good condition.

"Many items in here expire, but everyone who works here is a limited inspector, which means we're able to check an item make sure it's still fine and we are authorized to extend it's shelf life by half," said Bristol. "So, if an item has a shelf life of two years and it hits the two-year mark, we're able to extend it by a year."

Through the process of safe storage, reliable response capabilities and ensuring products are the best a customer can get, the HAZMAT pharmacy ensures that when Airmen use dangerous chemicals, they are as safe as they could possibly be.