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Hello ira,
very informative. thanks. the symptoms you mentioned--- "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 "
I have almost every day when the program trades hit the SP market :}
on a serious note, what about all those dead Kurds in those villages
in northern Iraq? They looked to me like the stuff is pretty lethal.
Best regards,
Jim Johnson mailto:jejohn@xxxxxxxxxxx
--
Friday, February 14, 2003, 6:35:15 PM, you wrote:
i> 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.
i> COMMON SENSE ON BIO AND CHEM HAZARDS
i> Since the media has decided to scare everyone with predictions of chemical,
i> biological, or nuclear warfare on our turf, I decided to write a
i> paper and keep things in their proper perspective. I am a retired military
i> weapons, munitions, and training expert. Lesson number one: In the mid
i> 1990's,
i> there were a series of nerve gas attacks on crowded Japanese subway
i> stations.
i> Given perfect conditions for an attack, less than 10% of the people there
i> were injured (the injured were better in a few hours), and only one percent
i> of
i> the injured died.
i> 60 Minutes once had a fellow telling us that one drop of nerve gas could
i> kill
i> a thousand people; well, he didn't tell you the thousand dead people per
i> drop
i> was theoretical. Drill Sergeants exaggerate how terrible this stuff is to
i> keep
i> the recruits awake in class (I know this because I was a Drill Sergeant,
i> too).
i> Forget everything you've ever seen on TV, in the movies, or read in a novel
i> about this stuff, it was all a lie (read this sentence again out loud)!
i> These weapons are about terror; if you remain calm, you will probably not
i> die.
i> This is far less scary than the media and their "experts" make it sound.
i> Chemical weapons are categorized as Nerve, Blood, Blister, and
i> Incapacitating agents. Contrary to the hype of reporters and politicians,
i> they are not weapons of mass destruction; they are "area denial," and terror
i> weapons that don't destroy anything. When you leave the area you
i> almost always leave the risk. That's the difference; you can leave the area
i> and the risk; soldiers may have to stay put and sit through it, and
i> that's why they need all that spiffy gear.
i> These are not gasses, they are vapors and/or air borne particles. The agent
i> must be delivered in sufficient quantity to kill/injure, and that defines
i> when/how it's used. Every day we have a morning and evening inversion
i> where "stuff," suspended in the air gets pushed down. This inversion is
i> why allergies (pollen) and air pollution are worst at these times of the
i> day.
i> So, a chemical attack will have its best effect an hour of so either side
i> of sunrise/sunset. Also, being vapors and airborne particles they are
i> heavier than air so they will seek low places like ditches, basements and
i> underground garages. This stuff won't work when it's freezing, it doesn't
i> last when
i> it's hot, and wind spreads it too thin too fast. They've got to get this
i> stuff on
i> you, or get you to inhale it for it to work.
i> They also have to get the concentration of chemicals high enough to kill or
i> wound you. Too little and it's nothing, too much and it's wasted. What I
i> hope
i> you've gathered by this point is that a chemical weapons attack that kills a
i> lot of people is incredibly hard to do with military grade agents and
i> equipment, so you can imagine how hard it will be for terrorists. The more
i> you
i> know about this stuff, the more you realize how hard it is to use. We'll
i> start
i> by talking about nerve agents. You have these in your house: plain old bug
i> killer (like Raid) is nerve agent. All nerve agents work the same way; they
i> are cholinesterase inhibitors that mess up the signals your nervous system
i> uses
i> to make your body function. It can harm you if you get it on your skin, but
i> it
i> works best if they can get you to inhale it. If you don't die in the first
i> minute and you can leave the area, you're probably gonna live. The
i> military's
i> antidote for all nerve agents is atropine and pralidoxime chloride. Neither
i> one of these does anything to cure the nerve agent; they send your body into
i> overdrive to keep you alive for five minutes. After that, the agent is used
i> up.
i> Your best protection is fresh air and staying calm. Listed below are the
i> symptoms for nerve agent poisoning:
i> Sudden headache Dimness of vision (someone you're looking at will have
i> pinpointed pupils)
i> Runny nose
i> Excessive saliva or drooling
i> Difficulty breathing
i> Tightness in chest
i> Nausea
i> Stomach cramps
i> Twitching of exposed skin where a liquid just got on you
i> If you are in public and you start experiencing these symptoms, first ask
i> yourself, did anything out of the ordinary just happen, a loud pop, did
i> someone
i> spray something on the crowd? Are other people getting sick, too? Is there
i> an
i> odor of new mown hay, green corn, something fruity, or camphor where it
i> shouldn't be? If the answer is yes, then calmly (if you panic, you breathe
i> faster and inhale more air/poison) leave the area and head up wind, or
i> outside. Fresh air is the best "right now antidote." If you have a blob of
i> liquid that looks like molasses or Karo syrup on you, blot it or scrape it
i> off and away from yourself with anything disposable. This stuff works based
i> on your body weight. What a crop duster uses to kill bugs won't hurt you,
i> unless you stand there and breathe it in real deep, then lick the residue
i> off the ground for while. Remember, they have to do all the work, they have
i> to
i> get the concentration up and keep it up for several minutes, while all you
i> have
i> to do is quit getting it on you/quit breathing it by putting space between
i> you
i> and the attack.
i> Blood agents are cyanide or arsine which effect your blood's ability to
i> provide
i> oxygen to your tissue. The scenario for attack would be the same as nerve
i> agent. Look for a pop or someone splashing/spraying something and
i> folks around there getting woozy/falling down. The telltale
i> smells are bitter almonds or garlic where it shouldn't be. The symptoms are
i> blue lips, blue under the fingernails, rapid breathing. The military's
i> antidote is amyl nitride and, just like nerve agent antidote, it just keeps
i> your body working for five minutes till the toxins are used up. Fresh air
i> is the your best individual chance.
i> Blister agents (distilled mustard) are so nasty that nobody wants to even
i> handle it, let alone use it. It's almost impossible to handle
i> safely and may have delayed effect of up to 12 hours. The attack scenario is
i> also limited to the things you'd see from other chemicals. If you do
i> get large, painful blisters for no apparent reason, don't pop them; if you
i> must, don't let the liquid from the blister get on any other area, the stuff
i> just keeps on spreading. It's just as likely to harm the user as the target.
i> Soap, water, sunshine, and fresh air are this stuff's enemy.
i> Bottom line on chemical weapons (it's the same if they use industrial
i> chemical
i> spills) -- they are intended to make you panic, to terrorize you, to herd
i> you like sheep to the wolves. If there is an attack, leave the area and go
i> upwind, or to the sides of the wind stream. They have to get
i> the stuff to you, and on you. You're more likely to be hurt by a drunk
i> driver
i> on any given day than be hurt by one of these attacks. Your odds
i> get better if you leave the area. Soap, water, time, and fresh air really
i> deal
i> this stuff a knock-out-punch. Don't let fear of an isolated attack
i> rule your life. The odds are really on your side.
i> Nuclear bombs. These are the only weapons of mass destruction on earth. The
i> effects of a nuclear bomb are heat, blast, EMP, and radiation.
i> If you see a bright flash of light like the sun, where the sun isn't, fall
i> to
i> the ground! The heat will be over in a second. Then there will be two
i> blast waves, one out going, and one on the way back. Don't stand up to see
i> what happened after the first wave; anything that's going to happen
i> will have happened in two full minutes. These will be low yield devices and
i> will not level whole cities. If you live through the heat, blast, and
i> initial
i> burst of radiation, you'll probably live for a very, very long time.
i> Radiation will not create fifty foot tall women, or giant ants and
i> grasshoppers the
i> size of tanks. These will be, at the most, one kiloton bombs; that's the
i> equivalent
i> of 1,000 tons of TNT. Here's the real deal, flying debris and radiation will
i> kill a lot of exposed (not all!) people within a half mile of the blast.
i> Under
i> perfect conditions, this is about a half mile circle of death and
i> destruction,
i> but when it's done, it's done. EMP stands for Electro Magnetic Pulse and it
i> will fry every electronic device for a good distance, it's impossible to say
i> what and how far but probably not over a couple of miles from ground zero is
i> a
i> good guess. Cars, cell phones, computers, ATMs, you name it, all will be out
i> of order.
i> There are lots of kinds of radiation. You only need to worry about three,
i> the
i> others you have lived with for years. You need to worry about
i> "ionizing radiation," little sub atomic particles that go whizzing along at
i> the speed of light. They hit individual cells in your body, kill the nucleus
i> and keep on going. That's how you get radiation poisoning -- you have so
i> many
i> dead cells in your body that the decaying cells poison you. It's the same as
i> people getting radiation treatments for cancer, only a bigger area gets
i> radiated. The good news is you don't have to just sit there and take it, and
i> there's lots you can do rather than panic. First; your skin will stop alpha
i> particles, a page of a news paper or your clothing will stop beta particles.
i> You just gotta try and avoid inhaling dust that's contaminated with atoms
i> thatare emitting these things and you'll be generally safe from them.
i> Gamma rays are particles that travel like rays (quantum physics makes my
i> brain hurt), and they create the same damage as alpha and
i> beta particles, only they keep going and kill lots of cells as they go
i> alltheway through your body. It takes a lot to stop these things, lots of
i> dense material. On the other hand, it takes a lot of this to kill you.
i> Your defense is, as always, to not panic. Basic hygiene and normal
i> preparation
i> are your friends. All canned or frozen food are safe to eat. The radiation
i> poisoning will not affect plants, so fruits and vegetables are OK if there's
i> no dust on 'em (rinse 'em off if there is). If you don't have
i> running water and you need to collect rain water or use water from wherever,
i> just let it sit for thirty minutes and skim off the water gently
i> from the top. The dust with the bad stuff in it will settle and the
i> remaining water can be used for the toilet, which will still work if you
i> have a
i> bucket of water to pour in the tank.
i> Finally there's biological warfare. There's not much to cover here. Basic
i> personal hygiene and sanitation will take you further than a million
i> doctors. Wash your hands often, don't share drinks, food, sloppy kisses,
i> etc., ... with strangers. Keep your garbage can with a tight lid on
i> it, don't have standing water (like old buckets, ditches, or kiddie pools)
i> laying around to allow mosquitoes breeding room. This stuff is carried
i> by vectors, that is, bugs, rodents, and contaminated material. If biological
i> warfare is so easy as the TV makes it sound, why has Saddam
i> Hussein spent twenty years, millions, and millions of dollars trying to get
i> it
i> right? If you're clean of person and home, you eat well and are active,
i> you're gonna live.
i> Overall preparation for any terrorist attack is the same as you'd take for a
i> big storm. If you want a gas mask, fine, go get one. I know this
i> stuff and I'm not getting one and I told my Mom not to bother with one
i> either (how's that for confidence?). We have a week's worth of cash, several
i> days
i> worth of canned goods and plenty of soap and water. We don't leave stuff out
i> to attract bugs or rodents so we don't have them.
i> These people can't conceive a nation this big with this much resources.
i> These
i> weapons are made to cause panic, terror, and to demoralize. If we don't run
i> around like sheep, they won't use this stuff after they find out it's no
i> fun. The government is going nuts over this stuff because they have to
i> protect
i> every inch of America. You've only gotta protect yourself, and by doing
i> that, you
i> help the country. Finally, there are millions of caveats to everything I
i> wrote here and you can think up specific scenarios where my advice isn't the
i> best.
i> This letter is supposed to help the greatest number of people under the
i> greatest number of situations. If you don't like my work, don't nit pick,
i> just sit down and explain chemical, nuclear, and biological warfare in a
i> document
i> around three pages long yourself. This is how we, the people of the United
i> States, can rob these people of their most desired goal, your terror.
i> SFC Red Thomas (Ret), Armor Master Gunner, Mesa, AZ
i> Unlimited reproduction and distribution is authorized.
i> Just give me credit for my work, and, keep in context.
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