Ss07-04 the Need for a New Holistic Approach in Emergency Preparedness and Management

Introduction Disasters of different types increasingly affect humanity and plans for emergency preparedness and management are still largely insufficient to avoid immediate and long-term impacts on physical/mental health, ecosystem, productivity and societal development. Materials and Methods A literature search was conducted on events occurring worldwide starting from the chemical accident of Seveso, Italy in 1976. Publicly available databases were utilized including the EU e-MARS, the EM-DAT and others. Accidents were grouped according to their cause: natural hazards, chemical, nuclear, infectious, war and terrorism, and to their degree of severity. Lesson learned were analysed to test the efficacy of a more holistic unified approach to all hazards. Results The frequency of disasters of all types is increasing, in relation to different factors including extreme weather conditions, deterioration of old infrastructures, growing urbanization, and human errors despite automatization. Large areas of overlapping conditions were observed across different types of disasters, leading to potential unified implementation of common measures for preparedness and management. Data-driven tools for predictive modelling are key to approach disasters in the modern era, and they can be applied independently from the nature of the disaster. The impacts on physical and mental health can be persistent in the long-term, requiring prolonged epidemiological follow-up and care. Conclusions More effective strategies for preparedness and management are urgently needed to face the increasing burden of accidents of different nature.