GHSI EMERGENCY RADIONUCLIDE BIOASSAY LABORATORY NETWORK: SUMMARY OF A RECENT EXERCISE.

The Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI) established a laboratory network within the GHSI community to develop their collective surge capacity for radionuclide bioassay in response to a radiological or nuclear emergency. A recent exercise was conducted to test the participating laboratories for their capabilities in screening and in vitro assay of biological samples, performing internal dose assessment and providing advice on medical intervention, if necessary, using a urine sample spiked with a single radionuclide, 241Am. The laboratories were required to submit their reports according to the exercise schedule and using pre-formatted templates. Generally, the participating laboratories were found to be capable with respect to rapidly screening samples for radionuclide contamination, measuring the radionuclide in the samples, assessing the intake and radiation dose, and providing advice on medical intervention. However, gaps in bioassay measurement and dose assessment have been identified. The network may take steps to ensure that procedures and practices within this network be harmonised and a follow-up exercise be organised on a larger scale, with potential participation of laboratories from the networks coordinated by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organization.

Anatomy of and lessons learned from a Canadian national-scale radiological exercise: ExIT-08.

Exercise Initial Thunder (ExIT-08) was the fourth in a series of four emergency response exercises sponsored by the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives Research and Technology Initiative (CRTI). It was designed to test the Canadian Federal, Provincial and Municipal response to a terrorist attack using radioactive materials. The complexity of this exercise had been increased over previous exercises to now include provincial and municipal players. As a result about 350 persons participated as players in the 4-day exercise that was held in two locations in the western part of Canada. This paper summarizes the experiences and the lessons learned of the Health Canada (HC) team.