Ketra A. Schmitt

Total Decontamination Cost of the Anthrax Letter Attacks

All of the costs associated with decontamination following the 2001 anthrax letter attacks were summarized, estimated, and aggregated based on existing literature and news media reports. A comprehensive list of all affected structures was compiled. Costs were analyzed by building class and decontamination type. Sampling costs and costs of worker relocation were also included. Our analysis indicates that the total cost associated with decontamination was about

A preliminary assessment of EMI control policies in hospitals

320 million.

Role of Detection Limits in Drinking Water Regulation

The use of wireless devices around critical-care medical equipment poses the risk that the electric field strength will exceed the immunity of the equipment, potentially resulting in equipment failure and possibly harming the patient. As medical staff and visitors carrying wireless transmitters move through the hospital, there may be times when number and type of transmitters near a medical device produce an electric field that exceeds the equipments immunity level. This paper presents a method for estimating the risk that the immunity level will be exceeded from wireless transmitters carried by medical staff throughout a 24-hour period. The method is applied to a simplified scenario of three patients in beds and twelve transmitter locations surrounding the beds, with eight medical staff on the floor. The risk of electromagnetic interference can be reduced with a suitable management policy. This paper describes a method for evaluating the usefulness of a management policy quantitatively, and then compares three policies: unrestricted use of wireless devices, restricted use, and a ban on wireless devices.

A sabine-rice approximation for the risk of exceeding immunity

Some commentators on environmental science and policy have claimed that advances in analytical chemistry, reflected by an ability to detect contaminants at ever-decreasing concentrations, lead to regulations stricter than justified by available toxicological data. We evaluate this claim in the context of drinking water regulation, with respect to contaminants regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). We examine the relationships between historical and present maximum contaminant levels and goals in the greater context of detection capability and evaluate the extent to which different aspects of the regulatory apparatus (i.e., analytical capability, cost-benefit analysis, analysis of competing risks, and available toxicological data) influence the regulatory process. Our findings do not support the claim that decreases in detection limit lead to more stringent regulation in the context of drinking water regulation in the United States. Further, based on our analysis of the National Primary Drinking Water Regulation and existing United States Environmental Protection Agency approaches to establishing the practical quantifiable level, we conclude that in the absence of changes to the underlying toxicological model, regulatory revision is unlikely.

EMI Risk Assessment in a Hospital Ward With One and Two Roaming Wireless Transmitters

Determining the risk of exceeding the immunity of medical devices in hospitals and generally in indoor propagation environments can be very expensive in terms of computational cost. Typical floor plan dimensions are much larger than the wavelength and medical staff members, carrying wireless devices in order to access patient records, have varying locations. The Sabine method from acoustics can be adapted to provide a very quick, inexpensive estimate of the multipath field. The Ricean probability distribution is used to model the small-scale fading of the signal using parameter values based on the Sabine approximation. The risk of exceeding immunity obtained by Rice-Sabine method is shown to match the empirical results obtained from ray-tracing.

Impact of Consumption and Cost Forecasting on United States Defense Fuel Budgeting

To control electromagnetic interference, hospitals often specify that mobile transmitters may not be brought any closer than a minimum separation distance (MSD) to an electronic medical device. This paper investigates the risk that the field strength due to mobile transmitters exceeds the immunity level of a medical device. The spatial variation of the field strength can be characterized by the well-known Ricean probability distribution, using the Sabine method to evaluate the parameters. The mobility of transmitters is accounted for by assuming a function for the probability that a transmitter is present at each location throughout the hospital room. The risk of exceeding immunity is estimated with no restriction on the movement of mobile transmitters, and the reduction in risk is estimated when an MSD policy is enforced. Staff may not fully comply with the MSD, so the increase in risk with specified levels of non-compliance is found. It is shown that with some non-compliance the risk of exceeding immunity becomes constant with increasing MSD, and so specifying a larger MSD does not necessarily increase safety.

Decentralised drinking water regulation: risks, benefits and the hunt for equality in the Canadian context

Between 2000 and 2011, Department of Defense (DOD) annual fuel expenditures were between

Effect of individual protective behaviors on influenza transmission: an agent-based model

1 and

An Industrial Ecology Perspective

9 billion higher than budget estimates (excluding 2009, when DOD underestimated fuel expenditures). Fuel budget variance is generally attributed to increasing fuel prices. However, DOD fuel expenditures are driven by two parameters — the unit cost of fuel and the amount of fuel consumed. Cost variance was responsible for 80 percent of the fuel budget variance on average. Crude oil price increase drove most of this cost variance. Consumption variance was responsible for the remainder of the fuel budget variance, and was particularly important during initial wartime operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Consumption variance was driven by DODs planned use of emergency rather than base appropriations to pay for overseas contingency operations. Both increasing fuel prices and reliance on emergency appropriations puts defense operations at risk and increases costs to taxpayers. Improvements to current planning, budgeting, and financing practices are needed to manage this risk.

A Bayesian Approach to a Logistic Regression Model with Incomplete Information

Drinking water management in Canada is based on the intervention of provinces and territories. This contrasts with the American and European approach of uniform, legally enforced regulation at the federal or super-federal level. The Canadian model has been widely criticised for the unequal level of regulation between provinces and territories and the passive role taken by the federal government. This paper: 1) puts calls for greater centralisation in the context of Canadas social and political climate; 2) reviews government, academic and environmental advocacy literature on competing drinking water regulation paradigms; 3) evaluates strengths and weaknesses of centralised and decentralised frameworks for drinking water regulation in the context of risk management theory and practical challenges. Notably, we evaluate drinking water decision-making as one of many competing opportunities for public spending on risk abatement and posit that increasing the uniformity of drinking water quality does not necessarily increase overall equality.