Epidemiologic Methods Lessons Learned from Environmental Public Health Disasters: Chernobyl, the World Trade Center, Bhopal, and Graniteville, South Carolina

Erik R. Svendsen, Jennifer R. Runkle, Venkata Ramana Dhara, Shao Lin, Marina Naboka, Timothy A. Mousseau and Charles L. Bennett
Additional contact information
Erik R. Svendsen: Department of Global Environmental Health Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, ENHS SL-29, 1440 Canal St., Suite 2100, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
Jennifer R. Runkle: Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
Venkata Ramana Dhara: Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Shao Lin: Bureau of Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology, State University of New York-Albany, Albany, NY 84870, USA
Marina Naboka: Radioecological Center of the National Academy of Sciences, Kiev 04050, Ukraine
Timothy A. Mousseau: Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA
Charles L. Bennett: South Carolina College of Pharmacy, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA and Hollings Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston SC 29403, USA

IJERPH, 2012, vol. 9, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: Background : Environmental public health disasters involving hazardous contaminants may have devastating effects. While much is known about their immediate devastation, far less is known about long-term impacts of these disasters. Extensive latent and chronic long-term public health effects may occur. Careful evaluation of contaminant exposures and long-term health outcomes within the constraints imposed by limited financial resources is essential. Methods : Here, we review epidemiologic methods lessons learned from conducting long-term evaluations of four environmental public health disasters involving hazardous contaminants at Chernobyl, the World Trade Center, Bhopal, and Graniteville (South Carolina, USA). Findings : We found several lessons learned which have direct implications for the on-going disaster recovery work following the Fukushima radiation disaster or for future disasters. Interpretation: These lessons should prove useful in understanding and mitigating latent health effects that may result from the nuclear reactor accident in Japan or future environmental public health disasters.

Keywords: environmental health; epidemiology; accidents and injuries; chemical safety; occupational health (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/9/8/2894/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/9/8/2894/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:9:y:2012:i:8:p:2894-2909:d:19505

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().