Strategy for Responding to Nuclear, Radiological, Biological and Chemical Threats in Switzerland

摘要

The Confederation and the cantons share responsibility for protecting the population against NBChazards. To honour this responsibility, preparatory measures are taken at both civilian and militarylevel. Assignment of responsibilities is based on the type and seriousness of the given threat. Atpresent, preparations break down as follows:· Civil protection at cantonal and municipal level is well regulated. Ensuring the effectivemanagement of minor or moderately serious incidents. Command organisations andintervention units are well trained. However, NBC protection equipment must be improved(especially in relation to rapid analysis and decontamination) to ensure that initial useableevidence can be obtained nationwide and within an expedient period of time. This will, in turnguarantee that swift action is taken.· There is no central command body for NBC incidents, which would provide leadership atthe federal level and would coordinate federal subsidiary resources should a NBC incidentoccur.· As a general rule, much is known about civilian risks (industrial accidents or accidentsinvolving the transport of hazardous goods) thanks to a wealth of studies conducted on thissubject. Cantonal and municipal contingency plans guarantee effective incident management.However, what is missing is the tested cooperation between intercantonal, cantonal-federaland civilian-military. These bodies need to take part in joint training exercises, with theinvolvement of political leaders.· In terms of prevention and interventions, additional efforts should be made to prevent thecriminal or terrorist deployment of NBC resources. For example, clear orders should beissued on the deployment of subsidiary resources which the Confederation makes available tothe cantons, municipalities and regions.The fourteen reference scenarios developed by the ComNBC illustrate the range of current hazards,analyse existing preparations and enable us to observe the following:· Emergency protection plans for accidents involving the transport of industrial andhazardous goods, as demanded by the relevant supervisory bodies, should be put to the testduring training exercises.· There is a need for action concerning terrorist NBC attacks in order to prevent themisappropriation of such substances. Furthermore, in the event of a terrorist attack, a swift onsiteclarification of whether such substances have been deployed is needed.· Given that not all regions of Switzerland are exposed to the same NBC risks and that largescaleincidents are generally very rare, it would make little sense that each of Switzerland’s 26cantons has the same resources at its disposal. Instead, intervention resources to tackle anNBC incident should be organised on an intercantonal basis. The Confederation also makes itsown resources available when the situation demands special examinations and interventions.The strategy must be reviewed at regular intervals and adapted in line with new information andknowledge (cf. Figure 1).