{"article":{"id":31362,"heading":"chemical and biological weapons are not &quot;weapons of mass distruction&quot;.","author":"SFC Red Thomas (Ret)","created":"2003-02-26 03:29:55","modified":"2003-02-26 03:29:55","last_modified":"Wed, 26 Feb 2003 10:29:55","article":"<p>From my website:\r\nhttp:\/\/vc50er3.home.attbi.com\/\r\n\r\n\r\n--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Chem Bio Words of Wisdom\r\n\r\n Since the media has decided to scare everyone with predictions of\r\nchemical,\r\n biological, or nuclear warfare on our turf, I decided to write a paper and\r\n keep things in their proper perspective.\r\n\r\n I am a retired military weapons, munitions, and training expert. Lesson\r\n number one: In the mid 1990s there were a series of nerve gas attacks on\r\n crowded Japanese subway stations. Given perfect conditions for an attack,\r\n less than 10% of the people there were injured (the injured were better in\r\na\r\n few hours) and only one percent of the injured died. 60 Minutes once had a\r\n fellow telling us that one drop of nerve gas could kill a thousand people.\r\n\r\n Well, he didn't tell you the thousand dead people per drop was\r\ntheoretical.\r\n \r\n Drill sergeants exaggerate how terrible this stuff is to keep the\r\nrecruits\r\n awake in class (I know this because I was a drill sergeant, too). Forget\r\n everything you've ever seen on TV, in the movies, or read in a novel\r\nabout\r\n this stuff; it was all a lie (read this sentence again, out loud!). These\r\n weapons are about terror. If you remain calm, you will probably not die.\r\n \r\n This is far less scary than the media and their \"experts\" make it sound.\r\n \r\n Chemical weapons are categorized as Nerve, Blood, Blister, and\r\n Incapacitating agents Contrary to the hype of reporters and politicians,\r\n they are not weapons of mass destruction; they are \"area denial,\" and\r\n terror weapons that don't destroy anything. When you leave the area, you\r\n almost always leave the risk. That's the difference; you can leave the\r\narea\r\n and the risk. Soldiers may have to stay put and sit through it, and\r\nthat's\r\n why they need all that spiffy gear. These are not gasses, they are vapors\r\n and\/or air borne particles. The agent must be delivered in sufficient\r\n quantity to injure, and that defines when\/how it's used.\r\n \r\n Every day we have a morning and evening inversion where \"stuff\" suspended\r\n in the air gets pushed down. This inversion is why allergies (pollen) and\r\n air pollution are worst at these times of the day. So, a chemical attack\r\n will have its best effect an hour or so either side of sunrise\/sunset.\r\n Also, being vapors and airborne particles, they are heavier than air so\r\n they will seek low places like ditches, basements and underground\r\ngarages.\r\n This stuff won't work when it's freezing, it doesn't last when it's hot,\r\n and wind spreads it too thin too fast.\r\n \r\n They've got to get this stuff on you or get you to inhale it for it to\r\n work.\r\n \r\n They also have to get the concentration of chemicals high enough to kill\r\nor\r\n wound you. Too little and it's nothing, too much and it's wasted. What I\r\n hope you've gathered by this point is that a chemical weapons attack that\r\n kills a lot of people is incredibly hard to do with military grade agents\r\n and equipment, so you can imagine how hard it will be for terrorists.\r\n \r\n The more you know about this stuff, the more you realize how hard it is\r\nto\r\n use. We'll start by talking about nerve agents. You have these in your\r\n house; plain old bug killer (like Raid) is a nerve agent. All nerve\r\nagents\r\n work the same way: they are cholinesterase inhibitors that mess up the\r\n signals your nervous system uses to make your body function. It can harm\r\n you if you get it on your skin, but it works best if they can get you to\r\n inhale it. If you don't die in the first minute and you can leave the\r\narea,\r\n you're probably going to live. The military's antidote for all nerve\r\nagents\r\n is atropine and pralidoxime chloride. Neither one of these does anything\r\nto\r\n cure the nerve agent; they send your body into overdrive to keep you\r\nalive\r\n for five minutes. After that, the agent is used up. Your best protection\r\nis\r\n fresh air and staying calm. The symptoms for nerve agent poisoning are\r\n sudden headache, dimness of vision (someone you're looking at will have\r\n pinpointed pupils), runny nose, excessive saliva or drooling, difficulty\r\n breathing, tightness in chest, nausea, stomach cramps, twitching of\r\nexposed\r\n skin where a liquid just got on you. If you are in public and you start\r\n experiencing these symptoms, first ask yourself: Did anything out of the\r\n ordinary just happen (such as a loud pop)? Did someone spray something on\r\n the crowd? Are other people getting sick too? Is there an odor of\r\nnew-mown\r\n hay, green corn, something fruity, or camphor where it shouldn't be? If\r\nthe\r\n answer is yes, then calmly (if you panic, you breathe faster and inhale\r\n more air\/poison) leave the area and head up wind or outside. Fresh air is\r\n the best \"right now antidote.\" If you have a blob of liquid that looks\r\nlike\r\n molasses or Karo syrup on you, blot it or scrape it off and away from\r\n yourself with anything disposable. This stuff works based on your body\r\n weight; what a crop duster uses to kill bugs won't hurt you unless you\r\n stand there and breathe it in real deep, then lick the residue off the\r\n ground for while. Remember, they have to do all the work, they have to\r\nget\r\n the concentration up and keep it up for several minutes while all you\r\nhave\r\n to do is quit getting it on you\/quit breathing it by putting space\r\nbetween\r\n you and the attack. Blood agents are cyanide or arsine which affect your\r\n blood's ability to provide oxygen to your tissues. The scenario for\r\nattack\r\n would be the same as a nerve agent. Look for a \"pop\" or someone\r\n splashing\/spraying something and whether folks around you are getting\r\n woozy\/falling down. The telltale smells are bitter almonds or garlic\r\nwhere\r\n they shouldn't be. The symptoms are blue lips, blue under the\r\nfingernails,\r\n rapid breathing. The military's antidote is amyl nitride, and just like\r\n nerve agent antidote it just keeps your body working for five minutes\r\nuntil\r\n the toxins are used up.\r\n \r\n Fresh air is your best individual chance. Blister agents (distilled\r\n mustard)\r\n \r\n are so nasty that nobody wants to handle them let alone use them. It's\r\n almost impossible to handle safely and may have a delayed effect of up to\r\n 12 hours. The attack scenario is also limited to the things you'd see\r\nfrom\r\n other chemicals.\r\n \r\n If you do get large, painful blisters for no apparent reason, don't pop\r\n them, and if you must, don't let the liquid from the blister get on any\r\n other area; the stuff just keeps on spreading. It's just as likely to\r\nharm\r\n the user as the target. Soap, water, sunshine, and fresh air are this\r\n stuff's enemy. Bottom line on chemical weapons: they are intended to make\r\n you panic, to terrorize you, to herd you like sheep to the wolves. If\r\nthere\r\n is an attack, leave the area and go upwind or to the sides of the wind\r\n stream. They have to get the stuff to you and on you. Your odds get\r\nbetter\r\n if you leave the area. Soap, water, time, and fresh air really deal this\r\n stuff a knock-out-punch. Don't let fear of an isolated attack rule your\r\n life. The odds are really on your side. Nuclear bombs. These are the only\r\n weapons of mass destruction on earth. The effects of a nuclear bomb are\r\n heat, blast, EMP, and radiation. If you see a bright flash of light like\r\n the sun, where the sun isn't, fall to the ground! The heat will be over\r\nin\r\n a second. Then there will be two blast waves, one out going and one on\r\nits\r\n way back. Don't stand up to see what happened after the first wave;\r\n anything that's going to happen will have happened in two full minutes.\r\n These will be low yield devices and will not level whole cities. If you\r\n live through the heat, blast, and initial burst of radiation, you'll\r\n probably live for a very very long time. Radiation will not create fifty\r\n foot tall women, or giant ants and grass hoppers the size of tanks. These\r\n will be at the most 1 kiloton bombs; that's the equivalent of 1,000 tons\r\nof\r\n TNT. Here's the real deal, flying debris and radiation will kill a lot of\r\n exposed (not all) people within a half mile of the blast.\r\n \r\n Under perfect conditions, this is about a half mile circle of death and\r\n destruction, but when it's done, it's done. EMP stands for\r\nElectromagnetic\r\n Pulse, and it will fry every electronic device for a good distance. It's\r\n impossible to say how far, but probably not over a couple of miles from\r\n ground zero is a good guess. Cars, cell phones, computers, ATMs, you name\r\n it, all will be out of order.\r\n \r\n There are lots of kinds of radiation, but you only need to worry about\r\n three; the others you have lived with for years. You need to worry about\r\n \"Ionizing radiation,\" subatomic particles that go whizzing along at the\r\n speed of light, hitting individual cells in your body. They kill the\r\n nucleus and keep on going. That's how you get radiation poisoning; you\r\nhave\r\n so many dead cells in your body that the decaying cells poison you. It's\r\n the same as people getting radiation treatments for cancer, only a bigger\r\n area gets radiated. The good news is you don't have to just sit there and\r\n take it, and here's lots you can do rather than panic. First, your skin\r\n will stop alpha particles, a page of a newspaper or your clothing will\r\nstop\r\n beta particles, and if you avoid inhaling dust that's contaminated with\r\n atoms that are emitting these things, you'll be generally safe from\r\nthem..\r\n Gamma rays are particles that travel like rays (quantum physics makes my\r\n brain hurt), and they create the same damage as alpha and beta particles,\r\n only they keep going and kill lots of cells as they go all the way\r\nthrough\r\n your body.\r\n \r\n It takes a lot to stop these things, lots of dense material. On the other\r\n hand, it takes a lot of this to kill you. Your defense is, as always, to\r\n not panic. Basic hygiene and normal preparation are your friends. All\r\n canned or frozen food is safe to eat. The radiation poisoning will not\r\n affect plants, so fruits and vegetables are okay if there's no dust on\r\nthem\r\n (rinse them off if there is). If you don't have running water and you\r\nneed\r\n to collect rain water or use water from wherever, just let it sit for\r\n thirty minutes and skim off the water gently from the top. The dust with\r\n the bad stuff in it will settle and the remaining water can be used for\r\nthe\r\n toilet, which will still work if you have a bucket of water to pour in\r\nthe\r\n tank.\r\n \r\n Finally there's biological warfare. There's not much to cover here. Basic\r\n personal hygiene and sanitation will take you farther than a million\r\n doctors. Wash your hands often, don't share drinks, food, sloppy kisses,\r\n etc., with strangers. Keep your garbage can with a tight lid on it, don't\r\n have standing water (like old buckets, ditches, or kiddie pools) lying\r\n around to allow mosquitoes breeding room. This stuff is carried by\r\nvectors,\r\n that is, bugs, rodents, and contaminated material. If biological warfare\r\nis\r\n as easy as the media makes it sound, why has Saddam Hussein spent twenty\r\n years and millions and millions of dollars trying to get it right? If\r\n you're clean of person and home, you eat well, and you're active you're\r\n going to live.\r\n \r\n Overall preparation for any terrorist attack is the same as you'd take\r\nfor\r\n a big storm. If you want a gas mask, fine, go get one. I know this stuff\r\n and I'm not getting one and I told my mom not to bother with one either\r\n (how's that for confidence). We have a week's worth of cash, several\r\ndays'\r\n worth of canned goods, and plenty of soap and water. We don't leave stuff\r\n out to attract bugs or rodents, so we don't have them. These people can't\r\n conceive of a nation this big with this many resources. These weapons are\r\n made to cause panic, terror, and to demoralize us. If we don't run around\r\n like sheep, they won't use this stuff after they find out it's no fun.\r\nThe\r\n government is going nuts over this stuff because they have to protect\r\nevery\r\n inch of America. You've only got to protect yourself, and by doing that,\r\n you help the country.\r\n \r\n Finally, there are millions of caveats to everything I wrote here and you\r\n can think up specific scenarios where my advice isn't the best. This\r\nletter\r\n is supposed to help the greatest number of people under the greatest\r\nnumber\r\n of situations. If you don't like my work, don't nitpick, just sit down\r\nand\r\n explain chemical, nuclear, and biological warfare in a document around\r\n three pages long yourself. This is how we the people of the United States\r\n can rob these people of their most desired goal, your terror.\r\n \r\n SFC Red Thomas (Ret)\r\n \r\n Armor Master Gunner Mesa, AZ\r\n \r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"vc50er@hotmail.com","link":"http:\/\/vc50er3.home.attbi.com\/","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Chemical and biological weapons are not weapons of mass distruction.\r\nThey are not very effective weapons.  Far less effective than a 2,000 pounder.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2003\/02\/31362.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}