Amid Japan’s nuclear power plant crisis, a new report on the radiation emergency preparedness of state health departments across the U.S. isn’t likely to soothe any nerves.
By many measures, the nation “remains poorly prepared to respond adequately to a major radiation emergency incident,” warns the study. Based on a survey conducted last year by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, the study was published this week in the journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.
The researchers found that nearly half of the 38 state health departments that responded to the survey did not have a comprehensive plan for dealing with a radiation emergency.
What’s more, the researchers did not assess preparedness for nuclear power plant disasters. They excluded that issue on the assumption that states with nuclear power plants already have demonstrated their readiness to deal with those sorts of accidents — an assumption that many might find unconvincing in view of the difficulties supposedly well-prepared Japanese authorities have encountered at the tsunami-struck Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex.
Instead, however, the authors of the new study focused on preparedness for such emergencies as exposure to radiation from a nuclear device detonated by terrorists or from a shipping or hospital accident.
Given the lack of comprehensive response plans, many states “in which a radiation emergency occurs are likely to mount inefficient, ineffective, inappropriate, or tardy responses that could result in [preventable] loss of life,” the study says. “With nearly half of the responding states not having a response plan, a large portion of the U.S. population is at increased risk should a radiological event occur within the country’s borders.”
The report also found that most of the states had completed little or no planning to monitor the effects of radiation on people, and many said they lacked the resources to maintain emergency preparedness.
In a separate development related to radiation accident preparedness, U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, R-Mass., called on the Obama administration to expand the zones where, in the event of a U.S. nuclear plant disaster, residents would be supplied with potassium iodide pills.
The administration of George W. Bush issued a directive to provide the pills, a protection against the thyroid cancer-causing effects of radiation, within a 10-mile radius of the nation’s nuclear plants. Markey previously urged the Obama administration to expand the protection to a 20-mile radius, but was rebuffed.
In a letter to the director of White House science and technology policy, however, Markey this week renewed his plea. “We should not wait for a catastrophic accident at or a terrorist attack on a nuclear reactor in this country to occur to implement this common-sense preparedness measure,” he said.
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