EPA’s Office of Research and Development Donates Personal Protective Equipment to FEMA
WASHINGTON (June 11, 2020) — Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Research and Development announced that it is transferring over 22,000 personal protective items including gloves, respirators, protective suits, booties, and lab coats from sites in Athens, GA, Research Triangle Park, NC, Ada, OK and Corvallis, OR to FEMA in support of the battle against COVID-19. The Agency maintains a range of personal protective equipment (PPE) for mission-critical research and work such as responding to emergencies, including chemical, oil, radiological and biological incidents.
“EPA is working hard to support our nation’s first responders as they risk their own safety to save lives during the coronavirus pandemic,” said EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “After searching our inventory of personal protective equipment, we identified excess supplies and sent them to those on the frontlines of this fight. At EPA we are here to help in any way we can and I encourage everyone else to do the same.”
EPA maintains a supply of personal protective equipment as part of the agency’s laboratory, inspection and emergency response functions. EPA also provides additional response assistance when state and local first responder capabilities have been exhausted or when additional support is requested.
EPA continues to transfer PPE assets to FEMA for rapid distribution of available personal protective equipment to state and local governments that are working COVID-19 operations.
For information about EPA’s involvement with the COVID-19 response, please visit: https://www.epa.gov/coronavirus