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Medical Lessons Learned From Chernobyl Relative to Nuclear Detonations and Failed Nuclear Reactors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2013

Cham E. Dallas
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Abstract

The Chernobyl disaster in 1986 involved the largest airborne release of radioactivity in history, more than 100 times as much radioactivity as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs together. The resulting emergency response, administrative blunders, and subsequent patient outcomes from this large-scale radiological disaster provide a wealth of information and valuable lessons for those who may find themselves having to deal with the staggering consequences of nuclear war. Research findings, administrative strategies (successful and otherwise), and resulting clinical procedures from the Chernobyl experience are reviewed to determine a current utility in addressing the appropriate protocols for a medical response to nuclear war. As various myths are still widely associated with radiation exposure, attention is given to the realities of a mass casualty medical response as it would occur with a nuclear detonation.

(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2012;6:330-334)

Keywords

Chernobylradiationbirth defectsprodromal syndromethyroid cancerradiation-induced cancerpotassium iodide
Type
Review Article
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 330 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. 2012

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