Individual Preparedness Response To Chemical, Radiological, Nuclear, And Biological Terrorist Attacks

Individual preparedness is an important element of our nation's strategy for homeland security. This report provides a rigorous way to identify actions individuals can take to protect their health and safety. The authors detail a prospective individual's strategy across four types of terrorist attacks-chemical, radiological, nuclear, and biological-consisting of overarching goals and simple responses and preparations. The actions are designed to be sensitive to potential variations and defined in terms of simple rules that should be easy for individuals to adopt.

Tom LaTourette (Ph.D., California Institute of Technology) is an associate physical scientist at RAND.

Lois M. Davis (Ph.D., Public Health, UCLA) is a health policy researcher at RAND, a former National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) postdoctoral fellow, and a former Pew Health Policy Fellow.