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Disaster Dictionary

The online Disaster Dictionary contains thousands of entries that capture the burgeoning lexicon of disaster management. Compiled over many years by Dr. O’Leary, it is updated annually to reflect the evolving language environment. Like its sister SEMP publications—Securitas Magazine and Biot Reports—the Disaster Dictionary is offered to readers free of charge.

SELECT A LETTER: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z SOURCES

Words Beginning with F

f: irefighter/paramedic A trained individual who participates in firefighting and fire prevention activities and in protecting life and property, and responds to emergency calls to provide immediate paramedical care to critically ill or injured people, followed by their transport to a medical facility.
facility: A building or place that provides a particular service or is used for a particular industry, as in a health care facility.
facility management: A category of management that includes facility selection and acquisition, building services, information systems, communications, safety and health, physical security, and emergency preparedness.
facility-based surge capacity: The actions taken at the facility (e.g., hospital, school) level that augment services within the response structure of the facility; may include responses that are external to the actual structure of the facility but are nearby (e.g., medical care provided in tents on the hospitals grounds). These responses are under the control of the facility’s incident management systems and primarily depend on the facility’s emergency operations’ plans.
failed state: A dysfunctional state which also has multiple competing political factions in conflict within its borders or has no functioning governance above the local level. This does not imply that a central government facing an insurgency is automatically a failed state. If essential functions of government continue in areas controlled by the central authority, it has not “failed.” An example of a failed state is Somalia.
failure 1.: The condition of not achieving the desired end. 2. One that fails completely. 3. A cessation of proper mechanical functions, e.g., electrical failure.
failure mode and effect analysis: Error analysis, which may involve retrospective investigations (as in root cause analysis) or prospective attempts to predict “error modes.” Different frameworks exist for predicting possible errors. Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) combines the probability of failure with the consequences of failure to create a “criticality index,” which allows for the prioritization of specific processes as quality improvement targets. For instance, an FMEA analysis of the medication- dispensing process on a general hospital ward might break down all steps from receipt of orders in the central pharmacy to filling automated dispensing machines by pharmacy technicians. Each step in this process would be assigned a probability of failure and an impact score, so that all steps could be ranked according to the product of these two numbers. Steps ranked at the top (i.e., those with the highest “criticality indices”) would be prioritized for error proofing.
failure mode, effect, and criticality analysis: A systematic way of examining a design prospectively for possible ways in which failure can occur. It assumes that no matter how knowledgeable or careful people are, errors will occur in some situations and may even be likely to occur.
fallout 1.: The precipitation to earth of radioactive particulate matter from atmospheric testing of nuclear devices. 2. The radioactive particulate matter itself.
fascism: A political philosophy that advocates governance by a dictator, assisted by a hierarchically organized, strongly ideological party, in maintaining a totalitarian and regimented society through violence, intimidation, and the arbitrary use of power.
fatal: Deadly.
fatality 1.: A death resulting from an accident or a disaster. 2. One that is killed as a result of such an occurrence.
fatality rate: The death rate observed in a designated series of people affected by a simultaneous event, e.g., victims of a terrorist attack.
fatwa: An Islamic decree issued by a mufti (scholar) or a religious lawyer on a specific issue. A fatwa has no weight unless accepted by the community of scholars; their consensus is recognized as legal opinion to be followed. Islam has no central authority, which means no method exists to determine who can issue a valid fatwa. A fatwa is not binding on all people professing the Muslim faith. The only ones who are obliged to obey any specific fatwa are the mufti who issued it and his followers.
fault 1.: Blame or responsibility for a mistake or an offense. 2. A character weakness. 3. A mistake or error. 4. A fracture in the continuity of a rock formation caused by a shifting or dislodging of the earth’s crust.
fault tree analysis: A systematic way of prospectively examining a design for possible ways in which failure can occur. The analysis considers the possible direct proximate causes that could lead to the event and seeks their origins. Once this is accomplished, ways to avoid these origins and causes must be identified.
fecal coliform bacteria: Common, harmless bacteria that are normally found in human intestines, human waste, and wastewater. Fecal coliform bacteria counts are used as an indicator of presence of pathogenic microbes.
Federal: Law Enforcement Training Center A subunit of Border and Transportation Security (a unit within the Department of Homeland Security) located in Glynco, GA, Artesia, NM, and Charleston, SC (among others), whose function is to prepare law enforcement professionals to fulfill their responsibilities. Founded in 1970, the FLETC serves as an interagency law enforcement training organization for eighty-one federal agencies (called partner organizations); state, local, and international law enforcement agencies, and the International Law Enforcement Academy in Gaborone, Botswana, Hungary, and Thailand. Export training and technology-based distributed learning are increasingly important methods of training delivery. These methods are used when the programs being taught do not require specialized facilities or when a geographical concentration of personnel can be identified. Basic training programs include the Criminal Investigator Training Program for special agents from more than fifty agencies; Mixed Basic Police Training Program for uniformed officers, and Natural Resources Police Training Program for land management agencies. Advanced training programs include Cyber Terrorism Training, such as Internet Forensics and Investigations, Financial Forensics, and International Banking and Money Laundering Training; Critical Infrastructure Protection; Land Transportation Anti-terrorism; Weapons of Mass Destruction; Seaport Security, and Anti-terrorism Intelligence Aware ness Training for state and local agencies.
federal 1.: Belonging to the general government or union of the states. 2. Founded on or organized under the Constitution of the U.S. 3. Pertaining to the national government of the U.S. 4. Constituting a government in which power is distributed between a central authority (i.e., federal government) and a number of constituent territorial units (e.g., states).
federal act: A statute enacted by the U.S. Congress, relating to matters within the authority delegated to federal government by the U.S. Constitution.
federal agency: Any executive department, military department, government corporation, government-controlled corporation, or other establishment in the executive branch of government, including the Executive Office of the President or any independent regulatory agency.
Federal Air Marshal Service: A U.S. federal agency founded by the Federal Aviation Administration to combat a rash of hijackings in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Air marshals originally were U.S. Marshals and later were specially-trained FAA personnel. Their mission was to safeguard flights against aircraft hijacking or skyjacking and all other forms of crimes. Under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the air marshals were transferred to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau, Department of Homeland Security.
federal assistance: Aid to disaster victims or state or local governments by federal agencies under the provisions of the Federal Disaster Relief Act (P.L. 93-288) and other statutory authorities of federal agencies.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA): A federal agency charged with regulating air commerce to foster aviation safety; promoting civil aviation and a national system of airports; achieving efficient use of navigable airspace; developing and operating a common system of air traffic control and air navigation for both civilian and military aircraft, and developing and implementing programs and regulations to control aircraft noise, sonic boom, and other environmental effects of civil aviation.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI): A federal law enforcement agency established in 1908 that is charged with investigating all violations of federal laws with the exception of those which have been assigned by legislative enactment or otherwise to some other federal agency. The FBI’s jurisdiction includes espionage, sabotage, and other subversive activities; kidnapping; extortion; bank robbery; interstate transportation of stolen property; civil rights matters; interstate gambling violations; fraud against the government, and assault or killing the U.S. President or a federal officer. Cooperative services of the FBI for other duly authorized law enforcement agencies include fingerprint identification, laboratory services, and police training. By presidential direction, it is the lead law enforcement agency in terrorism incidents.
Federal Communications Com mission (FCC): The U.S. government agency created by congressional statute and the Communications Act of 1934 and charged with regulating all non-federal government use of the radio spectrum (including radio and television broadcasting), all interstate communications (wire, satellite, and cable), and international communications that originate or terminate in the U.S. The commission is directed, and empowered by congressional statute.
federal coordinating officer (FCO): The federal officer who is appointed to manage federal resource support activities related to Stafford Act disasters and emergencies. The FCO is responsible for coordinating the timely delivery of federal disaster assistance resources and programs to affected state or local governments, individual victims, and the private sector.
federal courts: The courts of the U.S. (as distinguished from state, county, or city courts) as created either by Article III of the U.S. Constitution or by the U.S. Congress. U.S. Courts of Appeals, U.S. Claims Court, District courts, the Supreme Court, and three-judge courts are federal courts.
federal crimes: Those acts that have been made criminal by federal law, e.g., kidnapping, and are prosecuted in federal courts.
federal debt: Generally, the amount borrowed by the government from the public or from government accounts. Four ways that federal debt may be categorized for reporting purposes are: 1. gross federal debt; 2. debt held by the public; 3. debt held by government accounts, and 4. debt subject to statutory debt limit.
federal emergency communications coordinator: That person, assigned by the General Services Administration, who functions as the principal federal manager for emergency telecommunications requirements in major disaster, emergencies, and extraordinary situations, when requested by the federal coordinating officer or the federal resource coordinator.
Federal Emergency Management: Agency (FEMA) An agency of the US Department of Homeland Security. FEMA traces its beginnings to the Congressional Act of 1803. This act, generally considered the first piece of disaster legislation, provided assistance to a New Hampshire town following an extensive fire. In the following century, more than 100 pieces of legislation dealing with natural disasters were passed. The 1960s and early 1970s brought several hurricanes and earthquakes requiring major response and recovery operations by the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration, part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 1968, the National Flood Insurance Act offered new flood protection to homeowners and, in 1974, the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief Act firmly established the process of presidential disaster declarations. When hazards associated with nuclear power plants and the transportation of hazardous substances were added to natural disasters, more than 100 federal agencies were involved, with state and local programs also overlapping. The National Governor’s Association asked President Jimmy Carter to centralize federal emergency functions, which he did in the 1979 executive order which merged many separate functions into a new Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA): A statute that governs when and how a patient may be refused treatment or transferred from one hospital to another when that person is in an unstable medical condition.
federal government: The system of government administered in a nation formed by the union or confederation of several independent states.
federal hospital: A hospital operated by the federal government, e.g., Veterans Affairs Hospitals.
federal law enforcement agencies: A category of agencies that include the U.S. Secret Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. Marshal Service, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Coastal Security Service, the Diplomatic Security Service, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the U.S. Customs Service, and the National Park Service.
federal on-scene coordinator: The federal official pre-designated by the Environmental Protection Agency or the U.S. Coast Guard to coordinate responses under subpart D of the National Contingency Plan, or the government official designated to coordinate and direct removal actions under subpart E of the National Contingency Plan.
Federal Radiological Emergency: Response Plan (FRERP) The plan used by federal agencies to respond to a radiological emergency with or without a Robert T. Stafford Act declaration. Without a Stafford Act declaration, federal agencies respond to radiological emergencies using the FRERP, each agency in accordance with existing statutory authorities and funding resources. The lead federal agency has responsibility for coordinating the overall federal response. The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for coordinating non-radiological support using the structure of the National Response Plan. When a major disaster or emergency is declared under the Stafford Act and an associated radiological emergency exists, the functions and responsibilities of the FRERP remain the same. The lead federal agency coordinates the management of the radiological response with the federal coordinating officer. Although the direction of the radiological response remains the same with the lead federal agency, the federal coordinating officer has the overall responsibility for coordination of federal assistance in support of state and local governments using the National Response Plan.
Federal Register: A medium published daily for making available to the public federal agency regulations and other legal documents of the executive branch of the federal government. It includes proposed changes (rules, regulations, and standards) of governmental agencies that carry an invitation for any citizen or group to participate in the consideration of the proposed regulation through submission of written data, views, or arguments, and sometimes by oral presentations. Such regulations and rules as finally approved appear later in the Code of Federal Regulations.
Federal Response Plan: The old plan designed to address the consequences of any disaster or emergency situation in which a need for federal assistance under the authorities of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act exists. Since January 2005, the National Response Plan has superceded the Federal Response Plan.
federal service: A term applied to National Guard members and units when called to active duty to serve the federal government under the U.S. President as Commander in Chief, under Article I, Section 8 and Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution and the U.S. Code.
federalism: The theory or advocacy of federal political orders, where final authority is divided between subunits and a center. Unlike a unitary state, sovereignty is constitutionally split between at least two territorial levels so that units at each level have final authority and can act independently of the others in some area. Citizens thus have political obligations to two authorities. The allocation of authority between the subunit and center may vary, typically the center has powers regarding defense and foreign policy, but subunits may also have international roles. The subunits may also participate in central decision-making bodies.
fertilizer truck bomb: Explosive device composed of a chemical mixture called ammonium nitrate, powerful enough to destroy large buildings; a favorite of terrorists because of the ease of acquiring materials to build the bomb.
fever: Abnormally high body temperature, as in viral hemorrhagic fever.
field 1.: In military usage, the scene or an area of military operations or maneuvers or a military area away from headquarters. 2. Somewhere (away from a studio or office or library or laboratory) where practical work is done or data is collected, as in a joint field office.
field categorization (classification): A medical emergency classification procedure for patients that is applicable under conditions encountered at the site of a medical emergency.
field hospital: A mobile, self-contained, self-sufficient health care facility capable of rapid deployment and expansion or contraction to meet immediate emergency requirements for a specified period of time. The field hospital may be temporarily dispatched with personnel or donated without personnel. Field hospitals are deployed only: 1. following an appropriate declaration of emergency and a request from the health authorities of the affected region or country; 2. when they are integrated into the local health services system, and 3. when the respective roles and responsibilities for their installation and operational sustainment have been clearly defined.
field triage: Classification of patients according to medical need at the scene of an injury or onset of an illness.
filter 1.: A porous material through which a liquid or gas is passed in order to separate the fluid from suspended particulate matter. 2. A device containing such a substance.
financial asset: An asset that derives value because of a contractual claim. Stocks, bonds, bank deposits, and the like are all examples of financial assets.
financial markets: A category of markets for the exchange of capital and credit, including the money markets and the capital markets. The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City severely disrupted U.S. financial markets, resulting in the longest closure of the stock markets since the Great Depression in the 1930s. The attacks revealed that the financial markets’ business continuity plans had not been designed to address wide-scale disruptions, defined by federal financial regulators as severe disruption of transportation, telecommunications, power, or other critical infrastructure components across a metropolitan or other geographic area and its adjacent communities that are economically integrated with it or result in a wide-scale evacuation or inaccessibility of the population within normal commuting range of the disruption’s origin.
fire: A rapid, persistent chemical change that releases heat and light and is accompanied by flame, especially the exothermic oxidation of a combustible substance.
fire behavior: The manner in which a fire reacts to the influences of fuel, weather, and topography.
fire bomb: A bomb designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using materials such as thermite or white phosphorus. During World War II, large shells of the bombs were filled with an initial explosive, which would start off a raging fire. The fire would burn at extreme temperatures that destroyed most buildings, as in the German blitz on London. Fire bombs can create a massive storm of swirling fire.
fire department: A public or private organization that provides fire prevention, fire suppression, and associated emergency and non-emergency services to a jurisdiction such as a county, municipality, or organized fire district. Career firefighters include full-time uniformed firefighters regardless of assignment (i.e. suppression, administrative, prevention/inspection, etc.). Career firefighters do not include firefighters who work for the state or federal government or in private fire brigades. Volunteer firefighters include any active part-time (call or volunteer) firefighters.
fire engine: A mobile piece of fire equipment that carries water, fire hose, and a fire pump.
fire engine crew: Firefighters assigned to a fire engine.
fire management zone: A geographic area of a jurisdiction that is classified according to one or more risk categories. The size and classification of a fire analysis zone is usually based upon either a specific area or a building. The risk category assigned to a specific fire management zone is usually the level of risk for the highest level of risk present in the zone.
fire marshal: A public official who is responsible for the prevention and investigation of fires.
fire protection environment: The conditions, circumstances, and influences under which a fire protection system must operate. It includes the population, the geographical area, land use, occupancy factors, weather conditions, structural and non-structural physical situations, financial, political, legislative, and regulatory criteria.
fire protection system: The regular interaction of dependent and independent sources of fire protection services, including both public and private organizations, apparatus, equipment, fixed and mobile, facilities, methods, human resources, and policies by the authority having jurisdiction.
fire service accreditation: A formal voluntary process by which an authorized body, such as the Commission on Fire Accreditation International, assesses and recognizes a fire service organization as complying with requirements known as standards.
fire suppression: The process of controlling and/or extinguishing fires for the purpose of protecting people from injury, death, and/or property loss.
fire truck: A fire department vehicle, often operating in a support role to fire engines, which is equipped with a mix of long ladders, hydraulic platforms, additional firefighting equipment, a variety of heavy rescue tools, extrication equipment, and other emergency gear, but no onboard water supply. The best-known fire truck is the hook-and-ladder type. Other types include snorkel (cherry-picker) rigs, floodlight trucks, and other specialized units. A “tiller truck” requires two drivers, as it has separate steering wheels for front and rear wheels. Fire trucks are used for rooftop ventilation (to let hot smoke and gases out so firefighters may enter), and search and rescue. Larger departments may have truck crews of four or five people, while others may cross-staff a fire engine and fire truck, or assign one driver to deliver the truck to the fire scene. A “quint” (quintuple- combination pumper) is a mobile piece of fire equipment which carries ladders and a long (seventy feet to 100 feet) chassis-mounted aerial ladder, a full complement of ground ladders, and the equipment/water (less than an engine) carried on an engine company. It also carries specialized rescue and salvage equipment.
fire whirl: Spinning vortex column of ascending hot air and gases rising from a fire and carrying aloft smoke, debris, and flame. Fire whirls range in size from less than one foot to more than 500 feet in diameter. Large fire whirls have the intensity of a small tornado.
fireboat: A specialized watercraft for fighting shoreline (dock, warehouse) and shipboard fires, which draws its supply of water by pumping directly from the harbor. It can assist shore-based firefighters when other water is in low supply or is unavailable (e.g., due to earthquake breakage of water mains) as happened in recently in during the 1989 Northern California Loma Prieta earthquake.
firebombing: A bombing technique involving incendiary bombs to start a massive fire.
firefighter: A trained individual who responds to control a wide range and variety of emergency and non-emergency situations where life, property, or the environment are at risk. A firefighter’s assignments vary based on geographic, climatic, and demographic conditions or other factors. Firefighters include fully-compensated, partially- compensated, and volunteer personnel. A firefighter’s duties may include, but are not limited to: fire suppression (including structural, wildland, transportation, and/or all other types of fires); fire prevention activities (including code enforcement, inspections, public education, and fire investigation); emergency medical services (including basic and advanced life support and ambulance transport services); managed health care services; hazardous materials response and preparedness; technical rescues (such as extrication, swift water, high angle, or confined space); urban search and rescue (involving compromised structural rescues); disaster management and preparedness; community service activities; public safety calls (including animal rescues, lockouts, and standbys); response to civil disturbances and terrorism incidents; non-emergency functions (such as training, pre-planning, housekeeping, maintenance, and physical conditioning), and related emergency and non-emergency service tasks.
firefighter protective clothing: Personal items of clothing and equipment issued to individual firefighters for protection against heat, flame, abrasion, puncture, or other traumatic injury during combat operations. Includes, but is not limited to, coats, trousers, boots, gloves, helmets, personal alarm devices, fire shelters, and any other special equipment issued for evaluating exposure, such as dosimeters or communicable disease shields.
firefighter’s standard turnout gear: A helmet, coat, gloves, pants, boots, and a self- contained breathing apparatus, which provides the user with respiratory protection in a toxic or oxygen-deficient environment.
firefighting: The use of strategy, personnel, and apparatus to extinguish, to confine, or to escape from fire. Firefighting strategy involves the following basic procedures: arriving at the scene of the fire as rapidly as possible; assessing the nature of the fire by determining its intensity and extent. the type and abundance of fuel. the danger of entering the fire area, and the most effective techniques for extinguishing the fire; locating and rescuing endangered people; containing the fire by protecting adjacent areas; ventilating the fire area to allow for the escape of heat and toxic gases, and, finally, extinguishing the fire.
firestorm: Violent convection caused by a large, continuous area of intense fire. Often characterized by destructively violent surface wind rafts, near and beyond the perimeter, and sometimes by tornado-like fire whirls.
first receiver: A health-care worker who receives victims of hazardous disasters and sudden environmental catastrophes resulting in mass casualties.
first responder: Person who, in the early stages of an emergency event, works to protect and preserve life, property, evidence, and the environment. First responders may include personnel from federal, state, local, tribal, and nongovernmental organizations.
fission: Absorption of a neutron into a nucleus, which causes the splitting of the nuclear into at least two smaller nuclei with an accompanying release of energy.
fission bomb: A nuclear bomb, which was invented in 1945 and dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It derives its power from nuclear fission, where the heavy nuclei of uranium or plutonium split into lighter neutrons, which, in turn, bombard other nuclei, triggering a chain reaction.
Five Pillars of Islam: The five most fundamental aspects or beliefs of Islam. For Sunni Muslims, the practices are: the profession of faith in Allah (the declaration that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger); establishing the five daily prayers; the paying of alms; fasting from dawn to dusk in the month of Ramadan, the ninth month in the Islamic lunar calendar; and the pilgrimage to Mecca (called Hajj). Shi’a Muslims have five beliefs and ten practices. The beliefs are referred to as the “Roots of Religion” and the practices are referred to as the “Branches of Religion.” The Shi’a Roots of Religion are Tawheed (belief in one God), Adalah (the justice of God), Nubuwwah (Muhammad is the last prophet, and God has appointed prophets and messengers to teach mankind the religion), Imamah (Ali is the Vice-regent of Allah), and Qayamat (God will raise mankind for judgment). The Shi’a Branches of Religion include: Salat (performing the five daily prayers), Sawn (fasting during the holy month of Ramadan), Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), and Zakat (paying money to the poor), among others.
fixed port: Water terminals with an improved network of cargo-handling facilities designed for the transfer of ocean-going freight.
flare-up: Any sudden acceleration of fire spread or intensification of a fire. Unlike a blow-up, a flare-up lasts a relatively short time and does not radically change control plans. .
Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies: A public law that authorizes an emergency fund for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to prepare for emergency response to natural disaster, flood fighting and rescue operations, rehabilitation of flood control and hurricane protection structures, temporary restoration of essential public facilities and services, advance protective measures, and provision of emergency supplies of water. The Corps receives funding for such activities under this authority from the Energy and Water Development Appropriation.
flow chart: A pictorial summary that shows with symbols and words the steps, sequence, and relationship of the various operations involved in the performance of a function or a process.
fomite: An article that conveys infection to others because they have been contaminated by pathogenic organisms. Examples include handkerchief, drinking glass, door handle, clothing, and toys.
food 1.: A raw, cooked, or processed edible substance, ice, beverage, or ingredient used or intended for use or for sale in whole or in part for human consumption, or chewing gum. 2. Food is defined as “articles used for food or drink for man or other animals, chewing gum, and articles used for components of any such articles,” according to the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Excluded from the definition are: meat products, poultry products, and egg products that are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspection Act, or the Egg Products Inspection Act.
food and agriculture incident annex: The incident annex of an emergency management plan, such as the National Response Plan, which describes incident management activities related to a terrorist attack, major disaster, or other emergency involving the agriculture and food systems.
Food and Nutrition Service Disaster Task Force: The Food Security Act of 1985 requires the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a Disaster Task Force to assist states in implementing and operating various disaster food programs. The FNS Disaster Task Force coordinates the overall FNS response to disasters and emergencies, and operates under the general direction of the FNS administrator.
food poisoning: An acute illness following ingestion of foods contaminated by bacteria, bacterial toxins, natural poisons, or harmful chemical substances. The symptoms, in varying degree and combination, include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, and prostration; more serious cases can result in permanent disability or death.
food supplier regulations: Two regulations announced by the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary on October 9, 2003: 1. all food suppliers must register with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and 2. all food shipments entering the U.S. require prior notice to the FDA. The regulations became effective December 12, 2003. As a result of requiring all domestic and foreign food facilities to register, the FDA has, for the first time, a complete roster of foreign and domestic food facilities, estimated at approximately 420,000. Food suppliers must give prior notice to the FDA no more than five days before arrival and, as specified by the mode of transportation below, no fewer than two hours before arrival by land by road; four hours before arrival by air or by land by rail, and eight hours before arrival by water. This advance information will allow the FDA, working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), to more effectively target inspections and ensure the safety of imported foods. The FDA receives about 25,000 notifications about incoming shipments each day. The prior notice must include identification of both the submitter and the transmitter (if different from the submitter).
food-borne disease outbreak: 1. An incident in which: a. two or more people experience a similar illness after ingestion of a common food; b. Epidemiological analysis implicates the food as the source of the illness. 2. A single case of illness, such as one person becoming ill from botulism or chemical poisoning.
force 1.: In military usage, a unit that is part of some military service, e.g., military force, air force. 2. One possessing or exercising power or influence or authority, as a force to be reckoned with. 3. A group of people willing to obey orders, as in armed forces or joint terrorist task force. 4. An act of aggression, as in use of deadly force.
force protection: In military usage, actions taken to prevent or mitigate hostile actions against Department of Defense personnel (to include family members), resources, facilities, and critical information. These actions conserve the force’s fighting potential so it can be applied at the decisive time and place and incorporate the coordinated and synchronized offensive and defensive measures to enable the effective employment of the joint force while degrading opportunities for the enemy. Force protection does not include actions to defeat the enemy or protect against accidents, weather, or disease.
force-on-force exercise: An exercise conducted regularly by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) at commercial-operating nuclear power plants since 1991 as part of its comprehensive security program. They are not pass/fail inspections; rather they are the primary means to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of plant security programs to prevent radiological sabotage as required by NRC regulations. Force-on-force (FOF) exercises assess a nuclear plant’s physical protection to defend against the so-called “design basis threat (DBT).” The DBT characterizes the adversary against which plant owners must design physical protection systems and response strategies. The NRC periodically assesses the adequacy of the DBT and makes revisions as necessary. A full FOF exercise, spanning several days, includes both table-top drills and simulated combat between a mock commando-type adversary force and the nuclear plant security force. These exercises include a wide array of federal, state, and local law enforcement and emergency planning officials in addition to plant operators and NRC personnel.
forcing function: An aspect of a design that prevents a target action from being performed or allows its performance only if another specific action is performed first. For example, automobiles are now designed so that the driver cannot shift into reverse without first putting a foot on the brake pedal. Forcing functions need not involve device design. For instance, one of the first forcing functions identified in health care is the removal of concentrated potassium from general hospital wards. This action is intended to prevent the inadvertent preparation of intravenous solutions with concentrated potassium, an error that has produced small but consistent numbers of deaths for many years.
forecast 1.: A prediction, as of coming events or conditions. 2. A statement of statistical estimate of the occurrence of a future event.
forecasting: The act or process of estimating or calculating in advance, especially to predict weather conditions by analysis of meteorological data.
foreign 1.: Located away from one’s native country, e.g., foreign disaster. 2. Conducted or involved with other nations or governments, e.g., foreign intelligence.
foreign disaster: An act of nature, such as a flood, drought, fire, hurricane, earthquake, volcanic eruption, or epidemic, or an act of humans, such as a riot, violence, civil strife, explosion, fire, or epidemic, which is sufficiently severe and large to warrant U.S. foreign disaster relief to a country, people, or an international organization.
foreign disaster relief: Humanitarian aid that can be used to alleviate the suffering of foreign disaster victims, including providing transportation, food, clothing, beds and bedding, temporary shelter and housing, medical materiel and personnel, and repairs to essential services.
foreign intelligence: Information relating to the capabilities, intentions, or activities of foreign governments or elements thereof, foreign organizations, or foreign people, or international terrorist activities.
foreign national: Any person who is not a U.S. citizen.
foreign policy: The totality of a state’s relations with and polices toward other states. A nation’s foreign policy, even though it may be largely the prerogative of an executive branch, is grounded in its domestic policy.
foreign service officer: An employee of the U.S. Department of State who helps formulate and implement the foreign policy of the U.S. in her embassies, consulates, and diplomatic missions in Washington DC, and at nearly 265 locations worldwide. Many foreign service officers have liberal arts or business degrees, while some have advanced degrees in specialized areas ranging from law to the social sciences. Each foreign service officer chooses one of five career tracks: management affairs, consular affairs, economic affairs, political affairs, or public diplomacy. Increasingly, issues such as the environment, science, international law enforcement, narcotics trafficking, and trafficking in people have gained priority among American foreign policy objectives.
Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) List: A list compiled by the U.S. State Department of non-U.S. organizations that are designated as terrorist by the U.S. Secretary of State in accordance with section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended. The Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism in the State Department monitors the activities of potential terrorist groups active in the world to identity organizations for the list. Criteria for inclusion in the list include groups that have carried out attacks, engaged in planning for future terrorist attacks, or retain the capability and intent to carry out such acts. The U.S. Congress reviews each group’s inclusion and terrorist group names are published in the Federal Register. FTO designations must be renewed after two years if the terrorist organization remains a threat. The legal ramifications of designation as an FTO are: 1. unlawfulness for a person in the U.S. or subject to its jurisdiction to knowingly provide material support or resources (e.g., cash, financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safe houses, false documentation, communications equipment, facilities, lethal substances, explosives, transportation, or other physical assets except medicine or religious materials) to a designated FTO. 2. Inadmissibility to and removal of (in certain circumstances) a member of a designated FTO from the U.S. 3. Requirement that any U.S. financial institution that becomes aware that it has possession of or control over funds in which a designated FTO or its agent has an interest must retain possession of or control over the funds and report the funds to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The effects of designating FTOs are: to curb terrorism financing and encouraging other nations to do the same; to stigmatize and isolate designated FTOs; to deter donations and economic transactions with named FTOs; to heighten public awareness and knowledge of FTOs, and to signal to other governments the U.S. concern about designated FTOs.
forward regions: Foreign land areas, sovereign airspace, and sovereign waters outside the U.S. homeland.
fraud: Deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain, e.g., identity fraud; passport fraud; visa fraud.
free trade: A theoretical concept that refers to international trade unhampered by government restrictions or tariffs.
freedom 1.: The liberty to do or not do something; for example, to speak or to practice a certain religion. 2. The condition of not being in the power of others. 3. The capacity to perform legal acts; for example, to vote or to buy property.
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA): The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) establishes a presumption that records in the possession of agencies and departments of the executive branch of the U.S. government are accessible to the people. The FOIA sets standards for determining which records must be disclosed, and which records may be withheld. The FOIA also provides administrative and judicial remedies for those denied access to records. Above all, FOIA requires federal agencies to provide the fullest possible disclosure of information to the public.
freelancing: An uncommitted independent responder unit operating independently, or in a group, at the incident scene without notifying incident command and/or without being assigned or delegated a task or function.
frontier: The area where two states meet in interests and penetration, while not necessarily with an agreed territorial limit for their aspirations.
fuel: Material such as wood, coal, petroleum, or natural gas, which can be burned or otherwise consumed to produce heat.
full-scale exercise 1.: An exercise of an emergency operations plan in which prevention and response elements are required to mobilize and deploy to a designated site or locale in response to a simulated attack, generally for an extended period. It involves testing a major portion of operations plans and organizations under field conditions. Actual mobilization and movement of personnel and resources are required to demonstrate coordination and response capability. The full-scale exercise is the largest, costliest, and most complex exercise type, and it may involve participation at the state, local, regional, and federal levels. Although pre-scripted events may be used, the exercise is primarily driven by player actions and decisions. An oral evaluation or critique is conducted at the end of the exercise, and an after-action report is written. 2. A time-pressured exercise of a minimum number of functions of an emergency operations plan, involving strategic and tactical decision making, including the direction and control function, activating the emergency operations center and incident command post, and deploying responders, equipment, and resources to the field.
fume hood: A device common to chemistry laboratories designed to keep hazardous fumes out of the room air by exhausting them out of the building before anyone can potentially breathe them. Fume hoods are usually about two feet deep and six feet wide, and are generally set back against the walls and extend to the ceiling to conceal their ductwork. A fume hood is not a biosafety cabinet.
functional exercise: A time-pressured exercise of a minimum number of functions of an emergency operations plan designed to test and evaluate individual capabilities, multiple functions or activities within a function, or interdependent groups of functions. Functional exercises are generally focused on testing the plans, policies, procedures, and staffs of the direction and control nodes of incident command and unified command. Generally, events are projected through an exercise scenario with event updates that drive activity at the management level. The movement of personnel and equipment is simulated.
fusion 1.: The process whereby the nuclei combine to form a larger nucleus of two or more atoms, with the release of energy. 2. In intelligence usage, the process of examining all sources of intelligence and information to derive a complete assessment of activity.
fusion bomb: The nuclear bomb invented in 1950, which derives its power from nuclear fusion, where light nuclei such as hydrogen and helium combine together into heavier elements, releasing large amounts of energy.
fusion center: In intelligence usage, a physical location to accomplish fusion. It normally has sufficient automated intelligence data processing capability to assist in the process.