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NM DOH All Hazard Incident Management Glossary
Intro | A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XYZ Sources
Download: NMDOH_IM_Glossary_May_2008 
TANF - Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Task Force – any combination of resources assembled to support a specific mission or operational need. All resource elements within a Task Force must have common communications and a designated leader.
Technical Assistance – support provided to State, local, and tribal jurisdictions when they have the resources but lack the complete knowledge and skills needed to perform a required activity (such as mobile-home park design and hazardous material assessments).
TeleHealth - a system that provides access, over distance, to medical care, health-related education and administrative functions through the use of interactive video conferencing, video phones, telemedicine consultations such as teleradiology, and other technology.
Terrorism – under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, terrorism is defined as activity that involves an act dangerous to human life or potentially destructive of critical infrastructure or key resources and is a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State or other subdivision of the United States in which it occurs and is intended to intimidate or coerce the civilian population or influence a government or affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping. See Section 2 (15), Homeland Security Act of 2002, Pub. L. 107-296, 116 Stat. 2135 (2002).
Threat – an indication of possible violence, harm, or danger.
Threatening Communicable Disease – term used in relation to the reporting of communicable diseases in the Public Health Act and defined in the Public Health Emergency Response Act to mean: a disease that causes death or great bodily harm that passes from one person to another and for which there are no means by which the public can reasonably avoid the risk of contracting the disease. The term does not include infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), or other infections attributable to infection with HIV. (Contrast with conditions of public health significance).
Threshold – the dose or exposure concentration below which a significant adverse effect is not expected to occur.
Tools – those instruments and capabilities that allow for the professional performance of tasks, such as information systems, agreements, doctrine, capabilities, and legislative authorities.
Toxic – poisonous.
Toxic Agent – poisonous agent.
Toxicant – poisonous substance.
Toxicity – a measure of the harmful effects produced by a given amount of a toxin on a living organism.
Toxicological Profile – an Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) document that examines, summarizes, and interprets information about a hazardous substance to determine harmful levels of exposure and associated health effects. A toxicological profile also identifies significant gaps in knowledge on the substance and describes areas where further research is needed.
Toxicology – the study of the harmful effects of substances on humans or animals.
Toxins – toxic agents of organic origin.
TRACEM - acronym used to identify the six types of harm one may encounter at a terrorist incident: Thermal, Radioactive, Asphyxiation, Chemical, Etiological, and Mechanical.
Transmission of Infectious Agent – mechanism by which an infectious agent is spread from a source or reservoir to a person: generally contact, droplet or aerosol.
Transmission Specific Precautions – infection control guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control in 1997 that collapse older categories of isolation precautions (Strict Isolation, Contact Isolation, Respiratory Isolation, Tuberculosis Isolation, Enteric Precaution, Drainage/Secretion Precaution, etc.), and older disease-specific precautions into three sets of precautions based on the routes of transmission: contact, droplet, and airborne. Transmission Specific Precautions are used in addition to Standard Precautions when caring for an individual with known, or suspected, infectious disease.
Transparent – readily understood, without filter or obstrufication
Triage – the rules based rationing of response to an incident. Neither the rationing rules of triage, nor when to implement triage, is implied by the concept of triage, but must be determined and stated separately.
Trigger - a mechanism that initiates an action when an event occurs
Tribal – any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community, including any Alaskan Native Village as defined in or established pursuant to the Alaskan Native Claims Settlement Act (85 stat. 688) [43 U.S.C.A. and 1601 et seq.], that is recognized as eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians.
Tumor – an abnormal mass of tissue that results from excessive cell division or growth. Tumors perform no useful body function. Tumors can be either benign (not cancer) or malignant (cancer).
Type – a classification of resources in the ICS that refers to capability. Type 1 is generally considered to be more capable than Types 2, 3, or 4, respectively, because of size; power; capacity; or, in the case of incident management teams, experience and qualifications.
