City upgrades antidote kits

CITY HALL — The City Council on Tuesday approved more than $245,000 in state funding to replace the city’s aging stockpile of nerve-agent antidote kits. The unanimous 5-0 approval comes about three months before half of them are set to expire.

Orders will be made in time to replace the city’s 4,500 antidote kits by the end of July, two months before half of them reach their expiration dates in September, with the rest expiring in December, Glendale Fire Capt. Jim Frawley said.

Funding for the kits was secured through grants from the California Office of Homeland Security as part of the city’s role in the state’s Metropolitan Medical Response System.

Glendale is one of 18 cities across the state that is a part of the emergency response network capable of handling massive public health and safety incidents.

The money approved by the council on Tuesday will primarily fund kit replacements for Glendale, Long Beach and Los Angeles County, said Frawley, who oversees the city’s program and serves on the response system’s steering committee.

As a member of the network, the city must maintain enough kits to treat 10,000 victims of a biological incident and 1,000 victims of a chemical agent, according to city staff reports.

Since each kit can treat up to three people, Frawley said, Glendale’s stockpile of 4,500 kits could treat up to 13,500 people.

The antidotes have a five-year shelf life, he said.

“It is critical that we have this replacement cash,” he said.

The small, bright-orange plastic kits contain syringes filled with the antidote that — when injected into the upper thigh or buttocks within minutes of being exposed to the chemical agent — works to block toxic effects.

The city has augmented its stock of antidote kits over the years, so that an additional 500 city employees will have access to the emergency treatment in the event of a chemical attack and be able to operate city services, Frawley said.

In addition to being placed on all Glendale Fire engines, the kits are strategically placed throughout the city to ensure rapid deployment in the event of a massive incident, he said.

Most Glendale Police patrol cars also carry the kits, in addition to some of the department’s detectives’ vehicles, Glendale Police Officer John Balian said.

Public safety officials won’t quantify the probability of such an incident occurring, but its potentially massive effect on the public and the economy drives the need for the program, they said.

“It is certainly high on our priority list,” said Chris Bertelli, spokesman for the state’s Office of Homeland Security.

The funds stem from money left over from grants originally made to a host of other state and county agencies in fiscal year 2004, Frawley said.

As the performance period for those funds draws to a close, funds were made available for a grant proposal by the Metropolitan Medical Response System Steering Committee for $1.9 million to fund more kit replacements, officials said.

In addition to the first payment, the City Council took the extra step of approving a potential allocation for the full $1.9 million, should future state funding become available.

That action would mean future funds for the program could be transferred almost immediately without the need for city staff to initiate the grant-approval process — which could take up to two months, Frawley said.

Since the state grants have strict spending deadlines, the streamlined process will ease those time constraints, he said.

“To have that step taken out of the way is huge,” he said.