Just in Case (43 page)

PREPARATION

It is unlikely that you will have any warning about a chemical spill or accidental release. Therefore, you must be prepared to protect yourself well in advance. The first step is to prepare a safe room in your home (see page 135), complete with 6-mil plastic sheeting, duct tape, and scissors. The next step is to be sure you are fully prepared for grab-and-go evacuation (see
chapter 9
).

IN THE EVENT …

There are two different scenarios to consider if you are in an area affected by a hazardous material incident.

IF YOU ARE DIRECTED TO REMAIN IN YOUR HOME:

• Close and lock all exterior doors, windows, fireplace dampers, and vents. If the vents cannot be closed, such as range hood exhaust vents, cover the opening with a double sheet of 6-mil plastic sheeting and duct-tape the edges securely.

• Close as many interior doors as possible.

• Take your emergency packs into a safe room. This room should be above the ground floor and have few or no doors and windows opening to the outdoors.

• Seal this room off from the rest of your home with plastic sheeting and duct tape. Any holes or cracks in this room should be sealed with plastic sheeting and tape.

• Listen to your radio or tune your TV to local stations to keep informed about what is happening outside.

IF YOU ARE ASKED TO EVACUATE:

• Gather your evacuation packs and leave immediately.

• While driving, turn off the air conditioner or heater and close all windows and vents if it is necessary to drive through or near the affected area.

• Stay in your vehicle until you reach safe shelter.

• As much as possible, stay upwind of the incident.

• Do not touch any suspicious liquid or solid deposit and avoid any obvious mist.

• Return home only after local authorities have assured you that it is safe to do so.

IF YOU HAVE CHEMICAL CONTACT:

• Place all clothing, including shoes, underclothes, and jewelry, in a tightly sealed bag. Insert this into a second bag and seal again. Contact authorities to be advised on how to dispose of them.

• Seek medical treatment.

• Pay close attention to how you feel. Symptoms from chemical exposure can appear long afterward. Seek medical attention for anything unusual, and be sure to inform your physician of when and to what you were exposed.

CHEMICALS IN THE HOME

A chemical emergency can happen from exposure in your own home. Most homes have a wide variety of toxins and hazardous materials that can pose a threat. Take these steps to reduce your risk of exposure.

• Take an inventory of your household chemicals. Be sure to include the less obvious hazards such as makeup, toothpaste, and flea collars. All three of these things are within arm’s reach of a child and all are poisonous. When possible, seek out nontoxic replacements.

• Check the labels on all containers to be sure that you are using and storing the chemical properly.

• Store any chemicals in a safe, locked cabinet if you have children or if any ever visit your home.

• Buy only as much of any necessary chemical as you will use at one time if possible. It may be cheaper to purchase the giant size of something, but if you need to dispose of half of a can, it is no bargain. If you do have leftovers and want to dispose of them, contact your local waste management office for advice. Do not pour any chemical down your drain or into the toilet. Do not bury it or toss it in with the daily trash. This is both dangerous and illegal.

• Keep all products in their original, labeled containers. Be especially careful to never put chemicals into old food containers. Small children may be tempted to sample whatever is in that old soda bottle, with tragic results.

• Never mix household chemicals. Many can have unexpected reactions.

• Do not use chemicals around an open flame or while smoking.

• Keep heavy rubber gloves, disposable rags, eye protection, and a face mask on hand to clean up household spills. When you’re done, bring all these materials outside and let the fumes evaporate, then wrap the rags in old newspapers, seal in a plastic bag, and put them in the trash where children and pets can not get into them.

KNOW THE SIGNS OF TOXIC POISONING:

• Breathing problems, especially shortness of breath

• Tingling or itching of eyes, skin, throat, or lungs

• Pallor

• Headache

• Blurred vision

• Red or weepy eyes

• Neurological changes

• Cramping or diarrhea

Keep the number for poison control on your speed dial or post it on your phone. The number is 1-800-222-1222.

If you think a family member has been poisoned, don’t waste precious time calling your physician. He or she will likely tell you to call 911 and then poison control. Have the poison container with you when you call. Follow the first-aid instructions from the emergency operator carefully; any first-aid instruction on the container may be out of date. Poison control has the best, up-to-date response for you, but they have to know exactly what was ingested in order to provide you with the proper first-aid instructions.

NUCLEAR HAZARDS

M
OST STATES HAVE
nuclear power plants. About 20 percent of our nation’s power comes from these plants. Nuclear power plants use the heat generated from nuclear fission in a reactor to produce steam. The steam powers generators that convert the energy to electricity. The good news is that nuclear power produces no greenhouse emissions and therefore does not contribute to global warming. The bad news is that the nuclear waste is with us for centuries. The worse news is that a meltdown at a nuclear power plant is a true catastrophe. We have seen a few of these disasters in our lifetime. As our plants age, we will likely see more.

Nearly three million people live within ten miles of a nuclear power plant. The construction and maintenance of these facilities are closely monitored by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but accidents still happen. The two most likely to come to mind occurred at Three Mile Island in the United States and at Chernobyl in the former Soviet Union. Chernobyl is still unlivable, and the cancer rate is still climbing for those in the region.

A nuclear power plant will not blow up. It will melt down. The danger comes from the release of radioactive material into the environment. You may see a plume of radioactive particles and gases rising from a tower. This radiation can land on people and property, be inhaled, or be ingested if it settles on foods.

We are surrounded by low levels of radiation all the time. The sun, your television, microwave ovens, and X-rays all emit radiation. There is a trace present in food. The fallout from a nuclear meltdown would expose people and livestock in the area to much higher levels. The effects of radiation are cumulative. The longer one is exposed, the greater the effect. High exposures can lead to serious health conditions, including many forms of cancer, birth defects, and death.

Utility companies, aided by local, state, and federal agencies, have emergency plans in place in the event of a nuclear plant accident. The plans are divided into zones. The first zone covers an area within a ten-mile radius of a plant, where it is possible for people to be affected by direct radiation exposure. The second zone covers an area within a fifty-mile radius from a plant, where radioactive materials could contaminate water, food, and livestock.

If you live within ten miles of a nuclear power plant, your utility company will provide yearly emergency information packets. Make sure you receive and review this literature and keep it in an accessible place. Contact your children’s schools about their policy on retrieving your child in the event of a nuclear emergency.

In the event of a nuclear accident, if you are told to evacuate, gather your evacuation pack, your folder of necessary documents, and leave at once. (See
chapter 9
for more information.) You want to put as much distance as you can between yourself and the source of radiation.

If you are told to shelter at home, turn off the air conditioner, ventilation units, fans, furnace, and any other air intake port. Go to a basement or other underground area if possible. Otherwise, go the area of your home with the fewest areas of exposure to the outside. You want to put as much heavy, dense material between you and the radiation as possible. Keep your radio tuned to a local station for updates and instructions.

Fortunately, time is on your side. Most radioactivity loses strength fairly quickly. You will need to have a radio with you to monitor events on the outside so you will know when it is safe to emerge.

IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO RADIATION:

• Remove all clothing, including shoes, underclothes and jewelry. Place clothing in a plastic bag. Seal it, then place in a second bag. Bring it to authorities for disposal.

• Take a thorough shower. Stand under running water for at least ten minutes. You may want to shower children at the same time to reduce the amount of time between exposure and decontamination. Do not forget to wash exposed pets.

• Seek treatment for unusual symptoms, especially nausea and diarrhea, which can be signs of radiation poisoning.

• If you are breastfeeding and have been exposed to radiation, switch to a canned formula until you speak with a pediatrician about the safety of breast milk.

CHAPTER 14 PANDEMIC

In 1918, 20 million people died when an influenza epidemic spread across the globe. We now hear that another global epidemic, or pandemic, is coming. The question appears to be not if but rather when it will make its appearance. The smart money is on the avian influenza strain that has emerged in bird populations in Asia and Europe. So far we have been lucky, and that particular virus does not appear to spread easily from one person to another, but if it mutates, as viruses are prone to doing, that could change. International travel could quickly spread a virus from one continent to another before any traveler was displaying symptoms.

The Red Cross advises that if a pandemic were to strike the United States, we should be prepared to spend ten days confined to our homes. It also warns that we may be without essential services such as power, water, and trash pickup and that banks will likely close, hospitals will be overwhelmed, and even mail service could be spotty.

I am afraid that the estimate of ten days of confinement is pretty optimistic. A more likely scenario would be that going out in the public arena would be risky for at least a month, and there would certainly be viral outbreaks in previously unaffected populations for weeks beyond that. I also think that recovery from a breakdown in services would take considerable time, probably on the order of six to eight weeks. To be really safe, stockpiling a threemonth supply of essential goods is not an unreasonable goal.

If an epidemic or pandemic appears likely, there are some steps you should take. If at all possible, stay home. In particular, avoid large public places such as shopping malls and supermarkets. I would opt to keep my children home from school. Obviously, if you work in essential services such as public safety or public health, you’re obliged to get to work if you can. But it might be safer for your family for you to remain there until the crisis is over rather than risk infecting your loved ones.

Be very careful about hygiene. Supervise your children when they wash their hands to ensure they are doing a thorough job. Hands should be washed with soap for a full three minutes, paying special attention to the areas between fingers and under nails. This would be especially important if you had been out in public. Surfaces such as the handles of shopping carts carry a pretty hefty viral load on a good day.

Get vaccines or medications as soon as they become available. Antivirals such as Tamiflu have not been field tested in a real pandemic, but they might help reduce the severity and length of the flu if taken as soon as symptoms occur.

Take special care to get enough sleep and to eat as healthy a diet as possible. Keeping your body in peak shape will give you the greatest chance of surviving an infection.

A crisis like an influenza pandemic is an excellent example of why preparedness is so important for the average family. This kind of crisis can happen with so little notice, and then all of a sudden, everyone is scrambling to get ready. There are runs on the kinds of supplies that a well-prepared family already owns. If more people are prepared to remain home and care for themselves, this reduces the number who will need to rely on government agencies for services. And this will free up aid for the truly needy. Preparedness benefits everyone, not just the prepared.