ABSTRACT
The Charter for the President's Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island states that, as part of its comprehensive study and investigation, it shall include "an evaluation of the actual and potential impact of the events on the public health and safety and on the health and safety of the workers". The overall objective of the Task Group on Behavioral Effects is to examine effects on "the mental health of the public and the workers directly involved in the accident at Three Mile Island (TMI)-2." The general strategy of the Task Group has been to locate studies of high risk groups in the general population and to seek control groups from whom comparable data could be collected. The TMI accident had a pronounced demoralizing effect on the general population of the TMI area, including its teenagers and mothers of preschool children.
