ASHLAND — The Ashland County EMA plans to spend a sum from the county’s opioid settlement fund to purchase a new emergency text alert system.
County commissioners approved the $20,241 purchase on March 27, which will buy a three-year agreement with OnSolve’s CodeRED software.
CodeRED is an emergency notification system used by public safety officials to alert people about time-sensitive and emergency information. It can use multiple channels, including phone, email, text and push notifications through a mobile app.
Ashland County EMA Director Anne Strouth said CodeRED will replace the county’s current Wireless Emergency Notification System (WENS). The county’s contract with WENS expires in June.
Starting in May, the county will utilize CodeRED.
Strouth said the new system is better because it doesn’t require subscriptions from users and reaches more people. It does that by accessing utilities databases.
Alerts pushed through CodeRED will range from severe weather, evacuation needs, hazardous material spills, utility outages, road closures and water main breaks, said Strouth.
The EMA director said alerts will be “geo-targeted,” meaning the alerts will only go to people affected by the information in any given geographic area.
She said the software will also integrate with the Ashland County Sheriff Office’s mobile app currently in development.
Alerts through CodeRED will be similar to Amber alerts, Strouth said.
Other counties that use the system include Coshocton, Lorain, Montgomery, Cuyahoga, Belmont, Wood, Logan and Darke counties.
How will this be funded?
The money is coming from the county’s opioid settlement. The settlement is against the pharmaceutical industry as a consequence of its role in the national opioid epidemic.
Some of the settlement money in Ohio is administered through OhioOhio Recovery Foundation, a charitable organization created at the direction of state and local leaders to distribute 55% of the funds.
Ohio received $158 million from the settlement in 2022 and 2023.
As of March 27, Ashland County has $177,589.27 of settlement money in its coffers, said Ashland County commissioners clerk Nikki Hiller.
When asked why money from this fund is being used this way, Strouth said the alert system can notify the public of potential exposure to fentanyl.
“Fentanyl, we all know about the risk of fentanyl. Minute exposure to that can definitely kill you,” she said.
Disagreement
There is disagreement between law enforcement agencies and the medical community on whether or not exposure to fentanyl through the eyes or skin, or by inhalation, can cause overdoses.
The federal Drug Enforcement Agency issued a warning in 2016 to law enforcement officials across the nation that said “fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin or accidental inhalation of airborne powder can also occur … Just touching fentanyl or accidentally inhaling the substance during enforcement activity or field testing the substance can result in absorption through the skin.”
The DEA’s warning went to say symptoms such as disorientation, coughing, sedation, respiratory distress or cardiac arrest can happen “within minutes of exposure.”
A year later, the Department of Justice issued a similar warning.
However, the American College of Medical Toxicology and American Academy of Clinical Toxicology said in an article published in September 2017 that “significant exposure to emergency responders is extremely low” because “incidental (skin) absorption is unlikely to cause opioid toxicity.”
Nevertheless, Strouth said notifying the public via CodeRED of the potential for exposure to fentanyl is useful. The system could also be used to push information about addiction treatment, she said.