23 - Skip Burkle - Nuclear Threats

Loading...

Del curso dictado por University of Colorado System

Foundations for Global Health Responders

21 calificaciones

University of Colorado System

Foundations for Global Health Responders

21 calificaciones

Around the world, we are increasingly socially and economically interdependent. Health on one side of the globe affects people on the other. Global health, once merely an ethical consideration, now dominates discussions and policies of global security. A diverse team of experts in this emerging field has come together to help you contextualize your experiences as a new or seasoned global health responder. By the end of this course, you will be enlightened about the changing world you live in, and have a much better understanding of the machinations on how organizations and governments are striving to improve health worldwide. You'll also learn how to keep yourself safe and be a savvy participant in the global health arena. You'll be prepared to travel and to take your skills to chronic/emergent situations and help respond to the pressing needs while participating in global health activities throughout the world. Week one will serve as an introduction to global health concepts with a look at changing trends in the 21st century; urbanization, environmental stress and resource scarcity. During week two, we will dive into global health security: food, water, energy, and the threats of a changing climate. Week three will cover the global burden of disease, infectious disease, the rise of non-communicable diseases, mental health, and access to care. During week four, we will learn about the stakeholders in global health: NGOs, governments, non-state actors; understanding where the money comes from, how it is allocated and the challenges of measuring results; human rights: what are they and how are they protected? During week five, we move onto complex humanitarian emergencies: forced migrations, wars, response standards, and the legal basis for interventions. Finally, during week six, we will end our course by learning how to be an effective participant--caring for yourself: pre-travel preparation, understanding risks when traveling outside your home country, and physiologic vulnerability. This course also serves as a prerequisite to the hands-on 'Global Health Responder' certification from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. If you're interested in taking this 3-day hands on course-- offered throughout the world-- please go to coloradoWM.org or email our administrator: marisa.burton@ucdenver.edu.

De la lección

War & Complex Humanitarian Emergencies

Last week you learned about the stakeholders in global health, and the guidelines for humanitarian responders. This week is disaster week! Whether man-made or natural -- or a combination of both, we look at how the global health community responds to large scale humanitarian crises. Dr. Skip Burkle and Dr. Satchit Balsari will look to recent crises in the middle east and share insights into forced migrations, refugees and internal displacements. Dr. Omeed Saghafi will then interview Dr. Skip Burkle on his take on the recent Fukushima nuclear power plant failure.

Jay Lemery - Weekly Overview0:33

21 - Skip Burkle - Internally Displaced Persons6:13

22 - Satchit Balsari - Forced Migrations12:57

23 - Skip Burkle - Nuclear Threats8:30

Conoce a los instructores

Dr. Jay Lemery, MD
Associate Professor
Emergency Medicine, University of Colorado School of Medicine

To a large extent, energy has shaped the economy and politics of the modern world.

Today, Dr. Omeed Saghafi, an emergency physician at Denver Health and

Medical Center and the instructor at the University of Colorado,

interviews Skip about the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Though discuss the intricacies of nuclear energy, including the risk of meltdowns,

and the political fallout and health effects of such incidents.

>> I'm Dr. Omeed Saghafi, and I'm here with Dr.

Skip Burkle to talk about the global threat of nuclear meltdown.

So the Fukushima nuclear plant tragedy in 2011 are looking

many people in crisis management to the threat of nuclear meltdown.

What's been the global response?

>> Certainly was a, a major wake up call globally for all countries.

It is interesting, countries have handled this a bit differently.

Rather disappointingly, I think, the United States,

there was not the dialogue that we're really looking for.

We are certainly very energy dependent, very dependent on the nuclear plants.

Quite honestly [SOUND] some plants in disaster prone areas

have shut down but there were some plan, plans to do that.

However in Europe collectively it was taken very seriously.

And about seven of the countries major European countries in the European Union

have decided to phase out their nuclear plants over the next fifth ten,

really, ten years.

[COUGH] in France, I think the last plant will, will, will,

will shut down around 2021.

>> So what causes all these accidents?

>> You know, the cu, you know, if you went out and asked,

I think the population, it would say well, the plants are too old, getting old.

I mean and even when Chernobyl happened

public opinion was that well, you know, the Russians didn't know how to handle it.

They don't have the the technology et cetera, et cetera, when plant was too old.

That model was not, not any good that's false.

The, the Russian plant and Chernobyl is still the model that is being

used and not dissimilar to others in, in other countries.

But the main reason for this is not the age of the plants.

As a matter of fact, the last five nuclear accidents were all

in plants that were less than three to five years of age.

The real reasons are accidents, preventable accidents.

And, and if you you know,

the studies show really out of nature by an author named Butler.

Has looked at this and other problems certainly there's a training problem,

training of the, of, of the workforce has not been adequate.

[COUGH] the the maintenance,

the quality of maintenance of the, of the plants could be better.

There's been a, a competencies eh, of,

in question related to accidents of, of,

of the operators but also complacency of the workforce.

It's a boring, boring job.

For the most part for those people who made it a career,

they'll say gee, nothing ever after, you know, crisis event is ever great.

And then of course the lack of oversight regulations are really it.

Those are, those are the things that lead to the problems that we have had recently.

However, there are also naturally occurring events, and

that applies to us in the United States.

In the midwest we we've certainly have had we have a number of plants but

they're close to rivers.

And we've had increasing flooding and will have increasing, more and more flooding.

And, and the example certainly one that comes to mind

immediately is the Fort Calhoun Station in Nebraska,

which came within six inches of, of being flooded and then a melt down right.

I would say that most of the,

the population didn't even know that ever happened, okay?

The other thing is which is very critical is, is the risk of earthquakes.

And of our 211 plants that we have 25 are really at risk

of collapse of an earthquake and they're in earthquake zones.

And that's also in the midwest too, so midwest is sort of a hotspot for for

possible nuclear threats from, from from the plants.

>> What do we know about the effects of a nuclear meltdown, and

what are the long-term effects of radiation exposure?

>> Very good question because you know, being a health care provider and

you were rushed to go to the library, the Internet, and

say what, you know what wou, what should I know about it?

Well the information that you're going to have is actually from World War II and,

and Nagasaki and eh, Hiroshima.

And it was primarily the leukemia, you know, the burn issues and whatever.

But then the leukemias, but long-term solid tumor kinds of effects.

But that's, that's from the acute.

Quite honestly, we do not know what the long-term health effect's

going to be from low, long-term low low dose radiation.

We just do not know that at, at all.

And so there's, there's still a big knowledge gap.

>> What are the threats of nuclear energy in the United States

and what have we done to prepare, and what more do we need to do?

>> I, the expectations are that there is a capability of taking care of these events.

And when you do,

do some surveys on that the population will say well military has that expertise.

Well military does not have that expertise nor

they have the, the, the manpower to do it.

Remember their obligations in these situations.

Certainly an attack mode is to protect their, their force, okay?

But with a nuclear meltdown, certainly they would be called the National Guard we

call, but they're not being trained necessarily in doing this.

>> What sort of risks are there globally and what have we done to prepare globally?

>> I think lessons learned not just for the United States, but

for global-wise, is that there is,

there is a certain degree of mass denial that there would be any particular event.

And we haven't had the uncomfortable, but real [COUGH]

exercises either nationally or

certainly globally to, to deal with this.

And, and certainly we saw this in Fukushima.

Fukushima certainly was an outlier because certainly they had the,

the, the earthquake and then, [COUGH] and then they had the tsunami.

And, and that problem still exists.

The problem of reactive form is still there.

And and if it's not dealt with or something happens to it

that's really swinging in the air there we could have a melt down.

And it could be a, a global catastrophe.

So that's, that remains a problem.

And so it has revealed that we do not necessarily have the national expertise,

or for that matter, the coordination between policy and

politicians and the scientists to deal with these things.

And I think that's one of the lessons learned also globally

that applies to every nation.

>> Thanks for joining me today.

Definitely a lot of food for thought and very enlightening.

Explora nuestro catálogo

Inscríbete de manera gratuita y obtén recomendaciones personalizadas, actualizaciones y ofertas.

Coursera brinda acceso universal a la mejor educación del mundo, al asociarse con las mejores universidades y organizaciones, para ofrecer cursos en línea.

© 2019 Coursera Inc. Todos los derechos reservados.

Descargar en la App Store

Consíguelo en Google Play