Hazard Mitigation

Hazard Mitigation
Name
Institution Affiliation
There are several types of hazards. The most common ones are the chemical intoxication, fire hazards, and moving vehicles/equipment hazards. In this case, the stakeholders are the people who have personal interests in the hazard management (Islam & Ryan, 2015). Therefore, their personal interest may make them attempt to influence the policy developments in the country. They are also affected by the hazard developments in the city. When it comes to hazard mitigation, the stakeholders can broadly be classified in three groups: the social groups, the economic groups, and the political groups.
The biggest of the social groups are the households. The households are responsible for adopting the hazard adjustments whenever an emergency occurs. The households affect the vulnerabilities to the hazards through their decisions. The households also control a significant amount of social assets that can easily be affected by the hazards (Srivastava & Laurian, 2006). Other private sector groups such as the NGOs, the religious groups, and the community based organizations also constitute the social groups.
Those who run the businesses in the affected place also constitute the economic group of the stakeholders. This group is also important stakeholders since they form part of the societal institution that ensures the movement of goods and services. Therefore, hazards have a direct impact to the success and failure of their businesses.

Both the small and big businesses are vulnerable to the hazards anytime. However, larger businesses are better placed to recover from the hazards due to their strong fiscal background.
The other group of stakeholders comes from the political group. The political groups have varying levels of power, depending on their hierarchy within the government. Most of the hazard policy levels are prepared at the state and the federal government levels. At the national level, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is involved in managing the hazards. The power relations among the various hazard stakeholders can be summarized in the diagram below.
Fig, 1: Power relations between the hazard stakeholders (Source: Islam & Ryan, 2015)

One of the standards that apply to the chemical intoxication hazard is the hazard communication. Due to the toxic nature of the chemicals, proper communication procedure is necessary to help the victims and those vulnerable to such attacks. The law requires that employers must avail the information and the identities of all the chemicals used within their workplaces (Islam & Ryan, 2015). According to Islam and Ryan (2015), the OSHA Hazard standards that require all the employers to disseminate all the information related to their chemicals. According to these standards, the chemical producers are required to provide a label for all the chemicals under their disposal and convey the hazard information from such chemicals. On the same note, the employees are required to have the safety data sheets for all the workers exposed to such chemicals.
The federal and state laws require that the employers should protect their workers from fire hazards. Therefore, the employers are required to provide basic training for their employees in handling fire emergency. The OSHA Act requires that the workplaces should provide fire emergency exits that are strategically located to enable easy evacuation during fire hazards. The nature and the number of fire exists depends on the number of people exposed and the industry involved (Srivastava & Laurian, 2006). Whenever employees are inside, the fire exits must be kept open for easy exit of the employees. An approved fire alarm system also needs to be set up at a particular place to alert people during a hazard.
The federal and the state government require organizations to carry out regular fire safety risk assessment and update it on a regular basis. The risk assessment should be designed such that it can identify the potential cause of the fire, the substances that would burn, and the possible persons that would be affected by such fires. In addition, it is a requirement that the organizations keep the correct firefighting equipment and fix them on a regular basis. The organizations are free to do it as part or as a separate part of risk management.
Large numbers of transportation used within the workplace are potential hazards to the people nearby. Such accidents are usually very serious and may lead to loss of life and property. The organization can also bear the heavy financial burden from lawsuits arising from such cases. The moving vehicle and equipment hazards are mainly governed by the General Health and Safety Legislation. These laws stipulate that an organization needs to provide a safe transportation system that may not cause any harm to the people nearby. Therefore, the organization is required to provide adequate information, training, instruction, and even supervision related to the moving vehicles and equipment (Srivastava & Laurian, 2006). The risk assessment should be done to ensure that everyone is safe from any moving object.
The state government ensures that companies implement and use barriers such as warning signs or other safeguards for the protection of the workers. They are required to use competent signals that are strategically put in visible places. The codes stipulate the adequate lightning should be put in place and the mobile equipment has headlights and tail lights to provide adequate illumination.
The federal, state, and the local stakeholders play key role in the emergency and crisis management. Particularly, the state governments are involved in making appropriate legislation that governs the disaster and hazard management. The state government also ensures that such legislation is updated from time to time in response to the changing environment. The state government through its concerned bodies like FEMA is also involved in the approval and disapproval of policy changes related to disaster management (Islam & Ryan, 2015). The local government is also entrusted with the responsibility of declaring a disaster within their localities. The state legislature also ratified state budgets that support the emergency programs within the state. In the event of a disaster, the state government sets the post-disaster recovery commission. On the other hand, the local stakeholders are expected to collaborate with the elected officials and other representatives to support the enactment of proper legislation on emergency and crisis management. The local stakeholders through their representatives are required to provide their contribution to the emergency management policies.
The sources used in this paper came from very credible sources. The two sources used in this paper are one book and one academic journal. The book is written by a full time professor (Ryan) in collaboration with an assistant professor (Islam). These two people have extensive experience in teaching and research in matters related hazards and emergency preparedness. These two also runs a consulting firm that deals with emergency services. Finally, the book was published last year, to imply that it takes into account recent concepts of hazard and disaster management. Therefore, their book provides credible information this paper. The other source is an academic journal published in Disaster Prevention and Management Journal. Therefore, it meets the academic threshold for use in an academic writing.
References
Islam, T & Ryan, J. (2015). Hazard Mitigation in Emergency Management 1st Edition, Butterworth-Heinemann
Srivastava, R., & Laurian, L. (2006). Natural hazard mitigation in local comprehensive plans. Disaster Prevention and Management, 15(3), 461-483. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09653560610669936