Posted on 01/27/2011 1:19:40 PM PST by FredJake
The Blaze reports Thursday that Dugway Proving Ground, an Army base about 85 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, was locked down for several hours because a small amount of toxic nerve gas was unaccounted for.
According to a statement released by the Army, less than a quarter teaspoon of deadly VX nerve agent went missing.
VX, the most toxic nerve agent ever developed, is an odorless, colorless, tasteless liquid that can kill within 15 minutes of exposure, according to a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS).
The agent, first developed in 1952, has been designated a "weapon of mass destruction."
VX is the chemical agent that was discovered in Iraq and reportedly destroyed in 1999.
Exposure can come in many forms - inhalation, ingestion or it can soak into the skin.
According to The Blaze, the agent "affects the body’s ability to carry messages through the nerves," however, death usually results from respiratory failure.
Early symptoms of exposure by skin contact include twitching of the muscles or sweating at the area of exposure followed by nausea or vomiting. Some of the early symptoms of a VX vapor exposure to nerve agent may include a runny nose and/or tightness in the chest with shortness of breath.
The Army reported, however, that the missing vial was found early Thursday and no one was in danger
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Sounds like an accounting error. (Nothing was actually missing)
What? I thought Bush was lying about Iraq and WMDs?
I thought I smelled something. Must’ve been a false alarm.
With a Threshold Limit Value (TLV)of 0.00001mg/m3, that's more than enough.
And no, that's not classified, the MSDS is on several military websites.
If you could smell it, you’d alrady be dead.
First, I would check the ID’s of every member of the contracted janitorial staff.
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