Handling human remains

Modern terrorist attacks share a considerable degree of qualitative similarity with other types of disasters or war experiences that have been studied previously. Thus, lessons derived from existing paradigms also may apply to terrorism. However, significant disaster features such as intentional cruelty may be more specific to terrorist activities. Another would be the possible use of WMD, resulting in far higher numbers of fatalities than previously experienced. Considerable manpower resources would be required to manage the consequences, increasing the likelihood that many more people mobilized to body handling duties would be untrained or inexperienced. Preventive mental health interventions by knowledgeable practitioners may prevent the people charged with some of the most unpleasant aspects of disaster relief work from themselves becoming casualties of war.