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This is a full transcript of the online presentation. For the
presentation itself, go here.
Presented by: Steve Furnace, AA, RSO, Hazmat Specialist
Bureau of Radiation Control
Division of Environmental Health
Contact Number: 407-297-2096 Ext. 214 Getting into radiological attack here RDD. My name is Steve Furnace, and
Im with the Bureau of Radiation Control. My phone number is 407-297-2096.
One of my duties here I have here in the Bureau of Radiation Control is to
train first responders and how to respond to a radiological accident. we give a two day class and a four hour awareness level
class, so feel free to call me if you wish to schedule any training.
Radiation dispersal devices or RDD we heard this, well actually theres
two different types of RDDs out there. One of
them is localized sources, actually not even using an explosive device,
just taking a source of radioactive material and planting it somewhere
within the community. Its possible these could be
high level sources of radiation, more than likely it will be low level, its
just meant to panic the public. The other is an explosive device, so youre
taking a radioactive material and coupling it with explosive material and
blowing it up and trying to actually spread the radioactive material as much
as you can. Truthfully probably more people would be injured or die from
the explosion material than from the radioactive material itself. You have
to understand that radiation material is very, very easy to detect its not
hard at all.
Again these localized sources of radiation that I was talking about
earlier, can be low level sources of radiation, it could be hidden in
shoebox, backpacks, and again cause panic amongst population. The health
effects from these I suspect would be low and moderate in the long term.
Dirty bombs. Some people ask is dirty bombs are nuclear weapons. No, a
dirty bomb is not a nuclear weapon, nuclear weapons need weapons grade
material to be able to fission and they are thousands of times more
devastating. Dirty bombs, you can get it from nuclear waste or even
hospital sources they use an oncology ward, labs. Again a dirty bomb is not
Ok, where could terrorists get radioactive materials? Some of it is in:
nuclear medicine departments, radiopharmaceutical drug companies, university
research laboratories, food or radiation plants we have two of them in the
state of Florida, sources radioactive sources from instruments, smoke
detectors, they have americium 241 and this puts out low level alpha
radiation, not enough to hurt anybody, but potentially could be used as a
dirty bomb, and the spent nuclear fuel which could be the most dangerous,
but is really the least likely to happen. The security of
nuclear power plants are really enormous.
Indicators or clues that youve come upon a scene involving radioactive
material. Some of them could be: unusual amount of sick or dying people,
unusual metal debris in the business they call this radioactive material to
be attached to equipment thats called gauges, within the Bureau of
Radiation Control we know most of all these gauges look like, so if we
looked at a piece of one we probably identify this equipment containing
radioactive material, look for radiation symbols the tri-foil, it also
could be fake, heat emitting materials could be radioactive or glowing
materials or particles.
What should your first response be? Well, you want to get people away
from the dust cloud and the blast site as soon as possible. The wind is
actually going to carry the radioactive material, so if the wind is going
north send everybody south. Try to enforce good contamination control
during evacuation if are telling people to stand about for a while until
you can survey people, I recommend that you glove their hands, if you cant
glove their hands then tell them to stand there in a loose fist. You just
want to avoid them touching themselves or someone else. Always direct the
uninjured and slightly wounded victims to a predetermined holding area on
the perimeter of the site, again in the opposite direction from the wind
its going. You can advise them on initial decontamination: stripping their
clothes and getting surveyed, and evacuate the injured as a contaminated
injury victim. Meaning you have to notify or notify that hospital ahead of
time that you could have a potentially contaminated victim coming to our
hospital. It gives a chance to the nuclear medicine department to respond
and properly setup a triage area.
I talked about earlier about lethal dose and 50% of the public dying in
30 days and that number was between 400 RIM to 450
RIM. Usually anything greater, whole body dose, and no medical attention,
but greater than 600 RIM is fatal to 100% of the population. Again some of
the biological effects of doses of radiation if you get a dose greater than
200 RIM whole body again, thats where the epilation
will kick in and where people start losing their hair.
The brain, if you receive a dose greater than 5000 RIM brain cells to
not reproduce so they wont be damaged directly but it will kill the nerve
cells and small blood cells causing seizures and death.
The thyroid, the thyroid is very susceptible to radioactive iodine and
only radioactive iodine. Taking potassium iodine or KI can reduce the
effects of exposure to radioactive iodine. Now remember theres like over
900 different types or radioactive sources out there and this pill this KI
pill will only work for one radioactive isotope.
The heart, intense exposures to between 1000 to 5000 RIMs
of radiation could do immediate damage to small blood vessels and probably
The blood when exposed to around 100 RIMs the
bloods lymphocyte cell count will be reduced leaving the victim more
susceptible to infection, and this is known as early mild radiation
sickness. Early symptoms mimic those of flu, and may go unnoticed unless a
blood count is done. Hiroshima and Nagasaki deaths showed
that symptoms may persist for up to 10 years and may also have an increased
long term risk for leukemia and lymphoma.
The GI tract. Radiation damage to the intestinal tract lining will cause
nausea, bloody vomiting, and diarrhea. This occurs in victims exposure is
200 RIMs or more. The radiation will begin to
destroy the cells in the body that divide rapidly including blood cells,
including the blood in the GI tract, reproductive and hair cells, and can
damage the DNA and RNA of surviving cells.
The reproductive tract. Because these cells divide rapidly these areas
of the body can be damaged by RIM levels as low as 200 RIM long term exposure some radiation sickness victims will become
sterile.
Again radio-sensitivity of adult body cells, this is from most sensitive
to least sensitive so number one: lymphoid tissue especially in the
lymphocytes, immature blood cells, bone marrow, cells lining the GI tract,
cells of the gonads and testis are more sensitive then ovaries, the skin,
blood vessels, lining of the liver, bone, muscles, nerves and pretty much
again in that order it was from most to least sensitive.
Talking about nuclear power plants and the and
the threat of a terrorist hitting them. Airliners hitting a containment
building. These buildings are pretty about 140 feet up into the air, the
testing done by the nuclear regulatory commission, the modeled a 757
hitting one and what they found was that they have to actually line up the
airplane with the engine compartment can hit the outside of the containment
building. There was some cracking on the outside but it could not penetrate
it. So you can see the skill that would be involved in trying to hit a
containment building with primarily a engine
compartment. Probably the threat to it would be much more
easier to infrastructure around the nuclear power plant than the
containment building itself. The security around these plants are enormous
now a days nothing like they where several years ago.
Nuclear devices. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 16
kiloton and 20 kiloton bombs. Suitcase bomb if they been
taught could be from .01 to 10 kiloton bombs. Some of the points of entry
into the state of Florida you could say are the air cargo facilities,
package shippers FedEx UPS, aviation there are approximately 131 public
airports in the state of Florida, and also 20 commercial airports and 13 of
those are international airports, cruise ships, private autos, boats
yachts, and then tourists themselves. We have approximately 75 million
tourists annually coming into the state of Florida.
I highly recommend that NCRP 138 book, to order that book. Go to the
NCRP.com website and order NCRP 138. This book gives really good detail on
emergency managers and how to respond to radiological incident. The book is
easily read, theres not a lot of science in it, so it makes it easier for
a first responder or emergency manager to be able to write up a procedure
and how to respond to a radiological accident. if you suspect
you have a problem give us a call at 407-297-2096 and well give you the
training that you need and how to respond to a radiological accident. again we give two different classes, one is a four hour
awareness class and the other on is a two day class. The two day class
augments the hazmat technician level, those people cannot be on call and
they have to be able to lift 60 pounds. First day is all in class and you
have to take a test and get a 75% on the test. The second day is all
outdoors and run you thru between three to four outdoor scenarios. Again
feel free to call us and well give you all the help we can. Thank you
much.
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