Archive for the ‘Nuclear-Radiation-Contamination’ Category
Russian medics who treated radiation victims after a military explosion in the Arctic had no protection and now fear they were irradiated themselves.
Sunday, August 25th, 2019
“……On 14 August Russia’s weather service Rosgidromet revealed that radiation levels had spiked 16 times above normal, in Severodvinsk, a city 47km (29 miles) east of Nyonoksa……”
Residents of Nenoksa, the village closest to the site of the recent Russian nuclear accident incident, were told to leave on a special train that would be sent to their community. Why?
Wednesday, August 14th, 2019How many victims after the Chernobyl disaster?
Thursday, August 8th, 2019“…….Viktor Sushko, deputy director general of the National Research Centre for Radiation Medicine (NRCRM) based in Kiev, Ukraine, describes the Chernobyl disaster as the “largest anthropogenic disaster in the history of humankind”. The NRCRM estimate around five million citizens of the former USSR, including three million in Ukraine, have suffered as a result of Chernobyl, while in Belarus around 800,000 people were registered as being affected by radiation following the disaster.
Even now the Ukrainian government is paying benefits to 36,525 women who are considered to be widows of men who suffered as a result of the Chernobyl accident.
As of January 2018, 1.8 million people in Ukraine, including 377,589 children, had the status of victims of the disaster, according to Sushko and his colleagues. There has been a rapid increase in the number of people with disabilities among this population, rising from 40,106 in 1995 to 107,115 in 2018……..”
March 28, 1979, the worst accident in the history of the U.S. nuclear power industry begins when a pressure valve in the Unit-2 reactor at Three Mile Island fails to close and the core began to dangerously overheat.
Thursday, March 28th, 20193/9/1981: A nuclear accident at a Japan Atomic Power Company plant in Tsuruga, Japan, exposes 59 workers to radiation.
Saturday, March 9th, 2019“…..On March 9, a worker forgot to shut a critical valve, causing a radioactive sludge tank to overflow. Fifty-six workers were sent in to mop up the radioactive sludge before the leak could escape the disposal building, but the plan was not successful and 16 tons of waste spilled into Wakasa Bay……”
Social Media Reactions to an Errant Warning of a Ballistic Missile Threat
Friday, February 22nd, 2019Murthy BP, Krishna N, Jones T, Wolkin A, Avchen RN, Vagi SJ. Public Health Emergency Risk Communication and Social Media Reactions to an Errant Warning of a Ballistic Missile Threat — Hawaii, January 2018. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2019;68:174–176. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6807a2.
“……A total of 127,125 tweets were identified; after excluding 69,151 (54%) retweets and 43,444 (34%) quote tweets, 14,530 (11%) initial tweets remained for analysis. Among these, 5,880 (40%) were sent during the early period, and 8,650 (60%) were sent during the late period……”
| Period/Theme | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Early period | ||
| Information processing | Indication of mental processing of the alert | “Sirens going off in Hawaii, ballistic missile threat issued. What’s happening?” |
| “Idk what’s going on.. but there’s a warning for a ballistic missile coming to Hawaii? [expletive deleted]” | ||
| Information sharing | Disseminating alert to others | “Just got an iPhone alert of inbound balistic [sic] missile in Hawaii. Said Not a Drill. @PacificCommand @DefenseIntel @WHNSC” |
| “@ananavarro @TheRickWilson @AC360 Hawaii we all got emergency sirens on our phones ballistic missile inbound to Hawaii” | ||
| Authentication | Validating the alert | “Is this missile threat real?” |
| “Where is news about the ballistic missile inbound to Hawaii?” | ||
| Emotional reaction | Expressing shock, fear, panic, or terror | “there’s a missile threat here right now guys. I love you all and I’m scared as [expletive deleted]” |
| “Woke up and started crying after seeing the Hawaii missile alert. Called my parents and balled [sic] my eyes out because I was so worried.” | ||
| Late period | ||
| Denunciation | Blaming the emergency warning and response | “How do you “accidentally” send out a whole [expletive deleted] emergency alert that says there’s a missile coming to Hawaii and to take cover. AND TAKE THIRTY MINUTES TO CORRECT?!?” |
| “To the person in #Hawaii who sent out that false alarm alert message about missile attack TO EVERY [expletive deleted] CELL PHONE…MOVE TO ANTARCTICA NOW! [emojis deleted] #that[expletive deleted]scaredeveryone @Hawaii_EMA” | ||
| Insufficient knowledge to act | Expressing lack of a response plan | “my friend & i were running around the hotel room freaking out because HOW DO WE TAKE SHELTER FROM A [expletive deleted] MISSILE?!” |
| “Can you imagine waking up to an alert that says. “Take shelter there is a missile on the way” like Bruh. What shelter is there for a missile? That [expletive deleted] might as well say. “Aye Bruh. Missile on the way. Good luck” | ||
| Mistrust of authority | Doubting the emergency alert system and/or governmental response | “And now, should there be another ballistic missile threat, how can we trust it knowing the last one was a grave mistake???” |
| “@Hawaii_EMA We all need to know who is behind this!!! . This is not a joke. . How can we trust the emergency alarm now? #hawaii #missile” | ||
* 8:07–8:45 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time.
† 8:46–9:24 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time (additional themes identified in addition to those in the early period).
What is already known about this topic?
Social media platforms are widely used to share information and disseminate alerts and warnings.
What is added by this report?
After an errant ballistic missile alert, social media reactions revealed how the public interprets, shares, and responds to information during an evolving threat. This knowledge can guide emergency risk communicators to develop timely and effective social media messages than can protect lives.
What are the implications for public health practice?
Social media can be an effective tool to send urgent messages during a public health emergency. Public health practitioners need to improve messaging during emergency risk communications to address the public’s needs during each phase of an unfolding crisis to protect and save lives
Pediatric considerations in radiological emergencies: new recommendations
Sunday, December 23rd, 2018The reports, Pediatric Considerations Before, During, and After Radiological/Nuclear Emergencies, are available at
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2018/11/21/peds.2018-3000 and
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2018/11/21/peds.2018-3001
and will be published in the December issue of Pediatrics.
9/30/1999: One person was killed, 49 were injured and thousands of others were forcibly confined to their homes for several days when radiation leaked from Japan’s Tokaimura nuclear plant
Sunday, September 30th, 2018“…..On September 30, workers were mixing liquid uranium when they made a serious, and inexplicable, mistake. Instead of pouring five pounds of powdered uranium into nitric acid, the workers poured 35 pounds, seven times too much. The resulting chain reaction caused gamma rays and stray neutrons to flood the purification chamber, where the radioactive water was treated…..”