Local Emergency Responders Get Hands-On Training from TRANSCAER Train

Plaquemine, Louisiana - October 31, 2007

Emergency responders in south Louisiana visited Terra Industries Inc. in Donaldsonville on Wednesday October 31 to participate in a chemical rail transportation safety training initiative presented by Union Pacific Railroad (UP) and The Dow Chemical Company. Traveling across Texas and Louisiana, the TRANSCAER training tour brought chemical and rail industry professionals into select cities to provide free community awareness and emergency response training.

TRANSCAER, which stands for Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response, has traveled across the country offering this free service to local responders and community leaders through hands-on demonstrations and educational seminars designed to promote emergency preparedness. More than 40 local emergency responders attended the training in Donaldsonville including members of Dow’s Emergency Services and Security Department and Site Logistics.

The train used for the exercise includes an engine, a flatbed, three tank cars, a training classroom boxcar and a final training tank car. The participants were taught about the hazards associated with a train engine in a crash which includes gallons of acid from batteries as well as diesel. In addition, the participants got to try their hand at stopping leaks.

Working with TRANSCAER, UP and Dow visited nine cities in Texas and Louisiana along their shared chemical routes. Totaling nearly 500 miles, the tour launched Oct. 16 in Freeport, Texas, and traveled west making scheduled stops in Texas City, Houston, LaPorte and Beaumont. The tour then made four stops in Louisiana, visiting Lake Charles, Livonia, and Donaldsonville before completing the tour in New Orleans on Nov. 2.

For Dow, TRANSCAER is an integral part of the company’s long-standing commitment to local protection of human health and the environment, which today serves as a key foundational tenet of Dow’s 2015 Sustainability Goals.

"We take very seriously our obligation to responsibly manufacture and move our products – the chemicals that are the essential building blocks for most of the products people use every day," said Henry Ward, Director of Transportation Safety and Security, The Dow Chemical Company. "Rail is the safest mode by which to move these materials, so we are committed to working with UP and our other rail carriers to support the safe and secure transportation of these products. TRANSCAER Training Tours are an important part of that commitment."

About Dow

For Editorial Information:

Gary Cambre
The Dow Chemical Company
(225) 353-8265