Nuclear Emergency Situations - Improvement of Medical and Health Surveillance

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Nuclear emergencies cause major and long-term upheaval in the lives of those affected, including emergency and recovery workers, evacuees and residents of contaminated regions. Some may suffer physical health impacts from radiation; others may experience serious social and psychological consequences related to exposure reduction measures and to concerns and uncertainties about radiation levels and health. This project builds upon lessons learned from experiences with populations affected by Chernobyl, Fukushima and other nuclear emergencies to develop recommendations for medical and health surveillance of populations affected by previous and future radiation accidents. Recommendations will be made on dose assessment, on improvement of living conditions of affected populations, and on improvement of population estimates of radiation-induced risk. SHAMISEN brings together a team of researchers from 18 institutions in Europe and Japan with complementary experience and a long track record in post accidental management, dosimetry, radiation protection, medical follow-up and screening, population health surveillance, health economics, epidemiology, ethics and sociology of radiation protection. The proposal also draws on additional expertise from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Japan and the UK as was well as from outside of the radiation research field. Recommendations will be disseminated to decision makers and radiation protection authorities for translation into strategy and policy, as well as to scientific, medical and non-expert audiences.