Radiation threats and your safety : a guide to preparation and response for professionals and community PDF
Preview Radiation threats and your safety : a guide to preparation and response for professionals and community
Radiation threats and your safety A guide to Preparation and REsponse for Professionals and Community Radiation threats and your safety A guide to Preparation and REsponse for Professionals and Community Armin Ansari Chapman & Hall/CRC Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742 © 2010 by Taylor and Francis Group, LLC Chapman & Hall/CRC is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business No claim to original U.S. Government works Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 International Standard Book Number: 978-1-4200-8361-3 (Hardback) This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint. Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmit- ted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copyright. com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photocopy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data Ansari, Armin. Radiation threats and your safety : a guide to preparation and response for professionals and community / Armin Ansari. p. ; cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4200-8361-3 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Ionizing radiation--Accidents. 2. Ionizing radiation--Safety measures. 3. Emergency management. I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Radiation Injuries--prevention & control. 2. Disaster Planning. 3. Disasters. 4. Radioactive Hazard Release--prevention & control. 5. Radiologic Health. WN 650 A617r 2010] RA569.A56 2010 362.196’9897--dc22 2009030137 Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the CRC Press Web site at http://www.crcpress.com Dedication To community members and professionals who go the extra mile Contents Preface ix The Author xiii Part one • Understanding radiation 1 Introduction 3 2 Radiation in Everyday Life 7 3 Radiation 101 2 3 Part two • the imPaCt of radiation 4 Accidental Radiation Emergencies 4 7 5 Intentional Radiation Emergencies 7 5 6 Health Effects of Radiation 103 7 Environmental Effects of Radiation 125 8 Psychosocial Effects of Radiation 143 Part Three • resPonding to radiation 9 Protecting Yourself and Your Family 159 10 Preparing Your Family Emergency Plan 185 11 Medical Response to Radiation Emergencies 195 12 Radiation Drugs 217 13 Government Response to Radiation Emergencies 243 14 Responding as Professionals 261 15 Responding as a Community 275 vii viii • ConTenTs Part four • ConClUsion 16 Living with the Threat 291 Glossary 293 Appendix A: Emergency Supply List 299 Appendix B: Radiation from Microwaves and Cellular Phones 303 Appendix C: Food Irradiation 309 Index 315 PrefaCe S everal years ago, before the advent of internet shopping, i bought an old issue of Life magazine from a shopping mall kiosk in Knoxville, tennessee. it was the september 15, 1961, issue and had a picture of a man in a “civilian fallout suit” on the cover with the title “how You Can survive fallout.” i browsed through the magazine thinking that it represented an era that we had moved beyond. i had no idea that the events occurring exactly 40 years after publication of this particular issue would launch another era during which, once again, we would be concerned about this possibility. also, i had no idea at the time that i would be spending the second half of my career working on nuclear and radiological emergency preparedness and response issues, part of which entails lecturing and conducting training workshops across the country. it was through these interactions with a broad spectrum of professionals and community members that i realized that an information gap had not been addressed, even though an enormous amount of information was available. There has been an explosion of information on the subject of radiation emergencies and related issues in the scientific and technical literature. multitudes of radiation textbooks ably serve professionals in their respec- tive medical and technical fields. state, federal, and international agencies have created numerous guidance and planning documents, and some of that information keeps changing as new plans are drawn and new terminolo- gies and acronyms are created. also, numerous fact sheets and information pages on radiation and radioactivity, radiation drugs, and other emergency response issues can be found on governmental and nongovernmental Web sites. finally, an aspect of commercialism offers information to private citi- zens as well as government consumers. although this vast body of information is valuable and, for the most part, serves the intended purpose, much of it is too detailed or too technical, tai- lored for specific audiences, or simply too dispersed. Consumers of informa- tion who are new to the radiation arena have to sift through a lot of material to find what is important or applicable to them. They are likely to be over- whelmed with information or not get enough of what they need. my goal in writing this book is to bring together, in a concise way, essen- tial, need-to-know, and practical information about radiation threats in an approachable form and content. The book is written for discerning members ix
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