Conference on “Dirty Bombs” at Maritime Institute - March 17

Monday, March 17, 2003
8 a.m.-4 p.m.

Maritime Institute
5700 Hammonds Ferry Lane
Baltimore, Maryland
(410) 859-5700

On Monday, March 17, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health will hold a conference to inform public health officials, emergency workers and government agencies about the public health threat posed by “dirty bombs,” which are conventional explosives combined with radioactive material. The conference will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Maritime Institute located at 5700 Hammonds Ferry Road, Baltimore, Md.

The conference will include discussions on the basics of personal protection and treatment, the hazards of various kinds of radiation and how emergency responders, public health departments and hospitals are preparing to treat casualties from attacks using conventional or dirty bombs. Participants will also learn how to communicate to the public the risks of bombs and radiation prior to and in the event of a dirty bomb attack.

Jonathan Links, PhD, professor of environmental health sciences at the School of Public Health, is a conference presenter. He is working with the City of Baltimore to develop a plan for dealing with a dirty bomb or other radiological emergency.

Other speakers will include: Christina Catlett, MD, deputy director of the Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response and assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins University; Peter Beilenson, MD, MPH, commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department; Ron Addison, chief of Homeland Security for the Baltimore City Fire Department; and members of the city fire department HAZMAT team and the police department bomb squad.

The conference is sponsored by the School of Public Health’s Center for Public Health Preparedness, MidAtlantic Public Health Training Center, Center of Excellence in Community Environmental Health Practice and Public Health Scientists Working to Address Terrorism.

Directions to the Maritime Institute