Re: Chernobyl first response

[fhf <maay100@bgumail.bgu.ac.il>]

Dear Mike,

	It is also important to consider the practical problem of persons 
having physical injury and open wounds and at the same time radioactive 
contamination and possible radiation exposure from external sources. Staff
of hospitals to which such wounded may be evacuated must be cognizant of the
radiation problem and firemen must know about hospital plans for dealing
with such (rare) eventualities.

				Michael Quastel MD PhD, Head,
				Institute of Nuclear Medicine
				Soroka Medical Center
				POB 151, Beer Sheva, Israel 84101
				Fax: 972-7-6400765

On Wed, 7 May 1997, Mike McNaughton wrote:

> I am preparing Emergency Responder Rad Training for the Los Alamos Fire
> Dept, and I want to use the first few hours of the Chernobyl emergency as
> an example. (This does not imply that anyone thinks this is likely at Los
> Alamos). I realise not much is known about the first few hours of the
> emergency response at Chernobyl, but I would like comments on whether the
> following conclusions are reasonable.
> 
> 1. Respiratory protection: in the first few hours of the emergency response
> at Chernobyl, most firemen used no respiratory protection; some used gauze
> (surgical) masks.
> 
> 2. Protective clothing: the clothing worn by the firemen had openings that
> allowed radioactive fallout to get onto the skin.
> 
> 3. Dosimetry: although the firemen knew of the 25 rad dose limit or
> guideline, they had no way to measure this; they had no personal dosimetry,
> and no radiation detection instruments.
> 
> 4. Shallow dose: the most serious radiation dose was from beta-emitting
> nuclides which settled on the skin and clothing, and remained there for
> several hours; the shallow dose rate from this fallout was of order 100
> rad/hr.
> 
> 5. In a hypothetical accident comparable to Chernobyl, if the emergency
> responders used SCBAs, standard fire-dept protective clothing with taped
> openings, self-reading alarming dosimeters, and ion-chamber radiation
> detectors to monitor themselves and their surroundings, there would
> probably not be any acute radiation sickness.
> 
> I would appreciate any comments. Thank you, mike.
> 
> "Shlala gashle" (Zulu greeting, meaning "Stay safe")
> mike (mcnaught@LANL.GOV)
> 
>