Book Reviews

DISASTER MEDICINE
CIOTTONE ET AL
Mosby, NYC 
ISBN-0-323-03253-7 

This will be an outstanding addition to the reference library of any one working in the disaster preparedness /biosecurity arena. It is at once readable, thoughtful and comprehensive. Its chapters are short, pithy and accompanied by an excellent current bibliography. Divided in sections, the first opens with an excellent set of 10 chapters providing an overview of “Disaster Management” and the last section — “Other Events, Combination Events” closes with a range of un-thinkables such as “Aircraft Crash into A High-Rise Building.  In between are several other sections covering the range of topics to be considered during the disaster planning /preparedness process. I recommend it highly, if for no other reason than for its excellent section of “Events Resulting in Blast Injuries”.

Articles of Note:

The Willingness of U.S. Emergency Technicians to Respond to Terrorist Incidents. DiMaggio, C, Markenson, D., Loo, G.T., and Redlener,I.
BIOSECURITY  and  BIOTERRORISM: BIODEFENSE  STRATEGY, PRACTICE AND SCIENCE  VOLUME 3, NUMBER 4, 2005

DiMaggio and his colleagues at Columbia have published results of a survey exploring the question of the willingness of basic and paramedic medical service providers to respond to the problems arising from a WMD attack by terrorists. It is a well-researched article with several important lessons for those of us concerned about work force absenteeism during catastrophes. It should be on the must read list.

The Use of the Internet By Islamic Extremists, Hoffman, B., Rand 2006
http://www.rand.org/pubs/testimonies/2006/RAND_CT262.pdf
This is also a must read paper for those concerned with the complex issues associated with biosecurity. Aside from the implications for counterterrorism in general it certainly raises serious questions about what we should be posting and in what detail should we post issues related to biosecurity. While some of our colleagues in the physical sciences have grown up with security issues such considerations have not been common to the life sciences. Clearly there needs to be a dialogue among the biosecurity community about the implications of this important paper.
 
As always we are interested to know your thoughts.