|MadSci Network: Medicine|
A guiding publication referenced by many fields is the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement (NCRP) report titled "Management of Persons Accidentally Contaminated with Radionuclides", NCRP Report 65 (1980). This report deals with significant radiation and contamination events as well as the medical response to such events. There are also Hazardous Material handling and response procedures that can also be applied to radiation accident situations. HAZWOPER (Hazardous Waste Operator) training instruct individuals in the proper response to many hazardous situations. However, the basic premise for responding to any accident situation, whether chemical, radiation, biological, a car wreck, etc., is to respond to the medical emergency first BUT without putting yourself or any one else in danger. This is a VERY important concept. You would not be doing much good to rush into an accident situation and cause yourself to become a victim and need rescuing yourself. One of the items taught by many emergency response groups is the STAR concept. S = Stop, T = Think, A = Act, R = Review. When faced with an emergency situation, STOP. THINK about the situation and the best way to help. The best thing may be to wait until firefighters arrive so that you do not put yourself in significant danger. Then ACT appropriately and timely. Finally, REVIEW your actions to make sure you are doing things the right way and if there is anything else or another way you could be responding. And can you imagine having to think of all these things while responding to an emergency? Well, this is why many facilities have emergency drills to practice proper response to a wide variety of emergency situations. And in the case of emergency response, practice makes perfect. As mentioned before, emergency responders are taught to give medical emergencies the highest priority. This is because often times, the risk of chemical or radiation exposure is much lower than having the other individual die. Would you not risk a cut or burn in order to save an individual from a burning car? It's the same concept. Also the quicker the response to the medical emergency, over the exposure to whatever chemical or radiation may be present, affords the victim an increase in surviving the accident and actually limits their exposure to the harmful substances. It's much easier to decontaminate an individual from a hazardous substance once bleeding is stopped. Plus, what good would trying to remove a substance from an individual or waiting until conditions were just right before providing life saving procedures if the individual died while waiting for these life saving procedures? So, this is the first thing emergency responders are taught, in addition to keeping themselves safe while they perform their emergency actions. Many facilities have emergency response procedures and some are required by law. OSHA, FEMA, EPA, and the NRC have guidelines for emergency response procedures and require a number of facilities in their jurisdictions to have written procedures for dealing with emergency situations. However, they all have the same principles: evacuate the area and attend to the medical needs of those affected, notify appropriate individuals or have some one else do that immediately, isolate the area as much as possible, and attempt to contain a spill or leak if you know how. I have included a few web sites that have emergency response procedures as well as other emergency response information and contacts: http://www.arpansa.gov.au/rempan.htm http://www.dp.doe.gov/emergencyresponse/PDF/reac.pdf or (http://www.bechtelnevada.com/Programs/NSResp/REACTS.htm) http://www.llnl.gov/es_and_h/hsm/supplement_33.03/sup33-03.html http://oehs.ilstu.edu/emerprocedures.htm http://www.umich.edu/~oseh/chpsec3.html http://www.cf.ac.uk/safty/policy/rad-emer.html Also try web seraching with keywords such as "emergency procedures", "emergency response", "emergency rescue", "radiation accidents", etc. if this is still not the information you are seeking. Hope this will help with your report.
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