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RE: ARTICLE: Fallout likely caused 15,000 deaths
Title: RE: ARTICLE: Fallout likely caused 15,000
deaths
Ted,
I remember these stats were made. I just was not sure who did the
data collection and correlation.
I was at TMI just after the accident was "under
control."
I stayed just south of Hershey. I spoke to scores and scores of
local just plain folks. EVERYONE that I spoke to told me that they
experienced fear or apprehension during the event. Kids were strangely
silent; however, I assume that if they saw their parents express
apprehension and fear that they only magnified it in their own
minds.
I got very sick (the "TMI flu") while I was there. It
seems that a cold/flu was traveling through and the hours and stress
got to a lot of folks at the plant and lots of us got sick. I ended up
at the Hershey Medical Center emergency room. While I was there I
spoke to two different docs. Both discussed the effects that they saw
then and continued to see in patients. Both reported seeing a large
rise in drinking related problems and reports of insomnia. Both said
that during the event they were concerned that they would be expected
to help evacuate the hospital and would not be able to help their
family's. One told me that he had sent his wife and child on a
"road trip back east." Both seemed to be waiting for someone
from the government to talk to them. I do not know if anyone ever
did.
In any emergency folks will be expected to look to authorities
for reassurance as to what to do and what is expected to happen. Here,
the utility and NRC were both guessing. The NRC could not advise the
PA Governor as to what, if any, action was needed to protect the
citizens. At that time, the NRC could not tell them the range (miles)
of concern.
Folks "experiencing" nuclear power emergency
preparedness NOW have NO idea what it was like when TMI happened. No
prearrangements with the NRC or the locals agencies. No offsite
emergency operation centers or joint public information centers No
dose projection tools. No planning for the long term - small release -
large potential - that TMI presented.
I think that people need to understand response to stress. Two
people can experience the same events and one is mentally harmed and
one is not. Man's Search for Meaning : An Introduction to Logotherapy
-- by Victor E. Frankl explored this in detail. The response to a
mental stress is totally dependant on the person experiencing the
event. I can not remember a single recent traumatic event (shooting,
death, etc.) that has occurred at or affected a grade or high school
that has not had folks come to let the kids talk to them. All these
were an attempt to prevent PTSD. At TMI we had the Pres. (Jimmy
Carter) walk around the site in yellow boots to show folks that
"everything is okay."
LOTS of wives express PTSD symptoms when seeking divorce. Many of
these were never touched by their partner - the "assault"
was totally verbal; however, PTSD resulted.
Thanks for the note.
Paul lavely <lavelyp@uclink4.berkeley.edu>
We do, in
fact, have statistics. I could probably find them again.
People did report increased use of sleeping pills, tranquilizers,
alcohol and tobacco, and reported difficulty
sleeping.
Ted
Rockwell
--