Nationwide Response Issues After an Improvised Nuclear Device Attack Medical and Public Health Considerations for Neighboring Jurisdictions: Workshop Summary (2014) / Chapter Skim
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2 Public Health and Logistical Considerations
2 Public Health and Logistical Considerations
Pages 9-18
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From page 9... ...
x Public health officials use a zoned approach to emergency response. This approach precludes entering the most heavily damaged areas, where survival is highly unlikely, and instead concentrates the re sponse to a moderate damage zone, which has the highest number of victims who can survive.
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From page 10... ...
An initial conventional explosion produces an imploding shock wave that drives plutonium pieces inward into a central sphere housing a pellet of beryllium/polonium, creating a "critical mass" -- that is, enough fissile material to sustain a nuclear chain reaction -- which leads to a nuclear chain reaction that releases several million times more energy than could be produced by a chemical reaction proceeding in the same mass of material. An IND is not to be confused with a radiological dispersal device (RDD)
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From page 11... ...
Fallout is the primary source of radiation exposure in outlying communities. Buddemeier assured attendees that the best method of reducing radiation exposure from fallout is to remove outer clothing and remove particles from hair when entering a safe shelter.
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From page 12... ...
. According to co-chair John Hick, Hennepin County Medical Center, one of the problems with existing medical guidance is its focus on external contamination from dirty bombs and nuclear reactor releases.
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From page 13... ...
Shelter-in-place is not the appropriate strategy for dealing with nuclear reactor accidents, in which the radiation exposure comes not from an immediate release but from release over time in "puffs" from the smoke stack. This type of release gives sufficient time for evacuation and so has different implications for recommended action from FEMA.
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From page 14... ...
The location and extent of radiation in the DFZ are affected by wind direction and speed and other environmental conditions. After the contours of the DFZ have been mapped, the following responder activities can be initiated outside its perimeter: establishment of community reception centers and triage sites, extraction of and care for the injured, and fighting fires and controlling hazards.
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From page 15... ...
By day 30, according to this scenario, Roberts County is in dire straits. It has experienced a 50 percent population increase in each of its two cities, based on estimates by a new model predicting population surge after an IND attack (Meit et al., 2011)
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From page 16... ...
Even though the National Commission on Children and Disasters recommended in 2010 that the Department of Homeland Security lead the development of a nationwide information technology capability to collect, share, and search data from any patient and evacuee tracking or family reunification system (National Commission on Children and Disasters, 2010) and other efforts in the private sector are ongoing, no current national system is capable of handling and tracking down displaced persons and reuniting families.
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From page 17... ...
Considering planners' competing priorities, the magnitude of the task, the diversity of players providing services, the extreme resource needs, and the uncharted terrain, Redlener said, in addition to simply providing guidance, highlevel political support is needed to put IND attack planning on the radar of outlying communities throughout the country. One of the discussants suggested that, after the detonation of an IND, the outlying communities will not be facing a temporary problem, as they would if they had experienced a hurricane, earthquake, or other natural disaster, after which cities are rebuilt.
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From page 18... ...
The explosion from a dirty bomb does not release the mammoth energy or fission products of a nuclear detonation. An IND is far more likely than an RDD to cause acute radiation syndrome, a dose-related illness defined by three main symptom clusters -- gastrointestinal, hematopoietic, and neurovascular.
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