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Re: Government Is Slow to Offer Safety Plans
U.S. nuclear power plants are required to maintain detailed emergency plans.
Elements of these plans include emergency procedures to mitigate the effects
of any accident, instrumentation and procedures for assessing dose to the
public, training for emergency response personnel, procedures for
recommending protective actions to the government (usually the state) (The
government, NOT the plant operator has the final decision regarding protective
actions), a prompt notification system for informing the public of plant
status and protective actions, and a public information campaign to assure
that residents within 10 miles of a plant are informed of how to obtain
information and how to respond to protective action orders.
The primary protective actions available are sheltering in place and
evacuation. Recommendations are by sectors; eg. you could have an evacuation
in downwind sectors and sheltering elsewhere. Potential negative impacts of
an evacuation are considered. Most plants distrubute an emergency information
booklet to residences within the 10 mile radium, and generally have individual
contingency plans established with instutions, such as schools, hospitals, and
prisons within this "emergency planning zone." Government authorities with
emergency plan responsibilities participate in required emergency exercises.
The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.
Curies forever.
Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com
Susan L Gawarecki wrote:
> Hi RadSafers,
>
> I'm curious about the emergency plans in place for nuclear-power
> plants. Do they routinely call for evacuation in event of a major
> release? This article suggests what we already know--that evacuation
> (especially in heavily developed areas) can cause more harm than good in
> most kinds of acute exposure situations. Do emergency plans offer
> instructions on sheltering-in-place to local residents? Or
> recommendations on filtered breathing masks? If not, maybe it's time to
> get realistic.
>
> See the URL below for related links.
>
> Regards,
> Susan Gawarecki
>
> Government Is Slow to Offer Safety Plans
>
> Local, National Offices Have Yet to Disclose Advice People Could Use in
> a Terrorist Attack
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47958-2002Aug5.html
>
> By Barton Gellman
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Tuesday, August 6, 2002; Page A01
>
> NEW YORK -- In a closed meeting recently in Manhattan, Police
> Commissioner Ray Kelly fielded a question about the city's evacuation
> plan in case of
> biological, chemical or radiological attack.
>
> "He took a long sip of his tea, and put it down, and said, 'What
> evacuation?' " recalled one participant, whose employer forbids him to
> be quoted by name.
> "He said, 'This is a city of 8 million people. It can't be done.' "
>
> To someone choosing between shelter and flight when contaminants are in
> the air, that would be valuable information. National models show that a
> sudden
> exodus from nearly any big city would leave people gridlocked and
> exposed, while safe rooms they could make at home could offer
> life-saving protection.
> (See guide, Page A6.)
>
> But President Bush and local elected leaders are not providing this
> information to the public. For political and bureaucratic reasons,
> governments at all levels
> are telling far less to the public than to insiders about how to prepare
> for and behave in the initial chaos of a mass-casualty event.
>
> Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge often describes another major
> attack as "a matter of when, not if," and he said recently it could kill
> "vast numbers of
> Americans." But he has not yet urged the public to take available steps
> that could reduce the toll. When asked, the government is dispensing
> generic guidance
> with fewer particulars than it puts in pamphlets about hurricanes and
> winter storms.
>
> The Bush administration, Congress and some municipal authorities are
> preparing themselves more effectively for an attack. Congress, for
> example, has
> evacuation routes and respiratory protection for every member and aide.
> Kelly, who could not be reached for this article after a faxed letter
> and telephone
> calls, keeps emergency water, food and medical supplies for his office.
>
> Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and the D.C. government are among the most
> aggressive in urging the public to make similar preparations. Since
> Sept. 11,
> they have printed a brochure in nine languages, as well as in braille,
> and have mailed a copy to every household in the District.
>
> Even so, the D.C. Family Preparedness Guide relies on euphemisms that
> obscure its meaning, such as "technological hazards" for chemical and
> biological
> weapons. And according to federal scientists, some of its instructions
> are outdated and others are too vague to be effective.
>
> John Sorensen, director of the Emergency Management Center at the
> federal government's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, said he
> "offered to
> develop brochures for chemical weapons, biological agents and so forth"
> that would describe in plain language what Americans could do to
> prepare. He said
> the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross,
> which jointly publish the most widely used disaster preparation
> materials, "told me,
> 'We're not in the business of terrifying the public.' " Officials at
> both organizations said they prefer to provide advice broad enough for
> any disaster, natural or
> man-made.
>
> Thomas A. Glass, principal investigator in a National Science Foundation
> study of public behavior during emergencies, said the research found
> that planners
> consistently forecast panic that does not take place and misconceive the
> reasons for unsafe behavior. In 10 calamities over seven years, the
> public responded
> rationally, he said, but "will do all kinds of [unsafe] things because
> they haven't been prepared." The widespread assumption "that if you talk
> to the public about
> what can happen they will panic is borne out by nothing." After
> examining hundreds of government contingency plans, Glass said they
> commonly treat the
> public in the manner "of animal husbandry."
>
> 'They're Blowing It Off'
>
> The Bush administration has struggled with public disclosure of risks
> and precautions. Political appointees said the White House is reluctant
> to do more in part
> because it sees its color-coded "homeland security advisory system,"
> introduced in March, as a public relations failure. Until recently,
> elected officials also
> calculated that asking the public to make specific preparations at home
> would undercut the political message that government is doing everything
> that can be
> done.
>
> "Most people want to feel their elected and public safety officials are
> dealing with this," said Mayor Michael Guido of Dearborn, Mich., in
> comments echoed
> by Bush administration officials who declined to be named.
>
> Public opinion research is beginning to suggest that vagueness is a
> political liability. David Bell, who is chairman of the Advertising
> Council and a friend of
> Ridge, brought the public discontent to the attention of the former
> Pennsylvania governor. Ridge had earlier asked the council to promote
> Bush's new USA
> Freedom Corps.
>
> According to written findings made available to The Washington Post, the
> Ad Council assembled focus groups during the week of July 8 in Fairfax
> County,
> Cincinnati and Los Angeles. Participants were "hungry for leadership and
> action: to be told what to do to be more prepared, to be assured that
> this
> preparedness can make a difference" and to "take responsibility upon
> themselves."
>
> "I was waiting for somebody to tell me, 'Okay, we have this [potential]
> threat,' " complained a focus group member in Cincinnati. " 'If this
> happens, then you
> need to do A, B and C.' "
>
> When mayors and city managers gathered in New York on July 26 for the
> National League of Cities' working group on homeland security, several
> of them
> expressed frustration. "A red box, blue box, yellow box is not going to
> tell us what we need to know," Brenda Barger, mayor of Watertown, S.D.,
> told Ridge's
> representative across the table. "You know what people are doing?
> They're blowing it off. We need to know what to do."
>
> Joshua Filler, an aide to Ridge, replied that the mayor should determine
> that for herself. "The community should decide, 'This is what we're
> going to do at [risk
> advisory level] yellow,' " he said.
>
> Susan Neely, Ridge's director of communications, acknowledged that "that
> doesn't seem to be a satisfactory answer to people."
>
> In a telephone interview, Ridge said, "there has been enough concern
> expressed by the public" that Washington will have to address it.
> "People are seeking
> good information. . . . I certainly anticipate talking about it, because
> citizens want to know."
>
> So recent is that decision that the National Strategy for Homeland
> Security, released July 16, mentioned nothing about self-protection for
> individuals and
> families.
>
> As long as eight years ago, a federal study concluded that education
> about chemical attacks and how to survive them would save lives if the
> lethal agents were
> released among civilians. Claims that the public would panic at such
> advice, the study found, were "shown to be false" and appeared to be
> "excuses for not
> providing information."
>
> "The stakes are huge," said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif). "I'm measuring
> it in lives. That's a pretty definitive measure."
>
> The Bush administration is considering a television and radio campaign
> to be produced for free by the Ad Council, the group responsible for
> such iconic
> slogans as, "Friends don't let friends drive drunk."
>
> Peggy Conlon, the council's president, said preparedness is "a very
> difficult communications challenge. One of the things we're very
> sensitive to, and we'll be
> testing the heck out of it, is there's a fine balance to strike between
> empowering people . . . and scaring them."
>
> Come What May
>
> Early concepts for the public service campaign cast it as marketing for
> the government's existing disaster preparation advice, now scattered
> across many Web
> sites and in brochures that are distributed primarily on request.
>
> FEMA and the Red Cross do not know how many people know about or follow
> their guidelines for self-protection at home. Lara Shane, a spokeswoman
> for
> FEMA, said, "We don't have a way to quantitatively measure how a message
> reaches the public, but we try to reach as many people as possible
> through our
> regional offices, Web sites and partnerships."
>
> Local governments, which the federal agencies rely upon for
> distribution, seldom take the initiative.
>
> New York, a prominent terrorist target, especially since the February
> 1993 World Trade Center bombing, has no printed guide for citizens.
> Emergency
> Management Commissioner John Odermatt said the city would begin
> information efforts at the moment of crisis, when "public awareness is
> extremely
> important." He said there were too many unknowns to advise residents to
> prepare in advance.
>
> Withholding comment on evacuation is a matter of city policy. Untested
> internal estimates, created for hurricanes, say as many as 1 million New
> Yorkers might
> evacuate with advance warning of six to 72 hours. A sudden terrorist
> attack would allow far fewer to leave, but Odermatt said he had "no
> question" more
> would try without waiting for direction. The city does not educate
> residents against this impulse, he said, because "we can't pre-plan an
> evacuation. It depends
> on the incident or the type of incident."
>
> C. Virginia Fields, the Manhattan borough president, commissioned her
> own pamphlet and printed 50,000 copies for a borough of 1.5 million. She
> has not
> mailed it. "That is a victim of the budget crisis," she said. An aide
> phoned later to say Fields would tape a radio message this week.
>
> In the District, Williams said that residents "want information, they're
> adults, and they can deal with it." His government's family preparedness
> guide strikes a
> compromise.
>
> It is among the few publications to allude to biochemical terrorism, if
> euphemistically. But its advice on the subject is questionable. The
> guide tells residents to
> "cover your nose and mouth with a wet cloth" in the event of a
> "technological hazards emergency." The research at Oak Ridge Laboratory
> in the 1990s found
> that a wet cloth impeded breathing without benefit. The District also
> advises people to use wet towels under doors at home, which the study
> found ineffective.
>
> Peter LaPorte, the District's emergency management director, said he did
> not know about the Oak Ridge research but "we may need a rewrite to that
> section."
> He said the District should be praised for seeking a balance between "a
> level of seriousness" and spreading fears of a "doomsday scenario."
>
> Nearly all government advice on terrorism sacrifices practical
> particulars for an unalarming tone. The usual guidance is to maintain a
> three-day supply of food
> and water along with a radio, flashlight, batteries and first-aid kit.
>
> The FEMA-produced materials do not mention whether, why or when to
> evacuate, and they do not advise the public to keep plastic sheeting and
> duct tape
> available to prepare a "safe room" if directed by authorities. Federal
> research on chemical weapons found life-saving benefits in "simple
> taping and sealing,"
> which cuts exposure to outdoor agents by a factor of 10.
>
> There is also no published government advice for self-protection in the
> event of a nuclear blast or the detonation of a "dirty bomb," which
> might scatter
> radioactive debris. In the immediate vicinity of an atomic blast, there
> would be few, if any, survivors, but for people farther away or downwind
> of a dirty bomb,
> there are available steps. Jane Orient, president of Doctors for
> Disaster Preparedness, said a rule could be offered in a dozen words:
> "You need to have mass
> between yourself and the source of radiation."
>
> Shane said FEMA avoids discussion of specific threats because "whether
> the cause is an earthquake or a terrorist attack, if the building falls,
> the consequence
> is the same."
>
> Still, FEMA prints and promotes many specialized preparedness
> publications -- for earthquake, fire, flood, heat wave, hurricane,
> landslide, severe
> thunderstorm, tornado, tsunami, volcano, wildfire and winter storm. It
> has none with special preparations for the circumstances of a terrorist
> attack.
>
> Ridge said FEMA, once it is absorbed into Bush's proposed Department of
> Homeland Security, would be "a natural agency to give more specific
> [advice] to
> prepare for a more specific terrorist event. They're not there yet."
>
> Breathing Lessons
>
> No government agency recommends that people buy respiratory filters in
> anticipation of an emergency. Yet a 324-page study at the Oak Ridge lab,
> evaluating
> more than 1,000 scenarios for evacuation, shelter and respiratory
> protection, found that inexpensive filter masks "may be used to
> significantly reduce exposure"
> to chemical warfare agents and some biological threats, including
> anthrax.
>
> There are many threats against which the filters are useless, including
> biological weapons absorbed through the skin. But the study said masks
> rated "N95,"
> which stop 95 percent of particles over 3 microns in diameter, were
> valuable against inhaled agents, although improper fit can make them
> less so. One kind,
> manufactured by 3M, resembles an oversized surgeon's mask and is
> available for less than $1.50 each.
>
> Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), a physician and public health expert, has
> issued detailed instructions for building a safe room. His book, "When
> Every Moment
> Counts," recommends that readers buy N95 masks for each family member.
> Frist said it would take "eight months to a year" for the executive
> branch to make
> up its mind on the masks, and that a similar recommendation from Bush or
> Ridge might be more alarming to the public.
>
> There is a striking disparity between the public brochures and the
> information given to about 200,000 untrained civilians who volunteer for
> a FEMA
> Community Emergency Response Team.
>
> In simple, bulleted teaching points, instructors conduct the volunteers
> on a two-hour tour of the federal government's ironically acronymed
> catalogue of terrorist
> horrors -- B-NICE, for biological, nuclear, incendiary, chemical and
> explosive.
>
> It takes 35 minutes, according to the instructor's guide, to teach the
> volunteers 14 ways to recognize an unconventional attack and simple
> rules for "self-care
> and protective action." For example, they learn the "three factors that
> you can apply for your safety: Time, Distance and Shielding." Because
> "time is critical" if
> exposed to chemical agents, instructors tell them not to wait for
> professional help but to undress and decontaminate with water and soap
> -- a subject rarely
> broached with the general public.
>
> On Capitol Hill, even as the government avoids recommending filtered
> breathing masks for private citizens, Harman of California said, "Our
> office was
> counseled to use them when opening the mail."
>
> Recently, Congress got better masks. In bags delivered to each office,
> the sergeant-at-arms provided enough hooded masks to protect every
> member of the
> Senate and the House and their staffs.
>
> © 2002 The Washington Post Company
> --
> .....................................................
> Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director
> Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee
> 102 Robertsville Road, Suite B, Oak Ridge, TN 37830
> Toll free 888-770-3073 ~ www.local-oversight.org
> .....................................................
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