Public protective actions

Improvement Item ACEMD had to contact SC Emergency Management Division (SCEMD) to initiate the Emergency Alerting System (EAS) which only works if radio station is in auto position. ACEMD did not have (EAS) monitoring capability to determine if EAS message had been transmitted to citizens. SCEMD resource issues can impact initiation of EAS. Procedure to confirm dissemination of public protective action notifications should be developed. 

Sheltering in Place as a Public Protective Action (NICS, 2001)... 

Exposure from external gamma, skin contamination, and inhalation can be prevented or reduced by what are referred to as urgent protective actions (see below. Public Protective Actions). 

Evacuation is the most common public protective action for emergencies involving possible release of hazardous materials. Evacuations are common and people do not panic and travel during an evacuation is safer than normal travel. Evacuation is the most effective protective action, provided that it can be implemented before or soon after a release begins. Evacuation after a release is an effective countermeasure against irradiation from contaminated ground, which can be an important source of exposure. Evacuation can be effective even if carried out in a plume for a long-duration release and for areas close to the release. Normally, evacuation should not be considered for more than seven days. 

Public Instructions, Public Protective Actions, and Mitigation of Psychosocial Impacts. There is generally no need for public instruction or protective action plans for threat category III. Mitigation of psychosocial impacts is also not a consideration beyond providing timely information to counter rumors and misinformation. 

Public Protective Actions. Because the location of a potential transportation accident is not known in advance, planning for public protective actions is limited to establishing distances within which the public should be evacuated. These distances, provided in IAEA (2000a) for the UN numbers discussed above under Plans and Procedures, are summarized in Table 9.9. 

Public Protective Actions. These events may require monitoring large areas and screening a potentially large number of people. An effective way to be prepared for these rare events is to develop a network of existing qualified personnel (e.g., personnel from NPPs, research institutions, and universities) to be mobilized and coordinated on short notice. 

Public Instructions and Public Protective Actions. As discussed, prompt action by pubhc officials to alert the public (and thus the thieves) of the hazard has resulted in the thieves telling officials where to find the sources. In at least two cases, the highly pubheized arrival of national-level monitoring teams and aircraft to look for the sourees eonvineed the thieves to return the sources and to seek medical treatment. 

In the second case, only gamma dose-rate instruments and operational intervention levels are needed to determine where actions are needed. The first category of accidents, however, is much more difficult to assess. For such events, protective action must be taken before or shortly after a very severe release to be effective in reducing the risk of severe deterministic health effects near the facility. The strategy for taking protective actions for severe reactor accidents is discussed above under Public Protective Actions. 

Sheltering. As discussed above under Public Protective Actions, sheltering can be effective protection from exposure from the cloud shine, ground shine, and inhalation dose resulting from a plume. The degree of effectiveness depends on the building type. 

Evacuation. Evacuation can be the most effective protective action from all the exposure pathways resulting from a plume. In general, evacuation is the preferred protective action for areas close to any source of hazardous material release, provided that it can be implemented safely and promptly. For example, in the precautionary action zone, evacuation or substantial shelter is appropriate for a severe accident. However, the effectiveness of an evacuation depends on the nature of the release, time to initiate and complete, distance from the source, duration of the release, and other factors. The effectiveness of evacuation relative to shelter must be determined by careful study for each threat category I facility. These studies have come to some counterintuitive conclusions. For example, as shown above under Public Protective Actions, walking (e.g., evacuation by foot) in a plume from close to a... 

As discussed above under Public Protective Actions, evacuation during a release should normally be avoided. A possible exception is when the release is expected to last a long time and the dose received from the plume and ground contamination during the evacuation is expected to be less than the dose that would be received by staying sheltered for the duration of the release. 

J. A. Martin, et al. Pilot Program NRC Severe Reactor Accident Incident Response Training Manual, Public Protective Actions -- Predetermined Criteria and Initial Actions, NUREG-1210, Volume 4, 1987. 

Measured total column ozone has fallen between about 1970 and 1994. Ultraviolet irradiation increases at the surface of the earth due to ozone depletion should peak at about 15% in midlatitudes. The incidence of harmful health effects of UV radiation can be expected to rise, eventually, at midlatitudes. Public health action is still necessary to reduce sun exposure, increase protection against the sun, and develop clear policies on the action that should be taken on early detection and treatment of skin cancers (Armstrong, 1997). 

As discussed in Chapter 5, benchmarks based on relevant populations, health end points, and internal doses (or plausible external doses) can be beneficial to study subjects and other concerned publics in evaluating individual and group biomonitoring results. For example, benchmarks could help to dampen health concerns that might otherwise be unduly high because of default lay beliefs about links between chemical body burdens and health outcomes. Conversely, exceedances of such benchmarks can be a signal for more attention and perhaps exposure reduction and other protective actions. 

External Affairs Emergency public information and protective action guidance Media and community relations Congressional and international affairs Tribal and insular affairs U.S. Department ot Flomeland Security... 

In spite of a number of relevant publications [8-11], the mechanism of formation porous structure of co-precipitated adsorbents has not been theoretically substantiated yet and it comes mainly to a protective action of components in the mixture relative to one another. This does not facilitate the development of scientific basis for understanding of porosity formation process of co-precipitated solids, and for predicting their structure and component composition that would ensure necessary properties. 

See the Table of Initial Isolation and Protective Action Distances in the North American Emergency Response Guidebook for highlighted substances. For non-highlighted substances, increase, in the downwind direction, as necessary, the isolation distance shown in the "Public Safety" section above. 

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