Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-94d59 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T10:08:26.423Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Assessing Disaster-Related Health Risk: Appraisal for Prevention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2018

Mark Keim*
Affiliation:
Disaster Doc, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia USA National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Bethesda, MarylandUSA Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Disaster Medicine Fellowship, Harvard University Medical School, Boston, MassachusettsUSA Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University,Atlanta, GeorgiaUSA
*
Correspondence: Mark Keim, MD, MBA DisasterDoc LLC Atlanta, Georgia USA E-mail: mark@disasterdoc.org

Abstract

Risk assessment is a key component of public health interventions intended to prevent or reduce adverse health effects. Health risk assessments are widely used to guide public health programming, as well as multi-sectoral studies of environmental impact and developmental decision making. Analytical risk assessment is a well-validated tool that is routinely used among certain subsets of public health, including those for chemical, radiological, and microbiological risk assessment. However, this is not the case for risk assessments involving disasters in general, or more specifically, for public health emergencies involving environmental hazards (eg, technological, hydro-meteorological, and seismic).

There remains a need for a reproducible, well-validated, disaster-related health risk assessment process that is suitable for accommodating the current gaps in certainty. This report is intended to offer a practical framework and nomenclature for assessing disaster-related health risk that is: (1) accurate; (2) based upon historical evidence; (3) quantifiable in public health terms; and (4) inclusive of uncertainty.

KeimM. Assessing Disaster-Related Health Risk: Appraisal for Prevention. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2018;33(3):317-325.

Type
Special Reports
Copyright
© World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Conflicts of interest/funding/disclaimer: This work was sponsored by DisasterDoc, LLC (Atlanta, Georgia USA), a private consulting firm specializing in disaster research and education. The author attests that there are no conflicts of interest involved with the authorship and publication of this work. The material in this manuscript reflects solely the views of the author. It does not necessarily reflect the policies or recommendations of the National Center for Disaster Medicine (Bethesda, Maryland USA) or the Department of Defense (Washington, DC USA).

References

1. Tracie, HA. Topic collection: hazard vulnerability/risk assessment. 2017. https://asprtracie.hhs.gov/technical-resources/3/Hazard-Vulnerability-Risk-Assessment/0. Accessed August 30, 2017.Google Scholar
2. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. 2017 - 2022 Healthcare Preparedness and Response Capabilities. Washington DC, USA: Department of Health and Human Services; 2016: 13-14.Google Scholar
3. Cutter, SL, Boruff, BJ, Shirley, WL. Social vulnerability to environmental hazards. Social Science Quarterly. 2003;84(2):242-261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4. Keim, M, et al. The CDC/ATSDR Public Health Vulnerability Mapping System: Using a Geographic Information System for Depicting Human Vulnerability to Environmental Emergencies. 2007. ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/nceh/opter/Public%20 Health%20Vulnerability%20Mapping%20System_A.doc. Accessed August 30, 2017.Google Scholar
5. GRASP. The social vulnerability index. 2017. https://svi.cdc.gov/. Accessed August 30, 2017.Google Scholar
6. ISO. ISO 31000 - Risk management a practical guide for subject matter experts. 2009. https://www.iso.org/standard/43170.html. Accessed August 30, 2017.Google Scholar
7. UNISDR. UNISDR Terminology on Disaster Risk Reduction. 2009. http://www.unisdr.org/ eng/library/UNISDR-terminology-2009-eng.pdf. Accessed August 30, 2017.Google Scholar
8. Wharton, F. “Risk management basic concepts in general principles.” In: Ansell J, Wharton F, (eds). Risk Analysis Assessment and Management. Chichester, UK: Wiley & Sons; 1992: 100.Google Scholar
9. Keim, M. “Intentional Chemical Disasters.” In: Hogan D, Burstein J, (eds). Disaster Medicine. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2002: 340-348.Google Scholar
10. Keim, M. “Disaster Risk Management for Health.” In: David S, (ed). Textbook of Emergency Medicine. Chicago, Illinois USA: Wolters Kluwer Health (Lippincott); 2010: 1309-1318.Google Scholar
11. Standards Australia Committee OB-007, AS/NZS 4360:2004 Risk Management. 2004, Standards Australia International Ltd.: Sydney, Australia and Wellington, New Zealand.Google Scholar
12. Keim, ME. Preventing disasters: public health vulnerability reduction as a sustainable adaptation to climate change. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2011;5(2):140-148.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
13. Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED). EM-DAT: The International Disaster Database. 2017. www.emdat.be/. Accessed August 30, 2017.Google Scholar
14. AFMC. AFMC primer on population health. 2017. http://phprimer.afmc.ca/Glossary?l=H. Accessed August 30, 2017.Google Scholar
15. Keim, M, Abrahams, J, Castilla-Echenique, J. How do people die in disasters and what can be done? http://disasterdoc.org/how-do-people-die-in-disasters/. Accessed August 30, 2017.Google Scholar