A Radiological Emergency Health and Safety Plan for City Agencies Without First Response Responsibilities

In New York City, the citywide radiological response plan charges 4 primary agencies with various roles and objectives: police, fire, health, and environmental protection. These agencies perform essential functions such as criminal investigation, life safety, public health, and environmental assessments. In the late phase of an incident where components of remediation and recovery have been initiated, other municipal agencies that had not previously planned to respond to a radiological incident may be expected to supply various levels of support. To prepare the personnel of these other agencies to respond to a radiological incident expeditiously, a Radiological Health and Safety Plan (RHASP), was developed as an appendix to an existing Citywide Health and Safety Plan. RHASP is designed for an agency-wide health physics program that provides 4 key components of radiation safety: (1) training to understand the hazard, (2) framework for a personnel radiation dose measurement program (dosimetry), (3) environmental surveillance of the site for worker and public protection, and (4) radioactive waste control. These components of RHASP are supported by 2 functions inherent in successful radiation safety programs: documentation and quality assurance of the collected radiation safety data. In this article, we discuss the components of RHASP and the potential challenges to its successful implementation.