To Fear or Fear Not...

Since the media has decided to scare everyone with predictions of chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare on our turf I decided to write a paper and keep things in their proper perspective.

I am a retired military weapons, munition & training expert. Lesson number one: In the mid 1990's there were a series of nerve gas attacks on crowded Japanese subway stations. Given perfect conditions for an attack less than 10% of the people there were injured (the injured were better in a few hours) and only one percent of the injured died. 60 Minutes once had a fellow telling us that one drop of nerve gas could kill a thousand people, well he didn't tell you the thousand dead people per drop was theoretical. Drill Sergeants exaggerate how terrible this stuff was to keep the recruits awake in class (I know this because I was a Drill Sergeant too). Forget everything you've ever seen on TV, in the movies, or read in a novel about this stuff, it was all a lie.

These weapons are about terror, if you remain calm, you will probably not die. This is far less scary than the medi & their "Experts," make it sound. Chemical weapons are categorized as Nerve, Blood, Blister & Incapacitating agents. Contrary to the hype of reporters & politicians they are not weapons of mass destruction they are "Area denial" & terror weapons that don't destroy anything.

When you leave the area you almost always leave the risk. That's the difference; you can leave the area & the risk; soldiers may have to stay put & sit through it & that's why they need all that spiffy gear. These are not gasses, they are vapors and/or air borne particles. The agent must be delivered in sufficient quantity to kill/injure & that defines when/how it's used. Every day we have a morning & evening inversion where "stuff," suspended in the air gets pushed down. This inversion is why allergies & air pollution are worst at these times of the day. So, a chemical attack will have it's best effect an hour of so either side of sunrise/sunset. Also, being vapors * airborne particles they are heavier than air so they will seek low places like ditches, basements & underground garages. This stuff won't work when it's freezing, it doesn't last when it's hot & wind spreads it too thin too fast. They've got to get this stuff on you, or, get you to inhale it for it to work. They also have to get the concentration of chemicals high enough to kill or wound you. Too little & it's nothing, too much & it's wasted.

What I hope you've gathered by this point is that a chemical weapons attack that kills a lot of people is incredibly hard to do with military grade agents & equipment so you can imagine how hard it will be for terrorists. The more you know about this stuff the more you realize how hard it is to use.

We'll start by talking about nerve agents. You have these in your house, plain old bug killer (like Raid) is nerve agent. All nerve agents work the same way; they are cholinesterase inhibitors that mess up the signals your nervous system uses to make your body function. It can harm you if you get it on your skin but it works best if they can get you to inhale it. If you don't die in the first minute & you can leave the area you're probably gonna live.

The military's antidote for all nerve agents is atropine & pralidoxime chloride. Neither one of these does anything to cure the nerve agent, they send your body into overdrive to keep you alive for five minutes, after that the agent is used up. Your best protection is fresh air & staying calm. Listed below are the symptoms for nerve agent poisoning. Sudden headache, Dimness of vision (someone you're looking at will have pinpointed pupils), Runny nose, Excessive saliva or drooling, Difficulty breathing, Tightness in chest, Nausea, Stomach cramps, Twitching of exposed skin where a liquid just got on you.

If you are in public & you start experiencing these symptoms, first ask yourself, did anything out of the ordinary just happen, a loud pop, did someone spray something on the crowd? Are other people getting sick too? Is there an odor of new mown hay, green corn, something fruity, or camphor where it shouldn't be? If the answer is yes, then calmly (if you panic you breathe faster & inhale more air/poison) leave the area & head up wind, or, outside. Fresh air is the best "right now antidote".

If you have a blob of liquid that looks like molasses or Kayro syrup on you; blot it or scrape it off & away from yourself with anything disposable. This stuff works based on your body weight, what a crop duster uses to kill bugs won't hurt you unless you stand there & breathe it in real deep, then lick the residue off the ground for while.

Remember they have to do all the work, they have to get the concentration up & keep it up for several minutes while all you have to do is quit getting it on you/quit breathing it by putting space between you and the attack. Blood agents are cyanide or arsine which effect your blood's ability to provide oxygen to your tissue. The scenario for attack would be the same as nerve agent. Look for a pop or someone splashing/spraying something and folks around there getting woozy/falling down. The telltale smells are bitter almonds or garlic where it shouldn't be. The symptoms are blue lips, blue under the fingernails, rapid breathing. The military's antidote is amyl nitride and just like nerve agent antidote it just keeps your body working for five minutes till the toxins are used up. Fresh air is the your best individual chance. Blister agents (distilled mustard) are so nasty that nobody wants to even handle it let alone use it. It's almost impossible to handle safely & may have delayed effect of up to 12 hours. The attack scenario is also limited to the things you'd see from other chemicals. If you do get large, painful blisters for no apparent reason, don't pop them, if you must, don't let the liquid from the blister get on any other area, the stuff just keeps on spreading. It's just as likely to harm the user as the target. Soap, water, sunshine & fresh air are this stuff's enemy. Bottom line on chemical weapons (it's the same if they use industrial chemical spills); they are intended to make you panic, to terrorize you, to herd you like sheep to the wolves. If there is an attack, leave the area & go upwind, or to the sides of the wind stream. They have to get the stuff to you & on you. You're more likely to be hurt by a drunk driver on any given day than be hurt by one of these attacks. Your odds get better if you leave the area. Soap, water, time & fresh air really deal this stuff a knock_out_punch. Don't let fear of an isolated attack rule your life. The odds are really on your side.

Nuclear bombs. These are the only weapons of mass destruction on earth. The effects of a nuclear bomb are heat, blast, EMP, and radiation. If you see a bright flash of light like the sun, where the sun isn't, fall to the ground! The heat will be over a second. Then there will be two blast waves, one out going, and one on it's way back. Don't stand up to see what happened after the first wave; anything that's going to happen will have happened in two full minutes. These will be low yield devices and will not level whole cities. If you live through the heat, blast & initial burst of radiation, you'll probably live for a very very long time. Radiation will not create fifty foot tall women, or giant ants & grass hoppers the size of tanks. These will be at the most 1 kiloton bombs; that's the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT.

Here's the real deal, flying debris and radiation will kill a lot of exposed (not all!) people within a half mile of the blast. Under perfect conditions this is about a half mile circle of death & destruction, but, when it's done it's done. EMP stands for Electro Magnetic Pulse & it will fry every electronic device for a good distance, it's impossible to say what & how far but probably not over a couple of miles from ground zero is a good guess. Cars, cell phones, computers, ATMs, you name it, all will be out of order.

There are lots of kinds of radiation, you only need to worry about three, the others you have lived with for years. You need to worry about "Ionizing radiation," these are little sub atomic particles that go whizzing along at the speed of light. They hit individual cells in your body, kill the nucleus & keep on going. That's how you get radiation poisoning, you have so many dead cells in your body that the decaying cells poison you. It's the same as people getting radiation treatments for cancer, only a bigger area gets radiated. The good news is you don't have to just sit there & take it there's lots you can do rather than panic. First; your skin will stop alpha particles, a page of a news paper or your clothing will stop beta particles, you just gotta try & avoid inhaling dust that's contaminated with atoms that are emitting these things & you'll be generally safe from them.

Gamma rays are particles that travel like rays (quantum physics makes my brain hurt) & they create the same damage as alpha & beta particles only they keep going & kill lots of cells as they go all the way through your body. It takes a lot to stop these things, lots of dense material, on the other hand it takes a lot of this to kill you. Your defense is as always to not panic.

Basic hygiene & normal preparation are your friends. All canned or frozen food is safe to eat. The radiation poisoning will not effect plants so fruits & vegetables are OK if there's no dust on em (rinse em off if there is). If you don't have running water& you need to collect rain water or use water from wherever, just let it sit for thirty minutes & skim off the water gently from the top. The dust with the bad stuff in it will settle & the remaining water can be used for the toilet which will still work if you have a bucket of water to pour in the tank.

Finally there's biological warfare. There's not much to cover here. Basic personal hygiene & sanitation will take you further than a million doctors. Wash your hands often, don't share drinks, food, sloppy kisses, etc., ... with strangers. Keep your garbage can with a tight lid on it, don't have standing water (like old buckets, ditches, or kiddie pools) laying around to allow mosquitoes breeding room. This stuff is carried by vectors, that is bugs, rodents & contaminated material. If biological warfare is so easy as the TV makes it sound, why has Saddam Hussein spent twenty years, millions & millions of dollars trying to get it right? If you're clean of person and home you eat well & are active you're gonna live.

Overall preparation for any terrorist attack is the same as you'd take for a big storm. If you want a gas mask, fine, go get one. I know this stuff & I'm not getting one & I told my Mom not to bother with one either (how's that for confidence). We have a week's worth of cash, several days worth of canned goods & plenty of soap & water. We don't leave stuff out to attract bugs or rodents so we don't have them.

These terrorist people can't conceive a nation this big with this much resources. These weapons are made to cause panic, terror & to demoralize. If we don't run around like sheep they won't use this stuff after they find out it's no fun. The government is going nuts over this stuff because they have to protect every inch of America. You've only gotta protect yourself.

Finally, there are millions of caveats to everything I wrote here & you can think up specific scenarios where my advice isn't the best. This letter is supposed to help the greatest number of people under the greatest number of situations. If you don't like my work, don't nit pick, just sit down & explain chemical, nuclear & biological warfare in a document around three pages long yourself.

This is how we the people of the United States can rob these people of their most desired goal, your terror.

Very interesting article. I wonder what provisions a person should take during a viral epidemic such as smallpox? I wonder if wearing hepa masks and gloves would help (that would look silly if I was the only one out there wearing them). But if it was eventually reported that there was an outbreak how could we protect ourselves? Any suggestions?

When I was a student at the Military Police Officer Advanced Course in '95, the MP School was collocated with the Chem School, at Ft. McClellan, AL. We had the opportunity to train in the Chemical Defense Training Facility (CDTF) with real nerve agent. Of course, there was considerable apprehension leading to the training, and rumors generally followed one of two tracks...

1. The agent used in the CDTF is deliberately diluted, and even in the unlikely event of accidental exposure, one would experience, at most, a bad headache. These rumors even went so far as to say that it was not uncommon to see cockroaches scurrying around, unfettered, in the facility.

2. This is some serious stuff...full strength, no holds barred.

We suited up and entered, and were led into the first room. "Dr. Doom," an NBC NCO in full TAPP Apron walked in with a few syringes suspended in a bed pan full of bleach. About two seconds after he walked in the room, the M8 alarms went off...If this stuff was diluted, then our detection equipment is extremely sensitive. If it was not diluted, then our chem-pro gear is pretty good, as I'm still here.

We were thoroughly debriefed and told to report to the post hospital immediately if we experienced any unusual symptoms in the following days...of course everyone in the class experienced headaches the next day, as everybody had deliberately strapped their protective mask as tight as they could.

The CS chamber was always a hoot after that one...

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