Analyze

The question of data relates to Denise Brock’s key role in the passage of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA). Brock independently collected thousands of documents related to the health of  workers in nuclear facilities like Weldon Spring in her efforts to show that they had been exposed to pathological levels of radiation. In many cases, their employers were fully aware of the dangers these workers faced, but kept this information to themselves or hidden away in the private documents that Denise uncovered decades later. Prior to Denise's work this information was not publically available, and if workers who had become ill wanted to receive compensation for worksite expose, they would have to undergo exposure reconstruction assessments, which--due to the lack of accurate and available data--were imperfect evaluations of the actual levels of radiation workers had been exposed to. Due to Denise's advocacy, which led to the passage of the EEOICPA, workers at nuclear facilities are exempted from the exposure reconstruction assessments and are eligible for compensation payments up to a maximum amount of $250,000, plus medical expenses for accepted conditions.

Denise's experience raises a few questions and reflections on data in the Anthropocene:

•  Issues like worksite and environmental exposure are often plagued by invisibilities and what STS scholars have referred to as "agnotologies"--where can activists/scholars/any interested party gain access to relevant data in relation to these issues (in a similar fashion to Denise's work)?
• For historians in particular: do the thousands of documents Denise complied consitute an archive? How can these and similar archival practices be Anthropocenic strategies? 

According to the article, officials were trying to evacuate the areas that they predict to have the most damage, move people to higher ground, tell people to stay indoors, and close all public transportation systems. 

In this case, the hazard is distributed differently in the sense of geography because areas near the Eastern shore have had much greater damage rather than ones far away from the Eastern shore.

The distribution of risk and damage for hurricane Irene was spread throughout the east coast of the US starting at Florida and working its way up to New York. Based on this, many people of all races and social classes were affected by the hurricane

For hurricane Irene, city and state governments had shelters built and prepared for the event, but the best solution was for complete evacuation, as the storm was predicted to be too strong. The precautions did not work fully because there were some casualties and injuries

Hazards/risks are distributed among different groups through geography. for example, areas near the Eastern shoreline like places in New Jersey are in a group because their zone damage is much more than those further away from the Eastern shorline like places in Nevada.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo ordered over 2000 National Guard troops were deployed to Long Island, New York City , and the hudson valley. Defense secretary Leon panetta had issued a prepare-to-deploy order in case the hurricane relief effort needed more support. Each service had to have 6,500 active duty troops ready in case they were called upon.