Posted on 12/17/2010 8:44:20 AM PST by FromLori
“I’m not as well prepared as I thought.”
Neither am I, though I do have a good knowledge base, having studied various aspects of nuclear civilian defense a while back.
Here’s another good site: http://www.ddponline.org/civil-defense-perspectives/american-lives-two-for-a-penny.html from which the following information appears:
Life-saving Facts (from Brodsky, 2008 draft)
Blast: A blast wave travels about 5 seconds per mile in air, and 1 second per mile in ground, so a rumble in the ground is felt first. A person 10 miles from the detonation may have about 40 seconds from the flash to drop and cover. Protect your eyes. A truck bomb in Nairobi killed 213, injured 4,500, and blinded 150 with flying glass.
Heat: While thermal radiation travels with the speed of light, it lasts several seconds; you can decrease burns by decreasing the duration of exposure. Move into a shadow, or cover!
Fallout: A fallout cloud may take many hours to arrive. Unless evacuating, use the time to prepare shelter. Stay calm.
Inhaled Radionuclides: If caught outdoors in radioactive dust, cover your mouth with a dry cloth while breathing through the mouth. A man’s cotton handkerchief with four folds (16 layers) will remove 94.2% of particles of the size that could reach the lungs; three layers of toilet paper will remove 88.9%.
Decontaminate Yourself. If uninjured, do not inundate medical facilities to check for radioactivity or be decontaminated. Wash or dust off and remove clothing.
Know Your Units. Distinguish total dose from dose rate, and be prepared to convert rads/hr into rads/min by dividing by 60, or rads/sec by dividing by 3,600. Many life-saving actions can be completed within seconds. Old radiation protection standards are in rads and rems; the newer SI units are confusing and potentially dangerous. If a reading in sieverts (Sv) is taken to be in rem, then 1 Sv might be mistaken for 1 rem instead of 100 rem. Appendix F discusses “Scientific Advantages and Absurdities of SI Units in Radiation Protection.”
Topical Iodine. Brodsky quotes a 1989 paper by Miller (see CDP, July 1990), which suggested applying 8 cc of tincture of iodine to the abdomen to block thyroid uptake of radioactive iodine. Cresson Kearny found this to be impractical (CDP, September 1990). Guy E. Abraham summarized information on the bioavailability of iodine applied to the skin (Original Internist, June 2008, http://optimox.com). Note that 88% evaporates from the skin within 3 days, hence the need for an occlusive dressing. The part that is absorbed forms a skin depot, and bioavailability is gradual. Oral KI is much better!”
The main website at which that one appears is the one with the “Nuclear War Survival Skills” download is available is http://www.oism.org/, with the sub-site being a 5-year archive of the newsletter “Civil Defense Perspectives” at http://www.oism.org/s32p27.htm
Here’s another interesting post about saving burn victims from dehydration:
“Cholera and Dehydration Instructions from Fighting Chance Newsletter, March 1988, Vol. 1 # 12. Complete set of fighting chance newsletters, all back issues available in 8 DVD civil defense set from Fighting Chance Civil Defense 8 DVD Set.
On the Medical Preparation video tape (now included with the 8 DVD set of civil defense materials), Dr. Jane Orient teaches that fluid replacement is the most valuable life-saving measure which can be implemented for victims of burns and some life-threatening diseases. She gives a kitchen formula for an oral fluid replacement solution which can be used in time of crisis.
Dr. Orient suggests one teaspoon of Lite Salt (the Morton mixture of iodized potassium chloride and sodium chloride in a blue cylindrical container), one-third teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), ten teaspoons of table sugar (sucrose), and one quart of water.
Burn victims need to drink about four to eight quarts of this solution in the first eight hours, four to eight quarts in the next sixteen hours, and as much as tolerable thereafter.
Twenty-five pounds of sugar, one pound of baking soda, five eleven ounce containers of Lite Salt, one teaspoon, and one copy of this formula fits perfectly in a four gallon plastic bucket with air-tight lid. The baking soda fits exactly into a one pint (one-half quart) canning jar. Put everything in the bucket and then pour full with the sugar.
The lives of at least ten people can be saved by this kit.” Cholera and Dehydration Instructions from Fighting Chance Newsletter, March 1988, Vol. 1 # 12. Complete set of fighting chance newsletters, all back issues available in 8 DVD civil defense set from Fighting Chance Civil Defense 8 DVD Set.
On the Medical Preparation video tape (now included with the 8 DVD set of civil defense materials), Dr. Jane Orient teaches that fluid replacement is the most valuable life-saving measure which can be implemented for victims of burns and some life-threatening diseases. She gives a kitchen formula for an oral fluid replacement solution which can be used in time of crisis.
Dr. Orient suggests one teaspoon of Lite Salt (the Morton mixture of iodized potassium chloride and sodium chloride in a blue cylindrical container), one-third teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), ten teaspoons of table sugar (sucrose), and one quart of water.
Burn victims need to drink about four to eight quarts of this solution in the first eight hours, four to eight quarts in the next sixteen hours, and as much as tolerable thereafter.
Twenty-five pounds of sugar, one pound of baking soda, five eleven ounce containers of Lite Salt, one teaspoon, and one copy of this formula fits perfectly in a four gallon plastic bucket with air-tight lid. The baking soda fits exactly into a one pint (one-half quart) canning jar. Put everything in the bucket and then pour full with the sugar.
The lives of at least ten people can be saved by this kit.
Cholera and Dehydration Instructions from Fighting Chance Newsletter, March 1988, Vol. 1 # 12. Complete set of fighting chance newsletters, all back issues available in 8 DVD civil defense set from Fighting Chance Civil Defense 8 DVD Set.
On the Medical Preparation video tape (now included with the 8 DVD set of civil defense materials), Dr. Jane Orient teaches that fluid replacement is the most valuable life-saving measure which can be implemented for victims of burns and some life-threatening diseases. She gives a kitchen formula for an oral fluid replacement solution which can be used in time of crisis.
Dr. Orient suggests one teaspoon of Lite Salt (the Morton mixture of iodized potassium chloride and sodium chloride in a blue cylindrical container), one-third teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), ten teaspoons of table sugar (sucrose), and one quart of water.
Burn victims need to drink about four to eight quarts of this solution in the first eight hours, four to eight quarts in the next sixteen hours, and as much as tolerable thereafter.
Twenty-five pounds of sugar, one pound of baking soda, five eleven ounce containers of Lite Salt, one teaspoon, and one copy of this formula fits perfectly in a four gallon plastic bucket with air-tight lid. The baking soda fits exactly into a one pint (one-half quart) canning jar. Put everything in the bucket and then pour full with the sugar.
The lives of at least ten people can be saved by this kit. http://www.oism.org/s32p1868.htm
Depends on where you are, how wide spread the engagement is, etc, etc. The chances of the power grid being up and you being in the fallout zone from an Al Queda dirty bomb is a lot greater than they would be in say an all out nuclear exchange. As far as the filters go, think Hepa filters, which do screen out all but the smallest of particulates.
I'm just popping off tidbits of learned and gleaned knowledge; some of it decades old. No way you could get the knowledge to survive from a simple paragraph on a conservative blog. You are asking the right questions, though, and sound genuinely interested. There are some really good "survival" titles out there, which go in depth on the issue, as well as other survival situations. The local librarians think I am a bit of a kook, becasue of some of the books I get :-)Read up; having the knowledge and not having to use it it a heck of a lot better than not having it and needing it.
Big question, are you an ant, or a grasshopper? Have a great weekend.
If you want to know for sure when it gets there, get one of these (~$600).
It all depends on the size of the blast, wind direction, and how dirty the bomb was. I suppose you could estimate by knowing how long it takes a rain storm to typically get from there to where you are.
Most of the short lived isotopes should be gone in a couple of days. If it is a dirty bomb with lots of Cs 137 etc., wait for a rainstorm before you go outside.
I used to know this stuff cold. I seem to remember a rule of 7’s - 7 days after the blast the radiation drops to 1/2, and then 7 more days it’s half again.
Been a long time, and I should find a quick and dirty on post-blast effects and print it out to put in my emergency kit.
Wish I had $600 for a geiger counter. I’d love to mount a wand external to the house so I can jack into it and monitor what’s going on outside.
I hope we produced a boatload of neutron bombs. I hope further that Seaborg didn’t get mad at the US for their lack of testicular fortitude on the matter and give the plans to the Russians and Chinese. I suppose if he did, they’d have used those bombs already, but who knows.
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