Re: New Jersey school incident

[Lorna Bullerwell <ljb1@cornell.edu>]

Having taken a couple of the HAZWOPPER training courses that the fire and
police department personnel take, I fully understand the response to this
"incident".  Radiation is not adequately covered, nor are they really
taught how to use a meter or what the results really mean.  I believe the
problem lies in the haz mat teams being expected to respond to any type of
haz mat emergency.  Normally, these individuals are not specialists in
every scenario and often they are specialists in none of them.  What they
do have is the general knowledge of what to do to give themselves and the
public the maximum amount of protection that they can.  They will overreact
to haz mat incidents, especially when it is of a type that the majority of
the haz mat team does not have experience with.  I do not think there is a
problem with this, because if you don't know, you need to do what you can
and assume the worst until you know differently.  It is not possible to
have a haz mat team that will know exactly what to do in every situation.

I hope that this type of thing will not occur in our county.  Cornell
University's Department of Environmental Health and Safety has agreed to be
part of the haz mat response team for the county, along with the local fire
departments.    My boss has done a number of training sessions with the
local fire department, so they should at least know that they need to do in
case of radiation emergency is pick up the phone.  I think we have a very
good rapport with the local fire department, which I believe is also helped
by having about half of our staff being volunteer fire fighters.  In any
case, I would recommend that we as HPs get involved with the haz mat teams
in the area.  Radiation incidents do not happen very often, so giving them
additional training, although it would help, will not solve the problem
unless the incident happens the day after the training session.  The most
important thing to do is to let them know you are available and how to get
in touch with you.

Also along the line of this thread, I question why this is being taken as
negative publicity.  I admit, I haven't seen any of the media reports on
this except for the one posted here.  The way I read it, I thought it gave
way to people thinking, which is what we want them to do.  The "incident"
showed how fear of radiation and the unknown costs a lot of time and money.
 It also showed that we can measure (i.e. see) radiation, even at levels
that are inconsequential to health and safety.  I would think that people
might start to say to themselves, "Hmmmm, maybe radiation isn't that
dangerous after all."

Anyway, this is just my opinion, and although I believe my employer would
agree, they'll obviously say whatever will work best for them in any given
situation, so please don't blame Cornell for anything I've written.
************************************************************
Lorna Bullerwell                                               Phone:
(607) 255-8816
Radiological Safety Specialist                        Fax:      (607)
255-8267 
mailto:ljb1@cornell.edu           
Cornell University          
Department of Environmental Health and Safety
Laboratory and Radiation Safety Section
125 Humphreys Service Building
Ithaca, NY  14853
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