Assessing Medical Preparedness to Respond to a Terrorist Nuclear Event : Workshop Report

National Academies Press

Assessing Medical Preparedness to Respond to a Terrorist Nuclear EventWorkshop Report\nAuthor(s): Institute of Medicine, Board on Health Sciences Policy, Committee on Medical Preparedness for a Terrorist Nuclear Event, Susan R. McCutchen, Michael McGeary, Georges C. Benjamin\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: National Academies Press, United States\nImprint: National Academies Press\nISBN-13: 9780309130882, 978-0309130882\nSynopsis\nA nuclear attack on a large [url] city by terrorists--even with a low-yield improvised nuclear device (IND) of 10 kilotons or less--would cause a large number of deaths and severe injuries. The large number of injured from the detonation and radioactive fallout that would follow would be overwhelming for local emergency response and health care systems to rescue and treat, even assuming that these systems and their personnel were not themselves incapacitated by the event. The United States has been struggling for some time to address and plan for the threa.