The Response to Japan Tsunami - Special Academic Support

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Natural disasters, such as tsunami, which affected Japan in March 2011, caused the loss about 28,000 lives, injured thousands of Japanese, displaced thousands of families, and destroyed infrastructure utterly (National geographic, 2011). Since the injured and displaced populations had diverse needs, the situation of the tsunami depicts a scenario where public health practitioners collaborated in the provision of appropriate humanitarian aid. In this view, the research paper examines how health practitioners in the fields of environmental health and emergency management approached the tsunami with a view of comparing and contrasting their approaches.

The practitioners of environmental health approached the situation of the tsunami by examining physical, chemical, and biological health hazards. Physical health hazards like injurious debris, obstructing structures, and live power lines endangered human lives. Tsunami physically exposed Japanese to health hazards because it destroyed Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant and released radioactive materials into the environment (Williams, Milen, Foster, Collins, & Gordon, 2011). Hence, the practitioners removed these physical health hazards to avert post-disaster impacts. Regarding chemical health hazards, the damage of infrastructure led to the release of industrial chemicals, domestic wastes, petroleum products, and radioactive chemicals into the environment (Williams, et al., 2011). These chemicals contaminate water and food, and consequently, affect human health. Biological health hazards also pose significant threat to human lives. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013), waterborne and foodborne diseases emanate from biological health hazards such as fecal pathogens and infectious diseases. World Health Organization (2011) cites diarrheal diseases, scabies, leptospirosis, and acute respiratory infections as common infections that occurred due to the tsunami. Hence, practitioners of the environmental health ensured that water, food, and environment were free from biohazards.

Emergency management is a field of public health, which entails rescue operations, treatment of victims, mitigation of impacts, and prevention of hazards following the occurrence of disasters. In the case of the tsunami, rescue operations comprised of emergency response because Japanese drowned in floods, while others remained trapped in debris materials. According to Williams et al. (2011), as a consequence of the tsunami, about 10,000 Japanese were confirmed dead, approximately 17,000 others went missing, and thousands sustained injuries. Therefore, treatment of the injured people was an emergency response that aimed at saving lives of people. As the tsunami was a humanitarian issue, the appropriate approach that practitioners used to mitigate its impacts was by ensuring that there was a constant and enough supply of food, water, and medicine (Shimbun, 2011). Moreover, in the mitigation and prevention of hazards, practitioners of emergency management used early warning systems in assessing situations and advising people. Prior and after the occurrence of the tsunami, emergency response monitored earthquakes, the tsunami, and the damage caused, and advised the government to evacuate people in some vulnerable regions in Japan (CNN Library, 2013). Therefore, emergency management is an important public health approach that is applicable in situations like that of the tsunami.

The two fields of public health, environmental health and emergency management, are similar because both focus on improving health of populations affected by disasters. Mitigation and prevention measures are common in these two fields of public health. Environmental health and emergency management aimed at mitigating the impacts of the tsunami and preventing its post-disaster impacts by removing health hazards, ensuring safety of food, water, and the environment, and evacuating populations. However, environmental health and emergency management have marked differences that lie in the focus and the nature of the activities involved. While environmental health focuses on the safety of the environment for human habitation and long-term activities, emergency management focuses on the health conditions of the population and short-term activities such as treatment and evacuation. Thus, to enhance effectiveness of response to natural disasters, public practitioners should employ the additional approach of community health. Community health empowers communities to mitigate disasters and remain resilient.

In conclusion, the tsunami triggered many issues that touch public health, and therefore, required a multidisciplinary approach to help the affected population. Therefore, practitioners of environmental health, emergency management, and community health provides a multidisciplinary approach to the tsunami.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013). Emergency preparedness and response. Web.

CNN Library. (2013). Japan earthquake: Tsunami fast facts. Web.

National Geographic. (2011). Rare video: Japan tsunami. Web.

Shimbun, Y. (2011). Health concerns in Japanese tsunami shelters. McClatchyDC. Web.

Williams, Y., Milen, D., Foster, T., Collins, L., & Gordon, M. (2011). Public health concerns in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and the Fukushima reactor breach. PATimes. Web.

World Health Organization. (2011). FAQs: Japan tsunami concerns. Web.

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