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The purpose of establishing nuclear power plants is to meet the growing energy demand. Unfortunately, there have been five major nuclear accidents in history, which have diverse and lasting effects on individuals and society. The well-known health effects are tissue reactions caused by high radiation doses and carcinogenic effects of low radiation doses. In recent years, studies on adult residents, mothers with young children, and clean-up/decontamination workers exposed to high doses of radiation in the areas affected by nuclear power plant accidents show long-term impacts on the mental health of these people. This paper reviews these psychological impacts.
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Medical rescue bases for nuclear or radiological emergencies are mostly composed of institutions that have obtained the qualification of radiological health technical service (Class A) or the qualification of radiation-induced disease diagnosis. Institutions of radiological health have accumulated the technical capabilities of radiation monitoring, contamination detection, dose estimation, and health effects evaluation in their daily work, which can play an important role in the response to nuclear or radiological emergencies and realize the “combination of non-emergency and emergency use” in capacity building. It is suggested that institutions of radiological health at all levels should continue to take advantage of their strengths, improve their capabilities through participating in radiation monitoring projects, and actively participate in the assessment of assay capabilities of institutions of radiological health, so as to provide personnel and technical reserves for the health response to nuclear or radiological emergencies.
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The nuclear accidents in Chernobyl and Fukushima had great impacts on the mental health of emergency rescue workers, who experienced a series of psychological problems shared by the accident victims. This paper analyzes the psychological symptoms suffered by emergency rescue workers in Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear accidents, as well as the psychological crisis interventions for rescue personnel involved in major natural disasters and pandemics. Based on the special situations faced by emergency rescue workers in nuclear accidents, we propose psychological crisis interventions for rescue personnel during major nuclear accidents. These interventions include mental health assessment and training before accident, psychological assistance, self-adjustment, and crisis intervention during accident, and long-term psychological assistance after accident. The psychological impacts on emergency rescue workers can be reduced by effective psychological interventions.
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Objective:To estimate the mental health status and personality traits of the nuclear radiation emergency rescuers, allowing to provide reference basis for improving their mental health.Methods:Totally 52 nuclear radiation emergency rescuers were selected as the subjects. The symptom checklist 90 (SCL-90) and Cattell′s 16 personality factor scale (16PF) were used to assess their mental health status and personality traits. The results obtained from the survey of these rescuers were compared with those obtained using Students′ t-test, One-Way ANOVA and Pearson correlation analysis. Results:The average scores of multiple factors and positive items of the SCL-90 were significantly lower in the rescuers than in the norm ( t=-4.77 to -2.04, P<0.05), and the positive rate was 21.15%. The symptom checklist 90 subscales such as somatization, obsessive-compulsive and depression were found in the rescuers. Rescuers received high scores in the following components among the 16 factors of Cattell: less intelligent-more intelligent, emotionally stable. Rescuers also received low scores in the following components among the 16 factors of Cattell: tough-minded-tender-minded, trusting-suspicious. Life satisfaction, educational degree and Cattell′s 16 PF were significantly associated with the factors of SCL-90( r=-0.569 to 0.627, P<0.05). Conclusions:The rescuers are better than ordinary Chinese people in psychological health. Mental health-related factors such as literacy, life satisfaction, and personality traits should be taken into account when selecting team members and conducting psychological interventions.
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With the continuous development of nuclear energy, more and more people live around nuclear power plants. However, they generally lack basic knowledge of nuclear radiation and know little about protective actions against nuclear accidents. Timely and correct protective actions can minimize the harm of nuclear power plant accidents to public health. This paper introduces the public protective actions after the nuclear power plant accident: sheltering, decontamination of body surface contamination, evacuation, stable iodine prophylaxis, food and drinking water control, personal protective measures, pet care and psychological support, to guide the public to carry out protection actions correctly and improve the public's emergency response ability during the nuclear power plant accident.
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During a radiological or nuclear emergency, iodine thyroid blocking is an urgent protection action to prevent or reduce the absorption of radioactive iodine by thyroid. Although potassium iodide (KI) administration is recommended by WHO guidelines for iodine prophylaxis following nuclear accidents and is also widely implemented in most national guidelines, the scientific evidence for the guidelines lacks as the guidelines are mostly based on expert opinions and recommendations. This paper introduces the development and revision of WHO guidelines for iodine thyroid blocking published in 1989 and 1999, as well as the revision methods and main recommendations of the guidelines published in 2017, which supports the use of iodine thyroid blocking during a radiological or nuclear emergency.
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Objective To study the personnel composition, task, equipment and management of the national health emergency teams for radiological or nuclear emergency. Methods According to the responsibility and task division of the health emergency team for nuclear radiation emergencies, the national medical rescue team for nuclear radiation health emergency was established and equipped, and the management work such as training and exercise was carried out based on the potential scenario during a nuclear or radiological emergency. Results The national health emergency team for radiological or nuclear emergency was composed of professionals in the fields of radiation protection and monitoring, medical treatment, internal and external contamination treatment, food and drinking water testing, management personnel and logistics support personnel. Training and exercises is an important means to determine whether the technical capability and the equipment of the team are reasonable. Conclusion Standardized equipment and management of the emergency teamscouldensure the rapid response and efficient implementation of nuclear radiation health emergency work in all kinds of natural disasters and public health emergencies.
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The peaceful use of nuclear energy has a history of nearly 80 years, and the development of nuclear energy in China has been actively and steadily promoted. Up to now, there have been three major nuclear power plant accidents in human history: Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the United States, Chernobyl nuclear accident in the former Soviet Union and Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. However, the public in our country knows little about the three nuclear accidents. This paper introduces some books on the three nuclear accidents for the general public, which help the public understand the nuclear accidents from a non-professional point of view.
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The past three severe nuclear power plant accidents showed that the social psychological impact on the public is the most serious consequence of severe nuclear power plant accidents. When a severe nuclear power plant accident occurs, individuals / groups in the affected area may experience various stress reactions. Timely and effective psychological first-aid can help the victims to survive the crisis effectively and actively respond to the current life. Referring to the World Health Organization guide psychological first aid: guide for field workerand other national guidance, this paper introduces how emergency rescue personnel carry out emergency psychological assistance in case of severe nuclear accident.
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Objective:To estimate the physical dose of an over exposed person working for industrial radiography.Methods:The main exposure parameters were obtained. The exposure duration was 8 min. The exposure pattern was external exposure by isotropic point radioactive source. The radioactive activity was 2.183 TBq. In the present calculation, the Chinese reference adult voxel phantom was used, and the Monte Carlo simulation was performed using the program based on the secondary development of Geant4 to obtain the absorbed dose of each part of the victim.Results:The dose distribution in the victim′s hands was obtained. The doses to most areas of the palm were 2-10 Gy, and the doses to the fingers were 10-20 Gy. The equivalent doses to 23 tissues or organs of the exposed person were estimated to be in the range of 0.012-0.207 Gy.Conclusions:The physical dose estimation method could evaluate rapidly the local dose distribution of the victim′s key exposed body parts, and thus provide an important reference for medical treatment.
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Objective: To improve the training system of medical response to nuclear and radiological emergency, and strengthen the capability construction of medical response staff. Methods: By drawing lessons from the training management experiences on medical response of nuclear and radiological emergency of the developed countries and combining with the situation and status quo of China, to discuss how to improve the training system construction on medical response of nuclear and radiological emergency under the guidance of relevant polices. Results:Through researching, a series of countermeasures, such as standard organization system, improving contents and methods of training, strengthening the construction of teacher team, carrying out the evaluation for training effect and intensifying the medical response awareness for the whole people, were adopted based on the existent main problems on medical response training of nuclear and radiological emergency in China. Conclusion: The medical response training of nuclear and radiological emergency is a long term work involved with strong specialty and wide knowledge range. This work need constant innovation so as to strengthen the training system construction of medical response, and train high competent talents on medical response of nuclear and radiological emergency, and then to establish a omnibearing, multilateral, scientific, systematic and long-acting training mode.
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The stable iodine prophylaxis plays an important role in public health response after nuclear power plants accident. According to the recent guidelines of the international organizations and other countries, the intervention level of stable iodine prevention, timing of taking medication, doses for different groups, and the contradictions were discussed in this paper. The chemical form and the formulation of the stable iodine were introduced, and something needs attention during stockpiling and distribution of the iodine. There were still some problems in China on the preparedness for the stable iodine prophylaxis after nuclear power plant accident, including the single type of potassium iodide tablet, short shelf life and no practical guidance. The preparedness of stable iodine should be strengthened.
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Objective To investigate the public's perception and attitudes on the development of nuclear power, assess their knowledge about nuclear power and radiation, and to build a database on the public's perception for the purpose of providing better public health service, associate technical support and give suggestions for decision-makers.Methods In total of 1 440 local residents who live within 30 kilometers of a proposed nuclear power were chosen for in-person interviews.Questionnaires comprised of 49 questions designed to assess the public's knowledge of radiation and nuclear power, their attitudes to the development of nuclear power, their evaluation of local government and their informational environment.ANOVA was used to compare the influence of different factors on cognitive level.Multivariate linear regression was used to analyze the main factors affecting the level of public awareness.Comparison among groups (respondents in this survey vs.other comparable surveys) was conducted using x2 test.Results Of the respondents, 29.7％ and 39.5％ of respondents knew about nuclear power and radiation, respectively, 24.2％ supported the construction of a nuclear power plant in their own area, which was lower than the average national support for construction of nuclear power plants (29.0％) (x2 =8.71 ,P ＜ 0.05).When queried about safety cncerns 36.8％ of respondents worried about the safety of nuclear power plant and 78.5％ of respondents were afraid of the damage to their health, while 34.1％ of respondents held the belief that the nuclear power plant could bring harmful effect even under normal operation.Regarding the informational environment, 90.0％ of the respondents could not or barely got access to knowledge on nuclear power plants, 71.1％ hoped to acquire the knowledge on nuclear power plants, 48.4％ hoped to acquire this knowledge by television programs, and 62.4％ mostly trusted information given by experts from universities or institutes.In comparison to other findings acquired in similar surveys on the Tianwan and Qinshan nuclear power plants before the Fukushima accident, the findings indicated that safety assessment of nuclear power plant were lower (x2 =20.49,56.96, P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions The public's knowledge level on nuclear power and radiation directly influenced their attitude on nuclear power.The related agencies should strengthen publicity and education in order to increase the public's knowledge on nuclear power and radiation.The communication platform between the related agencies and the public should be established.Active and continued risk communication should be carried out to increase public acceptance of nuclear power.
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Objective To investigate the radiological contamination of body surface for inbound people from Japan to China during Fukushima nuclear accident.Methods According to The guidance for radiological contamination management for body surface issued by Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention,for people evacuated from Japan,the body surface monitoring of radiological contamination was performed by the related agencies in main provinces and cities in China. The monitoring data were collected,analyzed and reported to Ministry of Health.Results A total of 432 persons were checked.The monitoring results of 429 cases were close to the background level,while those of three persons were higher than the background level.Conclusions In general,the detected results were as low as the background level.The radiological contamination monitoring of body surface for people from Japan could provide scientific data to relax the horror and panic among them.
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Objective To investigate radiation risk perception and nuclear acceptance after the 60Co stuck source incident in June 2009 in Qixian County,Henan Province.Methods From March to April 2010,23 hamlets and 2 schools from 5 towns in Qixian County were selected,while 3 hamlets and 2 schools from 3 towns were used as control in Huixian County,1 35 km away where no any impact of the incident was found.Face-to-face questionnaire survey was conducted among three groups including mass public,elite public(representatives of public opinion,such as physicians,teachers,govemmental officials,administrative personnel,private entrepreneurs),and middie school students(the third grade students in junior middle schools and the first grade students in senior middle schools).Results A total of 1 340 valid questionnaires were collected.The public knowledge levels about radiation and nuclear power were low among all groups in two areas and public knowledge levels in Qixian County were higher than those in Huixian County.In both areas.the knowledge levels of the students were higher tIIan those among the elite public,and that among the general public were the lowest.The knowledge levels of males and those with higher educational levels were higher than those of females and those with lower educational levels.More than 40.0% of the respondents supported the idea to build nuclear power plants in China.but only a small part of them supported to build nuclear power plants in their own areas.The percentages of opponents against local nuclear power plant construction were especially higher among the students and those with higher educational levels.More than 60% of the mass public and elite public believed the explanation of the government.More than 80% of the respondents held negative attitudes towards the performance of the Qixian County Government in dealing with this incident.The student gave the lowest evaluation of the credibility and the specific performance of the local government,whereas the elite public placed themselves between the students and the mass public.The reasons why the local people left their homes to evade risk included rumors(67.2%),lack of radiation knowledge(61.9%),group psychology(59.2%),and failure of the government to inform the truth to the public in time(42.3%).Conclusions The public still fails to know enough about radiation and nuclear power.Although they trust the government,they are dissatisfied with the performance of the local government in dealing with the incident.The negative evaluation of the students is worth concerning.
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Medical preparedness and response to radiation emergency are challenged by the fast development of nuclear energy and nuclear technology, the rapid use of radiological source and devices,and terrorist threats involving radiological material. Against this background, hospitals play a vital role in medical response to radiation emergency. In this article, we discussed the hospital's responsibility in medical response to radiation emergency, and raised a series of requirements to the medical bases engaged in radiation emergency, which cover the planning, personnel, facilities, equipments and drugs stockpiling, and medical management technique of such bases. Adequate preparedness in advance makes the best guard for such bases, to effectively handle nuclear and radiological emergency, minimizing casualties and health damage and protecting people's health and safety.
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Objective To study the effects of methylmercury chloride(MMC) on protein kinase C(PKC) activities in rat developing cerebellum.Methods The animals in experimental groups were fed standard rat chow with(0.75 mg) MMC(ExpⅠ),1.5 mg MMC(ExpⅡ) and 3.0 mg MMC(ExpⅢ)respectively for 90 d before gestation to(30 d) post parturition.Cerebella of pups from each group on postnatal days(PND) 3,7,17,21 and 30 were dissected. All the samples were separated into cytosol and membrane subcellular fractions and assayed for PKC activity by the improved method from Takai′s.Results Membrane and cytosolic PKC activities of pups′ cerebella from certain experimental groups were significantly higher than those of corresponding control group,PKC activities of rats from ExpⅡ,ExpⅢ and PND 3,7,14 in ExpⅠwere significantly higher than those in control group((P