EBMT Nuclear Accident Committee

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Background

Following 11th September Twin Tower terrorist action in New York, concern was raised in the world-wide media relating to other forms of terrorism, including the possibility of the release of radioactive material from an explosion in a nuclear power station, a 'dirty' nuclear device or, indeed, a full-blown nuclear weapon explosion.

Individual centres within Europe are already on standby and have service agreements with various agencies for providing care for radiated casualties; the Royal Marsden Hospital, for instance, having an arrangement with the Atomic Weapon Establishment (AWE) in England. Under these circumstances, it had always been anticipated that the number of casualties to be assessed at any one time would be approximately five, and that that they would be assessed after suitable decontamination for to transfer to a single haemato-oncology unit, where haematological support and/or stem cell transplantation could be undertaken.

EBMT involvement

We now visualize, even in the worst scenario, that there would be not more than 1,000 irradiated people surviving who require decontamination and support, the latter taking up to six weeks in a leukaemia / bone marrow transplantation unit. The experience from Chernobyl suggests that most patients irradiated up to a dose of 12Gy will survive for a period of up to six weeks, and at the lower dose of 9Gy it is likely that these patients would spontaneously recover without requiring stem cell support. EBMT units would be in a position to accept patients for haematological support.

The Board of the EBMT in 2001 proposed the formation of a Nuclear Accident Sub-Committee. This was made a Nuclear accident committee (NAC) in October 2006 Board meeting. Prof Fliedner was welcomed as an honorary member of the EBMT and to also take forward a research sub-committee of the NAC.

Activities undertaken

1. At various meetings over the last year, preparedness for nuclear mass accidents was discussed. To this end, we have organised an advanced training course for physicians, nurses, laboratory personnel, administration to be informed on the basis of a EC-wide accepted protocol (under preparation by the International Center for Advanced Studies in Health Sciences and Services (ICAS) of the University of Ulm). The content and planning for the training course was discussed at a meeting organized at Schloss Reissenberg on 1st/2nd March 2007. First announcement for the training course to be held in Munich between 28th - 30th November 2007 can be downloaded here. Registration form is available for download as well.

2. The EBMT annual meeting in Lyon (2007) provided the opportunity to hold a well attended educational session which was chaired by Prof Ray Powles and Prof Ted Fliedner. The NAC meeting was also held during the EBMT. Speakers included Dr John Croft from Health protection agency, UK, Prof Ray Powles and Prof NC Gorin.

3. NAC Meeting held at Munich airport on June 23, accepted the proposal made for a first (pilot) course at the end of January 2008 in the hope that at that time the financial problem would have come to a productive conclusion. Answer from the German Ministry of Environment and Reactor Safety was awaited at this time. In the beginning of September 2007, an urgent telephone message from the Ministry agreed to fund the first training course. The EBMT Secretariat in Barcelona has organized for this information to be disseminated among EBMT members.

4. MED A form has been finalised and will be on the system in early 2008. This has been sent to Carmen Ruiz.

5. Pocket Guides were available during the education session on nuclear accidents and the EBMT booth at the annual EBMTmeeting. These will be distributed within the EBMT bag every year. Please click here to download the Pocket Guide in pdf.

6. Mock Exercise is to be planned in 2008.

7. The Metrepol document to made available as pdf or word document on website in 2008. This may need to be translated into various languages. Dr Frassoni has done so in Italy. This will need to be updated at some point.

8. Funding for EU grant procurement remains under discussion.

Membership

Prof Ray Powles - (Chairman), Parkside Cancer Centre, Wimbledon, UK
Tel : +44 208 944 7979 Fax: +44208 6059103
myeloma@clara.co.uk

Prof. Dr. Theodor M. Fliedner (Research Chair): Ulm University, Germany.
Tel: +49-(0)731-500-69404, Fax: +49-(0)731-500-69406
theodor.fliedner@uni-ulm.de and colette.steinwachs@uni-ulm.de

Dr Bhawna Sirohi- (Secretary) : Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK  
Tel: +442086613115, +447990590973
bhawna.sirohi@addenbrookes.nhs.uk

Professeur Norbert-Claude Gorin,
Hopital Saint-Antoine, Paris, France.
Tel: +33 1 49 28 26 20/21 (service clinique), +33 1 40 46 95 07 (EBMT)
Fax: +33 1 49 28 32 00 (service clinique),  +33 1 40 46 96 07 (EBMT),
norbert-claude.gorin@sat.aphp.fr

Patrick Gourmelon, IRSN, France.
Tel. : +33 1 58 35 76 28 , Fax : +33 1 46 54 46 10
francoise.pluchet@irsn.fr
Patrick.gourmelon@irsn.fr

Prof Dietger Niederwieser, (President EBMT),
Univ. of Leipzig, Germany.
Tel: +49 341 97-13050, Fax : +49 341 97-13059
dietger@medizin.uni-leipzig.de

Monica Fliedner, MSN
Inselspital Bern, Switzerland,
Tel: +41 31 632 9624, Fax: +41 31 632 2143
monica.fliedner@insel.ch

Prof Dr Arnold Ganser
Haemostaseologie und Onkologie Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Germany,
Tel: +49 511 532 3020, Fax: +49 511 532 8041
ganser.arnold@mh-hannover.de

Prof. Dr. Viktor Meineke
Munich
Germany, ViktorMeineke@bundeswehr.org

Dr Leif Stenke
Karolinska University hospital and Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
Tel:  +468 5177 0000
Leif.Stenke@medks.ki.se

Prof  Dr Purvish M. Parikh
Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, India.
Tel: +91-22-2417-7213 , Fax: +91-22-2416-1574
purvish@rediffmail.com

Fiona Mc Donald
EBMT Secretariat
Tel: +34 93 454 9543, Fax: +34 93 453 1263
fiona.mcdonald@ebmt.org

Fernando L da Costa
Instituto Português de Oncologia, Lisboa
flealcosta@netcabo.pt

John Croft
Health Protection Agency, Salisbury, UK.
Tel: +44 1980 612930, Fax :+44 1980 612839
john.croft@hpa.org.uk

Dr Elena Buglova
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria.
Tel:  +43 (1) 2600-22738, Fax:+43 (1) 26007-22738

Dr Francesco Frassoni
Italy
francesco.frassoni@hsanmartino.it

Dr Jane Apperley
Hammersmith Hospital, UK
j.apperley@imperial.ac.uk

Dr Alberto Bosi, Italy
a.bosi@dac.unifi.it

Prof Willem Fibbe
Leiden University Medical Centre
The Netherlands
W.E.Fibbe@lumc.nl

Dr Anibal Robinson
Argentina
anibaljr@fibertel.com.ar