Opportunities are knocking for consultants due to new DHS regs that are coming in chemical-related industries...meaning not only chemical manufacturers, but up and down the chemical supply chain - a huge market.
Bottom line - if companies handle or store "threshold" quantities of chemicals that are projected to be on the "DHS schedule", including many as common as acetone, chlorine and sodium nitrate, they are going to be required to have security site plans, vulnerability assessments, etc.
Read this article from Industry Week.
Here's what Security Management says:
"Ever since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh, Congress has worried about monitoring so-called "high risk" chemicals that could be exploited by terrorists to produce explosives or poison gases. After struggling for more than a decade to regulate such chemicals without unduly interrupting commerce, Congress delegated to the oversight responsibility to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which published interim regulations directing its Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism standards in April 2007.
The regulations define a "chemical facility" as any organization that owns a threshold quantity of chemicals labeled as potentially dangerous by DHS. Over 300 chemicals are listed in DHS' "Proposed Appendix A: DHS Chemicals of Interest," including acetone, chlorine, and sodium nitrate. Some of the chemicals on the list are commonly used in many industries. Once the final version of Appendix A is published, businesses that have threshold amounts of any of the chemicals listed will have two months to complete an online assessment using DHS' Chemical Security Assessment Tool.
The appraisal will enable DHS to rank facilities into four risk-based tiers. Businesses that fall into one of the upper three tiers will then have to develop security site plans and conduct security vulnerability assessments."
Bottom line - if companies handle or store "threshold" quantities of chemicals that are projected to be on the "DHS schedule", including many as common as acetone, chlorine and sodium nitrate, they are going to be required to have security site plans, vulnerability assessments, etc.
Read this article from Industry Week.
Here's what Security Management says:
"Ever since the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh, Congress has worried about monitoring so-called "high risk" chemicals that could be exploited by terrorists to produce explosives or poison gases. After struggling for more than a decade to regulate such chemicals without unduly interrupting commerce, Congress delegated to the oversight responsibility to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which published interim regulations directing its Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism standards in April 2007.
The regulations define a "chemical facility" as any organization that owns a threshold quantity of chemicals labeled as potentially dangerous by DHS. Over 300 chemicals are listed in DHS' "Proposed Appendix A: DHS Chemicals of Interest," including acetone, chlorine, and sodium nitrate. Some of the chemicals on the list are commonly used in many industries. Once the final version of Appendix A is published, businesses that have threshold amounts of any of the chemicals listed will have two months to complete an online assessment using DHS' Chemical Security Assessment Tool.
The appraisal will enable DHS to rank facilities into four risk-based tiers. Businesses that fall into one of the upper three tiers will then have to develop security site plans and conduct security vulnerability assessments."
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