Emergency situations, including those due to natural hazards (e.g. earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, landslides, wildfires and droughts), technological hazards (e.g. chemical spills, disruption to infrastructure), complex situations (produced by conflict) and outbreaks, lead to health-related diseases and affect populations in all contexts.
The scale and types of radiological and nuclear emergencies may range from an isolated occupational or medical over-exposure of a person, to a major catastrophe with global dimensions.
The purpose of the WHO human health risk assessment toolkit: chemical hazards is to provide its users with guidance to identify, acquire and use the information...
The health impact of radiological and nuclear emergencies can last for decades. Lessons learned from past radiological and nuclear accidents have demonstrated...
Chapter 9 of the WHO Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality (GDWQ) provides guidance related to radiological aspects of drinking-water. Management...
Recent public health emergencies, such as the Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa (2014–2015), the emergence of the Zika virus syndrome in...
Guidance on Evaluating and Expressing Uncertainty in Hazard Assessment is available in Harmonization Project Document No. 11, 2nd Edition (2017). The 2nd...
These guidelines are an update of the 1999 World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on the use of iodine thyroid blocking (ITB) with a special focus on...
This interim guidance is aimed at healthcare workers who may receive patients exposed to chemical weapons at their healthcare facilities. The guidance...
The purpose of the WHO Manual for the Public Health Management of Chemical Incidents is to provide a comprehensive overview of the principles and roles...
The common gaps in health system preparedness around the world are generally well understood, but they are often not addressed in a comprehensive and systematic...
The 26 December 2004 tsunami devastated costal areas of eleven countries around the Indian Ocean. As part of an unprecedented emergency response, stakeholders...
The malicious contamination of food for terrorist purposes is a real and current threat, and deliberate contamination of food at one location could have...
The WHO Guide to sanitation in natural disasters (Assar, 1971) summarized the essential aspects of environmental health management in disasters. These...