Health chiefs have advised Brits to 'go in, stay in, tune in' if the UK is hit by a 'radiation emergency'.
The fresh guidance was published by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
Despite other publications linking this advice to rising tensions in Russia and China, the document makes no mention of nuclear weapons.
It does explain, however, what Britons should do in a "radiation emergency", which could be caused by a leak at a nuclear power plant or during the transport of radioactive material.
🔉 The headlines from Reuters World News podcast:
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 4, 2023
- US warns Israel against civilian deaths
- France says Olympics plan unchanged after attack
- Philippine police hunt Catholic Mass bomb suspects
- Record snowfall hits Russia
Listen now https://t.co/xPRwm4ev08 pic.twitter.com/1w3L7qEsor
Actions to take: go in, stay in, tune in
There are important actions you should take to protect you and your family in the event of a radiation emergency.
Go in
The most important thing to do if you are told you are near a radiation emergency is to go indoors as soon as you can and stay there. Close the doors and windows and stay as far away from external walls as possible.
Stay in
Staying indoors reduces your exposure to any radiation outside. You will be advised on what to do next. Turn off all fans and air conditioning and close all external doors, windows and vents where possible. You will be advised on what to do next. You may need to stay indoors for one to two days.
Tune in
Monitor the news and follow official UK advice on GOV.UK for what to do next. Any changes to advice will be communicated to you via official sources – this may be via the radio, television, internet, social media or the police.
You can read the full advice here.
40 seconds from the life of the Ukrainian #Avdiivka, which #russia continues to destroy and bomb as a terrorist.
— Alf Really 🇺🇦🇺🇸🇬🇧🇨🇦🇵🇱🇬🇪🇪🇺🇩🇪🇫🇮 (@vik8867dn) December 2, 2023
After all, russia came to “help” the residents of #Donbas. And that means for the residents of Avdiivka, of whom there are less than 1,300 people left in the city... pic.twitter.com/j2VwIrRVRA
Follow the local official advice
Emergency services and local authorities will provide information about what has happened and what you should do. This may be provided via the radio, television, internet, social media or the police.
What you need to do to protect yourself will depend on where you are and where the radiation emergency is, so it is essential to follow the advice provided in your area.
Radiation cannot be seen, heard, smelt, tasted or felt, so you must follow the advice given to you, even if you can’t tell that anything has happened. If you are overseas, follow the local official advice.
You may be advised by the emergency services to evacuate, and you should be prepared to do this, if needed, following advice issued for your area.
You should not evacuate unless advised to do so, as leaving the shelter may increase your radiation exposure.
If a radiation emergency happens outside the UK, it is very unlikely that you will need to do anything different from normal if you are in the UK at the time. Any official advice for the UK public will be given on television, radio, internet or social media.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here