Toxic fear: the management of uncertainty in the wake of the Amsterdam air crash

Boin, Arjen; Duin, Menno van; Heyse, Liesbet

doi:10.1016/s0304-3894(01)00268-0

Cited by 33 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The contaminated soil was removed and only increased concentrations of hydrocarbons, such as kerosene, were measured in the soil and ground water (Uijt de Haag et al, 2000). The aftercare focused on minimizing psychological problems caused by traumatic experiences and material loss (Boin et al, 2001), but possible health effects due to released substances were disregarded. Public unrest was fueled by uncertainties surrounding the cargo of the crashed plane, possible exposure to harmful substances, and an increase of medically unexplained physical symptoms in the residents of the affected area.…”

Section: Typementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The local authorities of Amsterdam did not consider to study the health effects of possible exposure to harmful substances and focused on minimizing psychological health problems instead. Because exposure to harmful substances was not ruled out, public unrest increased and unexplained symptoms were attributed to the incident (Boin et al, 2001;Donker et al, 2002). Six years after the incident, when authorities were forced by the public to conduct health studies, it was too late to collect sufficient data on exposure.…”

Section: Typementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Environmental sampling may also be used to confirm or rule out exposure to harmful substances, which happened after the incidents at Enschede and Toulouse. Through these measurements, public concern might have been decreased, whereas the lack of conclusive evidence that the population in the Bijlmermeer (Amsterdam) was not exposed to harmful substances was reason for public unrest and health symptoms were attributed to exposure during the plane crash in Amsterdam (Boin et al, 2001).…”

Section: Environmental Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A careful decision has to be made between costs and effort on one side and the need for adequate exposure assessment on the other. Despite the fact that local authorities of Enschede did not support collection of biological samples and argued that no toxic substances were involved, the Dutch Ministry of Health carried out a health study to rule out exposure and avoid public unrest (Boin et al, 2001). Should new information on possible incident-related exposure be presented later on, stored biological samples may aid to rule out or confirm this exposure and avoid unnecessary public unrest.…”

Section: Personal Sampling Personal Modeling and Biomonitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…After most of these incidents, no clear relation could be observed between exposure to substances released during the incidents and health effects attributed to the exposure (RIVM Project Team Health Research Firework Disaster Enschede, R, 2001;Slottje et al, 2005a), although exposure data collection for some health studies started years after the incident (Boin et al, 2001). To minimize public unrest caused by uncertainty about possible exposure, a political and scientific debate started on whether early measurements could prevent uncertainty concerning possible exposure.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Challenges of exposure assessment for health studies in the aftermath of chemical incidents and disasters

Bongers

Janssen

Reiss

et al. 2008

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

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Exposure assessment during and after acute chemical incidents and disasters is essential for health studies that may follow. During chemical incidents, the focus usually lies on risk assessment and afterward attention shifts toward possible (long-term) health effects. This may lead to insufficient available data on exposure to study the association between exposure and health outcome, and collection of additional exposure data is often required. Literature on health studies conducted after several chemical incidents was reviewed to obtain better insight on the needs of health studies. Four different types of scenarios were distinguished based on when exposure data were collected and the exposure data used for health studies. These four scenarios gave insight on exposure data needed for conclusive health studies and when different methods of exposure data collection should be used. Literature indicated that adequate and rapid exposure assessment during chemical incidents is vital for health studies, because data that are not collected during or directly after an incident may be irretrievably lost. Poor exposure assessment is not always the only problem in health studies. Problems in health studies including poor exposure assessment may be prevented when the general design and needs of health studies are taken into account when designing contingency plans. Together with measures that will help facilitate funding, design, and coordination of health studies, disaster management programs should, among others, prepare for methods that lead to a swift identification of released substances, determination of concentrations and dispersion of released substances, designing basic questionnaire outlines, and rapid evaluation of the usefulness and necessity of employing biological sampling.

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Section: Typementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Typementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Environmental Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Personal Sampling Personal Modeling and Biomonitoringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Challenges of exposure assessment for health studies in the aftermath of chemical incidents and disasters

Bongers

Janssen

Reiss

et al. 2008

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol

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Epidemiologic Study of the Autoimmune Health Effects of a Cargo Aircraft Disaster

Slottje¹,

Bijlsma²,

Smidt³

et al. 2005

Arch Intern Med

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Psychosocial Crisis Management: The Unexplored Intersection of Crisis Leadership and Psychosocial Support

Dückers¹,

Yzermans²,

Jong³

et al. 2017

Risk Hazard & Crisis Pub Pol

Self Cite

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Epidemiological research has documented the serious health issues that can affect the victims of disasters and major crises. Yet, the psychosocial dimension of crisis has received little attention in crisis management literature. This paper integrates psychosocial principles with a model of strategic crisis management. The resulting model of psychosocial crisis management (PCM) describes how the tasks of strategic crisis managers can be guided by psychosocial support principles. This PCM‐model helps public leaders, at society and local community level, to better understand typical psychosocial dynamics and obstacles as the crisis life cycle evolves. Although crisis management insights and psychosocial support principles stem from different disciplines and research traditions, integrating them helps to reduce foreseeable problems in the response and recovery phases.

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Toxic fear: the management of uncertainty in the wake of the Amsterdam air crash

Cited by 33 publications

References 10 publications

Challenges of exposure assessment for health studies in the aftermath of chemical incidents and disasters

Challenges of exposure assessment for health studies in the aftermath of chemical incidents and disasters

Epidemiologic Study of the Autoimmune Health Effects of a Cargo Aircraft Disaster

Psychosocial Crisis Management: The Unexplored Intersection of Crisis Leadership and Psychosocial Support

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