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With all the scare tactics used by the media I
thought that this might be of interest to all. It is long so delete it if
you don't want to read it. Ira.
COMMON SENSE ON BIO AND CHEM HAZARDSSince the media has decided to
scare everyone with predictions of chemical,biological, or nuclear warfare
on our turf, I decided to write apaper and keep things in their proper
perspective. I am a retired militaryweapons, munitions, and training expert.
Lesson number one: In the mid1990's,there were a series of nerve gas
attacks on crowded Japanese subwaystations.Given perfect conditions for
an attack, less than 10% of the people therewere injured (the injured were
better in a few hours), and only one percentofthe injured
died.60 Minutes once had a fellow telling us that one drop of nerve gas
couldkilla thousand people; well, he didn't tell you the thousand dead
people perdropwas theoretical. Drill Sergeants exaggerate how terrible
this stuff is tokeepthe 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 novelabout this stuff, it was all a lie (read this
sentence again out loud)!These weapons are about terror; if you remain calm,
you will probably notdie.This is far less scary than the media and their
"experts" make it sound.Chemical weapons are categorized as Nerve,
Blood, Blister, andIncapacitating agents. Contrary to the hype of reporters
and politicians,they are not weapons of mass destruction; they are "area
denial," and terrorweapons that don't destroy anything. When you leave the
area youalmost always leave the risk. That's the difference; you can leave
the areaand the risk; soldiers may have to stay put and sit through it,
andthat's why they need all that spiffy gear.These are not gasses,
they are vapors and/or air borne particles. The agentmust be delivered in
sufficient quantity to kill/injure, and that defineswhen/how it's used.
Every day we have a morning and evening inversionwhere "stuff," suspended in
the air gets pushed down. This inversion iswhy allergies (pollen) and air
pollution are worst at these times of theday.So, a chemical attack
will have its best effect an hour of so either sideof sunrise/sunset. Also,
being vapors and airborne particles they areheavier than air so they will
seek low places like ditches, basements andunderground garages. This stuff
won't work when it's freezing, it doesn'tlast whenit's hot, and wind
spreads it too thin too fast. They've got to get thisstuff onyou, or get
you to inhale it for it to work.They also have to get the concentration
of chemicals high enough to kill orwound you. Too little and it's nothing,
too much and it's wasted. What Ihopeyou've gathered by this point is
that a chemical weapons attack that kills alot of people is incredibly hard
to do with military grade agents andequipment, so you can imagine how hard
it will be for terrorists. The moreyouknow about this stuff, the more
you realize how hard it is to use. We'llstartby talking about nerve
agents. You have these in your house: plain old bugkiller (like Raid) is
nerve agent. All nerve agents work the same way; theyare cholinesterase
inhibitors that mess up the signals your nervous systemusesto make your
body function. It can harm you if you get it on your skin, butitworks
best if they can get you to inhale it. If you don't die in the firstminute
and you can leave the area, you're probably gonna live.
Themilitary'santidote for all nerve agents is atropine and pralidoxime
chloride. Neitherone of these does anything to cure the nerve agent; they
send your body intooverdrive to keep you alive for five minutes. After that,
the agent is usedup.Your best protection is fresh air and staying
calm. Listed below are thesymptoms for nerve agent poisoning:Sudden
headache Dimness of vision (someone you're looking at will
havepinpointed pupils)Runny noseExcessive saliva or
droolingDifficulty breathingTightness in chestNauseaStomach
crampsTwitching of exposed skin where a liquid just got on youIf you
are in public and you start experiencing these symptoms, first askyourself,
did anything out of the ordinary just happen, a loud pop,
didsomeonespray something on the crowd? Are other people getting sick,
too? Is thereanodor of new mown hay, green corn, something fruity, or
camphor where itshouldn't be? If the answer is yes, then calmly (if you
panic, you breathefaster and inhale more air/poison) leave the area and head
up wind, oroutside. Fresh air is the best "right now antidote." If you have
a blob ofliquid that looks like molasses or Karo syrup on you, blot it or
scrape itoff and away from yourself with anything disposable. This stuff
works basedon your body weight. What a crop duster uses to kill bugs won't
hurt you,unless you stand there and breathe it in real deep, then lick the
residueoff the ground for while. Remember, they have to do all the work,
they havetoget the concentration up and keep it up for several minutes,
while all youhaveto do is quit getting it on you/quit breathing it by
putting space betweenyouand the attack.Blood agents are cyanide
or arsine which effect your blood's ability toprovideoxygen to your
tissue. The scenario for attack would be the same as nerveagent. Look for a
pop or someone splashing/spraying something andfolks around there getting
woozy/falling down. The telltalesmells are bitter almonds or garlic where it
shouldn't be. The symptoms areblue lips, blue under the fingernails, rapid
breathing. The military'santidote is amyl nitride and, just like nerve agent
antidote, it just keepsyour body working for five minutes till the toxins
are used up. Fresh airis the your best individual chance.Blister
agents (distilled mustard) are so nasty that nobody wants to evenhandle it,
let alone use it. It's almost impossible to handlesafely and may have
delayed effect of up to 12 hours. The attack scenario isalso limited to the
things you'd see from other chemicals. If you doget large, painful blisters
for no apparent reason, don't pop them; if youmust, don't let the liquid
from the blister get on any other area, the stuffjust keeps on spreading.
It's just as likely to harm the user as the target.Soap, water, sunshine,
and fresh air are this stuff's enemy.Bottom line on chemical weapons
(it's the same if they use industrialchemicalspills) -- they are
intended to make you panic, to terrorize you, to herdyou like sheep to the
wolves. If there is an attack, leave the area and goupwind, or to the sides
of the wind stream. They have to getthe stuff to you, and on you. You're
more likely to be hurt by a drunkdriveron any given day than be hurt by
one of these attacks. Your oddsget better if you leave the area. Soap,
water, time, and fresh air reallydealthis stuff a knock-out-punch. Don't
let fear of an isolated attackrule your life. The odds are really on your
side.Nuclear bombs. These are the only weapons of mass destruction on
earth. Theeffects 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, falltothe ground! The heat will be over in a second. Then there
will be twoblast waves, one out going, and one on the way back. Don't stand
up to seewhat happened after the first wave; anything that's going to
happenwill have happened in two full minutes. These will be low yield
devices andwill not level whole cities. If you live through the heat, blast,
andinitialburst of radiation, you'll probably live for a very, very long
time.Radiation will not create fifty foot tall women, or giant ants
andgrasshoppers thesize of tanks. These will be, at the most, one
kiloton bombs; that's theequivalentof 1,000 tons of TNT. Here's the real
deal, flying debris and radiation willkill a lot of exposed (not all!)
people within a half mile of the blast.Underperfect conditions, this is
about a half mile circle of death anddestruction,but when it's done,
it's done. EMP stands for Electro Magnetic Pulse and itwill fry every
electronic device for a good distance, it's impossible to saywhat and how
far but probably not over a couple of miles from ground zero isagood
guess. Cars, cell phones, computers, ATMs, you name it, all will be outof
order.There are lots of kinds of radiation. You only need to worry about
three,theothers you have lived with for years. You need to worry
about"ionizing radiation," little sub atomic particles that go whizzing
along atthe speed of light. They hit individual cells in your body, kill the
nucleusand keep on going. That's how you get radiation poisoning -- you have
somanydead cells in your body that the decaying cells poison you. It's
the same aspeople getting radiation treatments for cancer, only a bigger
area getsradiated. The good news is you don't have to just sit there and
take it, andthere's lots you can do rather than panic. First; your skin will
stop alphaparticles, a page of a news paper or your clothing will stop beta
particles.You just gotta try and avoid inhaling dust that's contaminated
with atomsthatare emitting these things and you'll be generally safe from
them.Gamma rays are particles that travel like rays (quantum physics
makes mybrain hurt), and they create the same damage as alpha andbeta
particles, only they keep going and kill lots of cells as they goalltheway
through your body. It takes a lot to stop these things, lots ofdense
material. On the other hand, it takes a lot of this to kill you.Your
defense is, as always, to not panic. Basic hygiene and
normalpreparationare your friends. All canned or frozen food are safe to
eat. The radiationpoisoning will not affect plants, so fruits and vegetables
are OK if there'sno dust on 'em (rinse 'em off if there is). If you don't
haverunning water and you need to collect rain water or use water from
wherever,just let it sit for thirty minutes and skim off the water
gentlyfrom the top. The dust with the bad stuff in it will settle and
theremaining water can be used for the toilet, which will still work if
youhave abucket of water to pour in the tank.Finally there's
biological warfare. There's not much to cover here. Basicpersonal hygiene
and sanitation will take you further than a milliondoctors. Wash your hands
often, don't share drinks, food, sloppy kisses,etc., ... with strangers.
Keep your garbage can with a tight lid onit, don't have standing water (like
old buckets, ditches, or kiddie pools)laying around to allow mosquitoes
breeding room. This stuff is carriedby vectors, that is, bugs, rodents, and
contaminated material. If biologicalwarfare is so easy as the TV makes it
sound, why has SaddamHussein spent twenty years, millions, and millions of
dollars trying to getitright? If you're clean of person and home, you
eat well and are active,you're gonna live.Overall preparation for
any terrorist attack is the same as you'd take for abig storm. If you want a
gas mask, fine, go get one. I know thisstuff and I'm not getting one and I
told my Mom not to bother with oneeither (how's that for confidence?). We
have a week's worth of cash, severaldaysworth of canned goods and plenty
of soap and water. We don't leave stuff outto attract bugs or rodents so we
don't have them.These people can't conceive a nation this big with this
much resources.Theseweapons are made to cause panic, terror, and to
demoralize. If we don't runaround like sheep, they won't use this stuff
after they find out it's nofun. The government is going nuts over this stuff
because they have toprotectevery inch of America. You've only gotta
protect yourself, and by doingthat, youhelp the country. Finally, there
are millions of caveats to everything Iwrote here and you can think up
specific scenarios where my advice isn't thebest.This letter is supposed
to help the greatest number of people under thegreatest number of
situations. If you don't like my work, don't nit pick,just sit down and
explain chemical, nuclear, and biological warfare in adocumentaround
three pages long yourself. This is how we, the people of the UnitedStates,
can rob these people of their most desired goal, your terror.SFC Red
Thomas (Ret), Armor Master Gunner, Mesa, AZUnlimited reproduction and
distribution is authorized.Just give me credit for my work, and, keep in
context.
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