Health Physicists Provide Plan for Response to Small Radiological Attack

April 10, 2006--Firefighters, EMTs, hospitals, police and other local emergency response teams have access to guidelines for a better plan to respond to a potential so-called "dirty bomb" incident, thanks to a report in the April issue of Health Physics, a monthly journal of the Health Physics Society. In the report, Brookhaven National Laboratory health physicist Stephen Musolino and Sandia National Laboratory senior scientist Frederick Harper summed up results from numerous lab studies and test explosions to help emergency personnel understand radiation levels, how to triage people in the area, and how to help those who do not need an immediate exam but have been exposed and may be concerned.

And that concern about radiation exposure may be the greatest effect of a "dirty bomb", says health physicist Andy Karam of the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. In a report published by this news service in 2002, Karam (then at the University of Rochester, in Rochester, N.Y.) said that the radiation dose from a dirty bomb would likely be relatively small, and would lead to very few, if any, deaths from cancer. But the explosion itself, coupled with fear arising from misunderstandings about the dangers of radiation, would likely cause more deaths than even the most potent attack.

Another common concern is that of pregnant women exposed to radiation. It is safe to say that the exposure to radiation from a "dirty bomb" attack (or, for that matter, from routine medical procedures) is highly unlikely to cause any complications for a woman's pregnancy because of the high dose of radiation needed to cause birth defects. Women who are concerned about the effects of radiation on their pregnancy should consult with a medical physicist or a health physicist, or should seek advice from the Health Physics Society's Ask the Experts Web site.

References

Emergency Response Guidance for the First 48 Hours after the Outdoor Detonation of an Explosive Radiological Dispersal Device, by Stephen Musolino and Frederick Harper, Health Physics, April 2006 90:4

Brookhaven National Laboratory news release

"Dirty Bombs" Much More Likely to Create Fear than Cause Cancer, Inside Science News Service, March 12, 2002

Contact:

Martha Heil
American Institute of Physics
Tel: 301-209-3088
mheil@aip.org

Andrew Karam
Rochester Institute of Technology
paksbi@rit.edu

Stephen Musolino
Brookhaven National Laboratory
musolino@bnl.gov