Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Psychological Responses to Hazardous Substances
Next Steps
At the end of the workshop, Dr. Maureen Lichtveld presented a five-point action
plan for the agency to address the issue of psychosocial effects in communities near
hazardous waste sites. The actions to be taken include the following:
Produce a proceedings of this expert panel workshop;
Publish articles in the scientific literature regarding the psychosocial
effects in communities near hazardous waste sites;
Write a training handbook for local and state public health officials on
ways to minimize stress in communities exposed to hazardous substances;
Develop direct interventions in communities faced with exposures to hazardous
substances based on disaster relief strategies; and
Develop and implement public health strategies designed to mitigate the psychosocial stresses that can be
found in communities exposed to hazardous substances.
Since the expert panel workshop, ATSDR has moved forward with the development of a psychological effects
program. Since September 1995, the agency has designed a public health strategy that combines enhancement of
the public health system's capacity to respond by developing and implementing a
training program for public health partners. Additionally, the agency has delivered
several direct interventions in communities.
ATSDR developed a training module for health assessors and public health
officers; this module is designed to enhance their awareness of the psychological responses
that accompany exposures to hazardous substances. The first training course using
that module was presented on February 3-7, 1997. Several training sessions for county
health officials have been conducted through the agency's partnership with the National Association of County
and City Health Officials. Also, training has been held for staff in state health
departments.
There have been several different projects with communities. This has
involved sponsoring a 1996 educational workshop regarding ways of reducing stress caused
by acute exposures to a hazardous substance and a subsequent sudden evacuation for a relocated community. A series of
workshops for residents of a community permanently relocated because of environmental
contamination was given on February 26-28, 1997. The series of workshops gave the residents basic information
on how to cope with the stress of a relocation related to environmental contamination. Additionally, training on
how to help temporarily relocated residents as given to social workers involved with the hundreds of
displaced people during the methyl parathion response on the Gulf Coast. Also, expert opinion was
provided to an EPA task force that is looking at the issue of how to handle environmental relocations.
ATSDR continued to advance the public health science on this topic
though a September 10 and 11, 1997, expert panel workshop entitled "The Feasibility of
Measuring Stress Related to Hazardous Waste." The workshop convened in Atlanta, Georgia. The
proceedings from that workshop are forthcoming. In 1998, ATSDR worked with the
Missouri Department of Health and ATSDR's Office of Regional Operations to develop a needs
assessment for public health personnel to use to determine the desires and needs of a
community when coping with the psychological effects of exposure to hazardous substances.
Most recently, ATSDR and EPA have joined in an initiative, ATSDR-EPA Initiative
Regarding Community Stress Related to Hazardous Substances, to train EPA personnel in
the area of community stress. The initiative will increase awareness and
improve staff ability to respond to communities facing exposure to a hazardous substance. Public health
responses will be piloted at three sites over the next 3 years. During 1999, a
community support network involving social workers will assist a community facing both permanent and temporary
relocations due to environmental contamination.
A handbook, Training Handbook on Psychological Responses to
Hazardous Substances, is expected to be completed by September 1999 and published in FY
2000.
