Posted on 10/05/2001 5:28:17 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
TOP SCIENTISTS WARNS OF BIOLOGICLE WAR THREAT
What are the signs that a poison gas attack (or a chemical accident) might be taking place?
One of the many unsettling characteristics of chemical agents is that some of them cannot be seen or smelled. Citizens can protect themselves by observing the following rule of thumb: If a single person is on the ground, choking or seizing, it is likely this individual is having a heart attack or some sort of seizure. However, if several people are down, coughing, vomiting, or seizing, they could be reacting to the presence of a toxic substance. Evacuate the area immediately and dial 911, making sure to tell the dispatcher that a hazardous gas may be present.
Indoors: If indoors, exit the building as rapidly as possible. Once outside, if you believe that you may have been exposed to the toxic substance, discarding your modesty and shedding your clothes could save your life. Taking off your outer clothing can remove roughly 80 percent of the contamination hazard. Look for a nearby fountain, pool, or other source of water so that you can quickly and thoroughly rinse any skin that may have been exposed (e.g., jump in the pool). Studies show that water alone is an effective decontaminant. Rescuers will arrive within minutes, and firefighters will hook up hoses and spray everyone to decontaminate them. Try to remain calm. Rescuers will triage everyone so that they can give medical attention to the most seriously affected individuals first. Even if you are showing no symptoms of exposure (e.g., eye problems), paramedics and physicians on scene will want to give you a check-up and advise you about follow-up care. Police officers will also want to speak with you about what you may have observed that could help them catch the individual(s) responsible.
Outdoors: Birds and other small animals would very quickly be overcome by a poison gas, so if birds are dropping from the sky, that is another warning sign of toxic trouble. The most important thing to do is to get a physical barrier between you and the toxic cloud. Get indoors quickly--preferably into a building but even being inside a car will help. Shut all windows and doors and turn off the air conditioner. Try to plug any air drafts (e.g., under doors). This technique is known as sheltering in place. Call 911 and notify authorities that a hazardous gas may be present. If that is indeed the case, the wind will carry the toxic hazard away within a relatively short period of time. Stay indoors, and turn on the television and/or radio for news and announcements. Authorities will notify you when it is safe to go outside. If you are at home, put your clothes in a plastic bag and take a shower, which will help remove any contamination that might have occurred before you were able to get indoors.
Should citizens buy gas masks?
The chances that terrorists will turn to poisonous substances instead of conventional bombs are very, very remote. However, if it makes you feel better to purchase a gas mask, by all means, go ahead. Please make sure that you are properly fitted---a loose gas mask defeats the purpose. Also, please ensure that you are properly instructed in the use of the mask.
Personally, I do not carry a gas mask with me. I take the subway to and from work daily, and I continue to go to meetings and other events in large buildings.
Note also that the only nation that has ever issued gas masks to all of its citizens is the state of Israel.
What are the signs of a biological attack?
By now, the media has repeatedly broadcast that biological agents can be dispersed from commercial sprayers, such as crop dusters. Often omitted from these reports is the fact that, among other complications, commercial equipment would have to be modified for such an attack strategy to have a chance of success.
Still, crop dusters are out of place over cities, and the FBI has already placed restrictions about where they can fly. Were I to see one over a metropolitan area, I would immediately go indoors, shut all windows and doors, turn off the air conditioner, and notify authorities. The same would hold true for any other unusual spraying activities. For instance, a person tending a rooftop garden would not raise my suspicions, but an individual deliberately spraying a substance from a rooftop, or a truck dispersing a misty substance through side vents, would.
Keep in mind that occasionally local authorities employ helicopters and other means to spray approved pesticides to control mosquitoes and other pests. Officially sanctioned spraying activities are announced well in advance, repeatedly. A call to local authorities can confirm whether any spraying that you might observe would fall into that category.
What can citizens do to protect themselves from a possible biological disaster?
Frankly, it may not be apparent that a biological agent has been dispersed until people begin falling ill several days later . For most biological agents, the initial symptoms would resemble a flu-like malaise. Across the nation, local, state, and federal authorities are putting capabilities in place to improve the ability to detect abnormal public health problems rapidly---to distinguish between multiple cases of the flu or a possible biological agent attack.
As the normal cold and flu season rolls around in the next few months, please do not jump to the conclusion that you have been infected with a biowarfare agent if you begin to feel achy or have the sniffles. In fact, people catch colds throughout the year. You are more likely to get hit by lightning than to be the victim of a bioterrorist attack.
If, however, you hear reports that a biological agent may have just been released, stay indoors or get indoors right away, shut all windows and doors, and turn off the air conditioning system. The most worrisome method of biological agent dissemination is aerosol dispersal. For a biowarfare aerosol to make you ill, microscopic particles must find their way into your lungs. Therefore, putting a physical barrier in between you and a possible aerosol cloud is a key self-protection step.
Of course, a gas mask can provide excellent respiratory protection. Alternately, a surgical mask or one of the respiratory protection masks recommended for various construction and laboratory tasks would help to screen out particulate matter that might be in the air. To protect your airway, masks need to be fitted snugly over the mouth and nose.
The Army Handbook on Medical Management of Biological Casualties recommends that medical personnel attending patients infected with most biowarfare agents employ what is known as "standard precautions." This term essentially means wearing a surgical mask and gloves. Standard precautions are effective against anthrax, brucellosis, Q fever, tularemia, viral encephalitis, botulinum toxin, and Staphylococcal enterotoxin b.
Should citizens stockpile antibiotics?
NO. Keeping a stockpile of antibiotics is, in short, a bad idea. While antibiotics would be used to treat individuals who might fall ill during a disease outbreak, the use of these medications should always be done at the direction of a physician. People who self-medicate themselves or their children could very well do more harm than good. Overuse of antibiotics, as well as their misuse (to treat illnesses such as colds), is harmful as it reduces the ability of these drugs to work in serious health emergencies.
The US government keeps a cache of antibiotics and other medical supplies that can arrive in an area in which an outbreak has occurred within 12 hours.
What precautions can citizens take with their water supply?
Poisoning of a city's water supply is much more easily said than done. However, citizens can protect themselves by boiling their drinking water, which will kill any microorganisms that may have survived the municipal filtration systems. Another option is to use a personal water filtration system.
Where should citizens turn for instructions in the event of a chemical or biological disaster?
The electronic and print media can be very useful sources of information, especially when events are developing at a rapid pace. However, reporters can occasionally pass along faulty or inaccurate information. Local, state, and national public health, public safety, and emergency management officials would be the most reliable sources of information. As soon as the circumstances are understood, these officials will call press conferences to convey accurate information and instructions to the public. Subsequent press conferences will be called as frequently as possible to update the public about the steps that local, state, and federal government organizations are taking to address the situation and what individuals can do to help themselves and their fellow citizens. In a genuine disaster, the Emergency Broadcast System would also probably be employed to give instructions to citizens.
By the time the Army got through training me on all this stuff, spare me the chem and bio, and hope I die quick when the nukes blow.
Armies have the means of effectively delivering and defending against bio and chemical agents, but terrorists and civilians do not. On the battlefield, it is also reletively easy to identify threats or receive warning of such (in the gulf war everybody spent most of their time in thier MOP suits and had to put their masks on everytime radar picked up a missle or aircraft headed torwards our troops - which was the only way to be sure they would have time to done their masks - trained to do so as they were).
And like I said, I spent 48 hours in a gas mask once. I'd rather just take a deep gulp of Sarin Nerve Gas than go through that pain again. All this Bio/Chem war talk is a bunch of crap.
My God! Now they're putting it in ice cream!
--Boris
Did you read "Alas, Babylon"?...Had some good ideas, if you plan ahead.
If trained soldiers, in controlled excercises, with the best equipment available can't be garanteed survival, what good is an Army Surplus mask going to do you? None. Unless you are going up against riot police armed with CS or you plan to smoke dope with it.
The dead giveaway is when the Good Humor man is wearing a RAG on his head.
One nuke is not the end of the world. Its time to survive.
Yikes, we may be in deep caca.
"Either restore the proper Allah, or get ready for a holy war." - Wiliam F. Buckley Jr., October 2, 2001.
In a major attack, civilians will probably need to be wary of water supplies (as troops and civilians commonly share the same sources) and collateral fallout.
Simple precautions such as wearing a surgical mask/paint mask will filter the generally large 1 to 8 micron biological agents, most aerosols, and the majority of radioactive dust. Boiling water and trapping the steam in a clean rag, then drinking only the water that can be wrung out of the rag can usually suffice for all non-primary target areas, too.
Avoiding dust in the aftermath will aid survival percentages, too.
Of course, none of the above will even approach 100% effectiveness. Those simple steps will reduce casualties, hower.
After that, sanitary conditions, safe food, and avoiding contaminated or roving mobs will be necessary.
But in truth, it is unlikely to ever reach such a point. At least here. I'd have to say that those living in Asia, Persia, Africa, or the Middle-East would have a higher chance of facing full-scale NBC warfare. Not only do those areas have more than their share of hated nutcases out to do each other in, but they also have to deal with the repercussions of pushing either the U.S. or Russia too far.
Got some spare rechargeable batteries for your shortwave radio? Might be the only way to get instructions if the power grid collapses; Internet sure won't be there. Got a way to heat a can of Spam and a pan of noodles when the power goes out for a few years? Got a can of Spam to heat? How about a shelter to hunker down in for a couple of years until it's safe to go outdoors? All that Civil Defense preparation in the 50s was for good reason, and that reason never went away. You were there, as was I. Unless somebody is vaporized, they have a responsibility to survive if possible. Refrigerators might be pretty low on the list of important things.
Cite:
If it is just one nuclear device, then the survivors will be moving to the communities nearby. Those communities will have a huge problem coping with a flood of refugees. If everybody prepares to some degree now, we'll do a lot better in the aftermath. Even if we are 1/2 a continent away we'll be affected to some degree. If there are 2, it won't be twice as bad, it will be extremely dislocating. If there are 4, or 8, or more . . . We're not talking suitcase nukes, we have to think of the real nukes, the big ones.
The maps are eleven years old, and reflect the Soviet Union's projected targeting of the US.
Interesting only as a historical "what-if".
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