In October, on the 17th and 18th, ATRAC organized a two-day training course on the subject of dealing with spills of hazardous and noxious substances (chemical pollution).

The course was organized in co-operation with CEDRE (Centre for Documentation, Research and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution) from France, and the lecturers were Mr Arnaud Guena, deputy director, and Mr Stephane Le Floch, manager of research and development department. The workshop was divided into 3 modules:

1. General aspects of hazardous and noxious substances,
2. Prevention and preparedness, and
3. Response to incidents involving hazardous and noxious substances.

The course gathered 35 attendees, including 2 representatives of Republic of Albania, representatives of Croatian Ministry of Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, County operational centres of Primorje-Gorski kotar, Zadar, Šibenik-Knin and Split-Dalmatia counties, Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries from Split, port authorities and private companies dealing with oil spill response.

This was the first workshop on the subject of HNS spills that was being held in Croatia, and the attendees showed great interest for the subject. Thanks to our excellent lecturers from CEDRE and motivated public, this workshop was a great introduction to the issues of dealing with HNS spills, which has already become a hot topic considering the constant increase of hazardous and noxious substances transported by sea.

ATRAC will dedicate part of its upcoming activities to incidents involving HNS, and we are also looking forward to our cooperation with CEDRE within the next few projects.