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Dr. Tharratt has provided emergency response activities to the people of California for over ten years. He has served as the medical director for Sacramento County’s Office of Emergency Medical Services; medical adviser to the state Emergency Services Authority and Office of Emergency Services; and medical adviser for the Sacramento city and county fire departments. He also is a member of the state’s standing Commission on Terrorism and the FBI’s Northern California Task Force. In those roles, he is responsible for assessing the threat of terrorist acts and recommending the appropriate medical response. In addition to this extensive state and local service, Dr. Tharratt has also served on the national level. He was among 17 physicians and researchers who served on a committee of the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council that assessed the nation’s ability to respond to biological and chemical terrorist attacks. He has been available to hazardous material response teams and the Federal Bureau of Investigation on a constant basis for over ten years. On September 11, 2001, Dr. Tharratt responded with the Sacramento Urban Search and Rescue Team Task Force 7, one of 28 specialized heavy-rescue teams in the country. He was part of the team that responded to the World Trade Center attack and spent 11 days searching for victims in the collapsed buildings. In performing these duties, he worked 21-hour days for 10 consecutive days. Since the September 11 tragedy, Dr. Tharratt has been in constant demand to share both his clinical and technical expertise in chemical and biological counter terrorism reponse in consultative, educational, and administrative roles throughout local, state and federal government. In 1998, Dr. Tharratt was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Research and Development Needs for Improving Civilian Medical Response to Chemical and Biological Terrorism incidents. The Committee report, published in 1999 by the Institute of Medicine, has been widely cited as the basis for current terrorism planning in the United States. On the international level, Dr. Tharratt has traveled extensively to teach disaster planning, response, and military aid to civilian authorities. In 2000, he participated in a two-week field exercise in Kharkov, Ukraine, organized by the Ukrainian government and the U.S. departments of defense and state. In 1997, he toured Indonesia with a United Nations team evaluating poison control, environmental assessment and food safety programs. |
