The Emergency Consequence Assessment Tool (ECAT) is an interactive
web-based software tool. ECAT is designed to meet the challenge of
assessing health risks and determining what actions need to be taken
during a crisis caused by a terrorist attack or natural disaster. ECAT
provides instant access to key information and allows its users to
conduct rapid analyses. The tool also provides a holistic approach to
rapid risk assessment by integrating critical information across many
diverse scientific disciplines and is a useful training tool. ECAT allows
its users to conduct health risk assessment, risk management, and risk
communication. It allows users not only to define the health threats, but
also to determine what actions need to be taken to protect the public and
first responders, and how best to communicate this information to the
public. It evaluates the risks from chemical and biological agents in
multiple environments, such as indoors, outdoors and from water contact,
including ingestion, inhalation, and dermal exposure. Further, ECAT has
the potential to quantify risks to different human subpopulations.