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This policy was created as a direct response to the Chernobyl Disaster. An interesing historical note is that the USSR and the Ukranian SSR were among the 69 states that signed the convention at the 1986 meeting, and both quickly ratified it afterward. 

As this article appears to be a chapter from a book, I was unable to determine if the chapter specifically, or the greater work, was referenced elsewhere.

The Red Cross is a large national organization with fixed sets of stockpiled resources which they adapt and apply to each disaster response they face. They set up shelters, distribute emergency supply kits and provide food and medical service in the aftermath of disasters. 

The arguments made in this article are largely supported by analisys of facts and statistical data provided by international humanitarian organizations such as the MSF and the World Health Organization.

Perspectives of public health officials, goverment workers (excluding the president), and international aid organizations such as doctors with out borders and the united nations (both of which are depicted), are not included in the film. More scholarly perspectives are also not included.

Thus policy is department specific, and while the article does not expressly state it, it was likely drafted and put into place by the Bethel Township Fire Department. 

This arguement is supported by looking at 4 specific case histories and examining the factors contributing to the investigations in each.

1. The 1814 Burning of the Capitol Building - Investigation of the disaster conducted by one engineer, B.H. Lathobe, who was given vast resources with very few obsticles, except for financial constraits and an impatient congress, to complete his investigation and reconstruct the building. 

2. 1850 Hauge St. Explosion - After a major boiler explosion in Manhattan's Lower East Side, a pannel of "jurrors" and "experts" were called together to complete investigations, bring forth the history of the fauty boiler, and place the blame for the accident in an effort to "memorialize the dead and bring them justice." Because of the way this investigation was conducted, the blame could not be accurately placed so everyone involved was blamed for the failure.

3. 1903 Iroquois Theater Fire - John Ripley Freeman, a fireproof engineering expert and factory inspector, was brought in to complete a report and provided one of the first "modern" scientific disaster investigations. He utilized a new network of investigators, engineers, insurance companies, testing labs, and inter-industry coordination that characterizes modern disaster investigation. 

The program is funded in most part by Brown University, and research funding is suplimented by various grants applied for by individual researchers.