Abstract:

This paper consists of four parts.  In the first part, we provide a brief general background of a study currently undenfay at the Disaster Research Center at Ohio State University in the United States. -In part two, some specific information about the research design used and the data obtained in the first year of the worlt is given.  In the third vart, we present in schematic form the overall model being used to analyze our data on community preparedness for acute disasters resulting from chemical agents.  The fourth and last part of the paper focuses on the basic unit of analysis in our model,- that is, on the "local community" as it exists in the United States, and we indicate some of the kinds of questions which are being addressed in our studv.  Ilowever, this paper uses the systematic data T-ye have obtained only for illustrative purposes since a detailed presentation of research findinps will be published at a later date.  Our major intent here is to present the model we are using and to show some of the issues involved.  Thus, this paper represents one way of looking at the problem of local community preparedness for acute chemical disasters in American society, and what we consider important in any description and analvsis of the problem.  The applicability of the model in other industrial and urbanized societies is of course an open question, and hopefully something that other researchers might address.
 

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