Individual preparedness is an important element of our nation's strategy for homeland security. This report adopts a scenario-driven approach that provides a rigorous way to identify actions-linked specifically to terrorist attacks-individuals can take to protect their health and safety. The result is an individual's strategy across four types of terrorist attacks-chemical, radiological, nuclear, and biological-consisting of overarching goals and simple and directive response and preparatory actions. The actions are appropriate regardless of likelihood of an attack, scale of attack, or government alert level; designed to be sensitive to potential variations; and defined in terms of simple rules that should be easy for individuals to adopt.

The Oklahoma City bombing, intentional crashing of airliners on September 11, 2001, and anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001 have made Americans acutely aware of the impacts of terrorism. These events and continued threats of terrorism have raised questions about the impact on the psychological health of the nation and how well the public health infrastructure is able to meet the psychological needs that will likely result. Preparing for the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism highlights some of the critical issues in responding to the psychological needs that result from terrorism and provides possible options for intervention. The committee offers an example for a public health strategy that may serve as a base from which plans to prevent and respond to the psychological consequences of a variety of terrorism events can be formulated. The report includes recommendations for the training and education of service providers, ensuring appropriate guidelines for the protection of service providers, and developing public health surveillance for preevent, event, and postevent factors related to psychological consequences.

The Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) program of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) provides funds to major U. S. cities to help them develop plans for coping with the health and medical consequences of a terrorist attack with chemical, biological, or radiological (CBR) agents. DHHS asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to assist in assessing the effectiveness of the MMRS program by developing appropriate evaluation methods, tools, and processes to assess both its own management of the program and local preparedness in the cities that have participated in the program. This book provides the managers of the MMRS program and others concerned about local capabilities to cope with CBR terrorism with three evaluation tools and a three-part assessment method. The tools are a questionnaire survey eliciting feedback about the management of the MMRS program, a table of preparedness indicators for 23 essential response capabilities, and a set of three scenarios and related questions for group discussion. The assessment method described integrates document inspection, a site visit by a team of expert peer reviewers, and observations at community exercises and drills.

There is much the nation must do-and is doing-to guard against and prepare for terrorist attacks. In some possible situations, individuals may have to rely on themselves to protect their own health and safety-perhaps even their own lives. Thus, individual preparedness is an important element of our nation's strategy for homeland security. Many people know how to respond in such disasters as fires and earthquakes, but few would know what to do if someone were to use a chemical, radiological, nuclear, or biological weapon in their vicinity. Although the characteristics of such attacks may vary widely and their likelihood is highly uncertain, they can all create unfamiliar and very dangerous circumstances. Consequently, individuals need an overall strategy they can use to prepare for and respond to such attacks. This guide emerged from a detailed what-if, scenario-driven analysis we conducted to examine four types of terrorist attacks: chemical, radiological, nuclear, and biological. In each case, the response strategy is guided by a fundamental objective, which we refer to as an overarching goal, which in turn depends on taking certain actions. We have distilled our findings into this guide to offer individuals a series of actions they can take to save lives, even in catastrophic situations.

You may be prepared for disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes, or fires, but what should you do in the event of a terrorist attack that used chemical, radiological, nuclear, or biological weapons? What can you do to prepare for these types of terrorist attacks? This quick guide attempts to fill in some of these gaps, offering specific steps to take during each of these situations. It discusses basic principles and preparations that may improve your ability to respond and survive these attacks. The recommendations are appropriate regardless of the likelihood of an attack, its scale, or the current government alert level. Response strategies and preparations are designed to be sensitive to potential variations and have been defined in terms of clear, simple rules that will be easy to remember and follow. A removable reference card is included for your convenience. Book jacket.

Even people who consider themselves prepared to deal with common emergencies might not know what to do during a chemical, radiological, nuclear, or biological attack. This quick guide offers suggestions about how individuals can prepare for such attacks and what actions they can take during each type of attack to protect their own health and safety--and, possibly, their own lives.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop on August 22â€"23, 2018, in Washington, DC, to explore medical and public health preparedness for a nuclear incident. The event brought together experts from government, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and the private sector to explore current assumptions behind the status of medical and public health preparedness for a nuclear incident, examine potential changes in these assumptions in light of increasing concerns about the use of nuclear warfare, and discuss challenges and opportunities for capacity building in the current threat environment. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.