16 Jan (NucNet): The nuclear industry should examine what can be learnt from toxic disasters so it can improve the way it deals with the mental health consequences of a nuclear incident, a report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Nuclear Energy Agency says.
The report says mental health was the biggest long-term public health problem following the nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Mental health is again a pressing public health issue after the 2011 Fukushima-Daiichi accident in Japan.
The report says toxic disasters are also typically followed by a complex web of psychological and physical health consequences.
Several reviews have concluded that disasters involving radiation exposure, whether real or perceived, have complex and persistent emotional effects, probably because the exposure is invisible and universally dreaded, and can pose a long-term threat to health, the report says.
According to the report, the excess morbidity rate of psychiatric disorders in the first year after a toxic or nuclear disaster ranges from 25-75% depending on the severity of the disaster and on the timing and methodology of the assessment.
While the number of dead, injured or hospitalised can be counted, the psychological and social consequences are harder to quantify – there is no universal unit for indicating the amount of anxiety, depression, social disruption or family hardship that these events produce.
The report says that despite the enormous physiological and social cost of toxic disasters, until recently there has been a tendency not to take these factors into account when assessing the adverse effects of disasters.
The report is online: http://bit.ly/2DCqWzm
