Environmental public health impacts of disasters : Hurricane Katrina : workshop summary / Lynn Goldman and Christine Coussens, rapporteurs ; Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine, Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice ; Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-73)

Hurricane Katrina: Challenges, Concerns, Policies, and Needs -- Hurricane Katrina: Challenges for the Community -- Nature and Extent of Environmental Exposures -- Health Monitoring, Assessment, and Response -- Community Involvement in Response to Disasters -- Research to Address Gaps in Environmental Health Assessments During Disasters.

"Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, and within hours it became the largest natural disaster in U.S. history. The extent of the devastation was unprecedented and had an adverse impact on lives in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, said Stephen Johnson, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In Mississippi, for example, one could drive for hours along the coast and see the destruction. Even 100?150 miles inland, there was significant damage from the hurricane that could be seen for weeks after the initial disaster. It was the first time in the careers of many disaster responders in the United States that medical assistance from outside the local region was required, noted Lynn Goldman of the Johns Hopkins University?s Bloomberg School of Public Health. Given the unprecedented nature of this natural calamity, the first responders deserve a lot of praise; however, this is not likely to be the last major disaster, noted Goldman. Responders and public health officials need to learn from the event to apply this knowledge to future disasters. At the same time, they need to address the ongoing issues and concerns of the people who have been impacted by this disaster, Goldman asserted." -- p. 1.