A model for studying community preparedness for acute chemical disasters.

Reprint

This paper consists of four parts. Part 1 provides a brief general background of a study currently underway at the Disaster Research Center at Ohio State University in the United States. Part 2 gives some specific information about the research design used and the data obtained in the first year of the work. Part 3 presents a schematic form of the overall model being used to analyse the data on community preparedness for acute disasters resulting from chemical agents. Part 4 of the paper focuses on the basic unit of analysis in the model : that is, on the "local community" as it exists in the United States. It indicates some of the kinds of questions which are being addressed in the study. Thus, this paper represents one way of looking at the problem of local community preparedness for acute chemical disasters in American society, and what is considered important in any description and analysis of the problem. The applicability of the model in other industrial and urbanised societies is an open question, and hopefully something that other researchers might address