Adapting All-hazards Planning to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Threats

Attention to the harm posed by chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) events is growing. Informed by events ranging from COVID-19 to the 2020 Beirut explosion, it is apparent that events of this kind, whether natural, accidental, or deliberate in origin, have the potential to cause serious disruption to the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, material, economic, or environmental losses. In other words, CBRN events can reach the level of (human-induced) disasters. Despite this observation, such events, and especially deliberate use (terrorism) scenarios (CBRN threats), tend to be treated as a distinct category of disaster and often do not, at least explicitly, figure in the disaster risk reduction literature, which has historically focused on natural hazards. In this chapter, we consider to what extent CBRN threats justify distinct categorization and exceptional planning. We argue that, while CBRN threats introduce a number of distinct challenges (due to the need to account for the active role played by a perpetrator), many aspects of the risk management cycle apply to all disasters, irrespective of their origin. We further argue that generic ‘all-hazards’ plans provide a suitable basis for addressing CBRN threats, albeit such plans must necessarily be complemented by provisions adapted to this distinct kind of human-induced disaster.