Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T00:33:04.660Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Planning Response to Nuclear Accidents in Peacetime: An Approach which Addresses Recently Described Problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 June 2012

Garrett E. Foulke
Affiliation:
From the Section of Critical Care/Emergency Medicine, University of CaliforniaDavis Medical Center, Sacramento CA 95817, USA.
Horace Hines
Affiliation:
From the Section of Critical Care/Emergency Medicine, University of CaliforniaDavis Medical Center, Sacramento CA 95817, USA.
Charles J. Fisher Jr
Affiliation:
From the Section of Critical Care/Emergency Medicine, University of CaliforniaDavis Medical Center, Sacramento CA 95817, USA.

Extract

The growing number of nuclear power, research, and industrial facilities places increasing numbers of people and places at risk from an accident involving radioactive material. Fortunately, such accidents are infrequent. Unfortunately, this rarity often results in very limited hospital and physician interest and awareness. The incident at the nuclear facility at Three Mile Island (TMI) in Pennsylvania, USA, has demonstrated that despite its rarity, a radiation accident may not only occur, but occur on a scale large enough to require more than the radiation accident protocol which each hospital is required to have. There is a need, therefore, for the incorporation of radiation accidents into disaster planning and triage systems. We address the considerations to be made in planning an emergency medical system's response to a large radiation accident. We describe the application of a triage team in such a plan.

Type
Part III: International Organizations - Planning - Disaster Events
Copyright
Copyright © World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Atomic Energy Commission. Operational Accident ami Radiation Exposure Expenences with the USAEC. Report WASH–1192, 1975.Google Scholar
2. Joint Committee on Accreditation of Hospitals. Report of February 1978, p. 18.Google Scholar
3. Weidner, WA, Miller, KL, Latshaw, RF, Rahrer, GV. The impact of a nuclear crisison a radiology department. Radiology 1980;135:717723.Google Scholar
4. Fisher, CJ Jr, Mobile triage team in a community disaster plan. JACEP 1977;6(1):1012.Google Scholar
5. National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements. Management of Persons Accidentally Contaminated with Radionuclides. NCRP No. 65, Washington, April 1980.Google Scholar