State of Preparedness for a Major Radiological Incident April 29, 2011
Posted by norm in Uncategorized.Tags: nuclear, Public Health, radiation, syndromic surveillance, warnings
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From a report on US preparedness for a major radiological incident.
Specific strengths noted at the state level included that the majority of states had a written radiation response plan and most plans include a detailed section for communications issues during a radiation emergency. In addition, more than half of the states indicated that their relationship with federal partners is sufficient to provide resources for radiation emergencies, indicating the importance states placed on federal resources and expertise. Specific weaknesses are discussed and include that most states had completed little to no planning for public health surveillance to assess potential human health impacts of a radiation event; less than half had written plans to address exposure assessment, environmental sampling, human specimen collection and analysis, and human health assessment. Few reported having sufficient resources to do public health surveillance, radiation exposure assessment, laboratory functions and other capabilities.
Doesn’t sound so good. I’m glad it’s the US and not Canada 
