The article shows that the Chernobyl explosions continue to devastate the surrounding area, defining a society of those exposed to radiation with complex politics and health care systems to which individuals are entirely dependent.
I looked up how other countries and areas of the world fund emergency response, like ambulance agencies. I also looked to see in which countries these services are most developed. The last point I researched was the size of the area affected by Chernobyl and the population density of that area.
This article has been referenced extensively by articles dealing with both medicine and related policies as well as the nuclear sciences and politics. Some such articles include, “Glioblastoma in a former Chernobyl resident” and “The pharmaceuticalisation of security: Molecular biomedicine, antiviral stockpiles, and global health security”.
The argument is supported through research into political trends - the survivors gave up their own values to support anyone that could help them. There were interviews with the survivors and those living in the area - they dicussed how their lives changed, their inability to find work and their health issues that started immediately or soon after the disaster. The authors also did research of programs to help the survivors - looking at the compensation they could recieve, options for working, how to get healthcare, etc.
The author, Adriana Petryna, works as a professor of anthropology for the University of Pennsylvania. She has done extensive research on the cultural and political aspects of nuclear science and medicine.
The pdf did not include the bibliography, however I would assume that a lot of the scientific information came from other, more medical/chemical rather than sociological, Chernobyl research.
Emergency response is addressed both in terms of immediate response to a disaster as well as the long-term care needed to help those displaced or otherwise effected. The initial response to the reactor overload failed to prevent the disaster, and there is some debate as to if the efforts to control the exploding reactor actually increased the amount of radiation dispersed into the air. While attempting to mitigate the disaster workers were exposed to even more radiation than the initial explosion released. This event shows the importance of expertise in response to a disaster, this was the first nuclear disaster of this scale and no one knew how to respond. The majority of the paper focuses on the challenges of caring for hundreds of thousands of individuals when their need will extend for decades if not longer. The authors indicates that the system put in place provides the necessary assistance but only to those with the ability and knowledge to work within the system for their own advantage, and in the long-term it is slowly loosing support from the general society as the Chernobyl explosions falls further into history.
This article finds that the people living in the area of the Chernobyl disaster are still experiencing the aftermath of the situation. Due to the health and financial results of the disaster, they have become dependent on the infrastructures that can help them, such as the healthcare system. This prevents them from making independent decisions, or moving anywhere that would reduce their ability to recieve help.
This article has been cited in a few other publications, mostly regarding other aspects of Chernobyl and medicine.
The article uses statistics of the health care system and diagnosis methods to show that, while the program was created with good intentions to help those suffering from radiation poisoning, it has become necessary for those seeking assistance to find influential individuals or groups to try and receive enough funding to support themselves and their families.