Disasters and emergencies involving radiation can produce numerous social and behavioral impacts, including shadow evacuations, seeking of medical attention by large numbers of people fearful of potential contamination, and stigmatizing of individuals, products and communities perceived to be associated with the incident. Indeed, these, and related impacts, can constitute some of the most important and challenging public health effects of a radiological-nuclear incident. At the present time, it is unclear whether or how such issues are being addressed in preparedness training exercises.

With support from the Radiation Studies Branch, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a study (2006–2008) was performed by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The aim was to determine how social and behavioral issues are addressed in radiological-nuclear exercises. Radiological-nuclear exercise reports, guidance materials, and related items were gathered, and a systematic review and analysis of the documents was conducted.

Initial findings from the study suggest that only about half of radiological-nuclear exercises deal with key social and behavioral issues. Where such issues are included, they tend to receive relatively litde attention, components are typically small in scope, and the most difficult challenges often are “assumed away.”

Even though social-behavioral issues are central in radiological-nuclear incidents, opportunities to practice coping with them in training exercises are quite limited. If preparedness training is to be realistic and useful, this problem urgently needs to be addressed. The present study provides a series of recommendations toward this end.