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The Real Deal About Nuclear, Bio, and Chemical Attacks |
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Modifying
one of the mantras of military training: The "Real" Deal about
Nuclear, Bio, and Chem Attacks Since the media has decided to scare everyone with predictions of chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare on our turf I decided to write a paper and keep things in their proper perspective. I am
a retired military weapons, munitions, and training expert. Lesson number
one: In the mid 1990's there were a series of nerve gas attacks on crowded
Japanese subway stations. Given
perfect conditions for an attack less than 10% of the people there were
injured (the injured were better in a few hours) and only one percent of
the injured died. 60 Minutes
once had a fellow telling us that one drop of nerve gas could kill a
thousand people, well he didn't tell you the thousand dead people per drop
was theoretical. Drill
Sergeants exaggerate how terrible this stuff was to keep the 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 novel about 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 not die.
This is far less scary than the media and their "Experts," make
it sound. Chemical Weapons
Chemical
weapons are categorized as Nerve, Blood, Blister, and Incapacitating
agents. Contrary to the hype of reporters and politicians they are not weapons of mass destruction they are "Area
denial," and terror weapons that don't destroy anything. When
you leave the area you almost always leave the risk. That's the
difference; you can leave the area and the risk; soldiers may have to stay
put and sit through it and that's why they need all that spiffy gear.
These are not gasses; they are vapors and/or air borne particles. The
agent must be delivered in sufficient quantity to kill/injure, and that
defines when/how it's used. Every day we have a morning and evening
inversion where "stuff," suspended in the air gets pushed down.
This inversion is why allergies (pollen) and air pollution are worst at
these times of the day. A
chemical attack will have its best
effect approximately one hour on either side of sunrise/sunset. Also,
being vapors and airborne particles they are heavier than air so they will
seek low places like ditches, basements and underground garages. This
stuff won't work when it's freezing, it doesn't last when it's hot, and
wind spreads it too thin too fast.
They've
got to get this stuff on you, or, get you to inhale it for it to work.
They also have to get the concentration of chemicals high enough to kill
or wound you. Too little and
it's nothing, too much and it's wasted. What I hope you've gathered by
this point is that a chemical
weapons attack that kills a lot of people is incredibly hard to do with
military grade agents and equipment so you can imagine how hard it will be
for terrorists. The more you know about this stuff the more you
realize how hard it is to use. We'll start by talking about nerve agents.
You have these in your house; plain old bug
killer (like Raid) is a nerve agent. All nerve agents work the same
way; they are cholinesterase inhibitors
that mess up the signals your nervous system uses to make your body
function. (Cholinesterase
is an enzyme of the blood, brain, and heart that decomposes acetylcholine
into acetic acid and choline suppressing its stimulatory effect on nerves;
Choline is an ammonia compound, i.e. a soluble ammonia derivative (amine)
that is found in animal and plant tissue and helps to prevent fat from
being deposited in the liver. Choline is also involved in the formation of
acetylcholine. Formula: C5H15NO2. [The
term Choline was established in
the Mid-19th century, coined from chole-
+ -ine; the term cholinesterase
was established in the Mid-20th century, coined from choline + esterase.]
It can harm you if you get it on your skin but it works best if they can
get you to inhale it. If you don't die in the first minute and you can
leave the area you're probably going to live. The military's antidote for
all nerve agents is atropine and pralidoxime
chloride. Neither one of these does anything to cure
the nerve agent, they send your body into overdrive to keep you alive for
five minutes, after that the agent is used up. Your best
protection is fresh air and staying calm. Listed
below are the symptoms for nerve agent poisoning.
If
the answer is yes: Calmly
(if you panic you breathe faster and inhale more air/poison) leave the
area and head up wind, or, outside. Fresh air is the best "right now
antidote". If you have a blob of liquid that looks like molasses or
Kayro syrup on you; blot it or scrape it off and away from yourself with
anything disposable. This stuff works based on 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 residue off the ground for while.
Remember they have to do all the work, they have to get the concentration
up and keep it up for several minutes while all you have to do is quit
getting it on you and quit breathing it by putting space between you and
the attack. Blood agents are cyanide or arsine which affects your blood's
ability to provide oxygen to your tissue. The scenario for attack would be
the same as nerve agent. Look for a pop or someone splashing/spraying
something and folks around there getting woozy/falling down. The telltale
smells are bitter almonds or garlic where it shouldn't be. The symptoms
are blue lips, blue under the fingernails, rapid breathing. The military's
antidote is amyl
nitride and just like nerve agent antidote it just keeps your body
working for five minutes till the toxins is used up. Fresh air is your
best individual chance. Blister
agents (distilled mustard) are so nasty that nobody wants to even handle
it let alone use it. It's almost impossible to handle safely and may have
delayed effect of up to 12 hours. The attack scenario is also limited to
the things you'd see from other chemicals. If you do get large, painful
blisters for no apparent reason, don't pop them, if you must, don't let
the liquid from the blister get on any other area, the stuff just 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 industrial chemical spills);
they are intended to make you panic, to terrorize you, to herd you like
sheep to the wolves. If there is an attack, leave the area and go upwind,
or to the sides of the wind stream. They have to get the stuff to you, and
on you. You're more likely to
be hurt by a drunk driver on any given day than be hurt by one of these
attacks. Your
odds get better if you leave the area. Soap, water, time, and fresh air
really deal this stuff a knock-out-punch. Don’t
let fears of an isolated attack rule your life! The
odds are really on your side. Nuclear Bombs
These
are the only weapons of mass destruction on earth. The effects of a
nuclear bomb are heat, blast, EMP (electromagnetic pulse), and radiation. If
you see a bright flash of light like the sun, where the sun isn't, fall
to the ground! The heat will be over in a second. Then there will be
two blast waves, one out going, and one on its way back. Don't stand up to
see what happened after the first wave; anything that's going to happen
will have happened in two full minutes. These will be low yield devices
and will not level whole cities. If
you live through the heat, blast, and initial burst of radiation, you'll
probably live for a very very long time. Radiation will not create
fifty foot tall women or giant ants and grass hoppers the size of tanks.
Any device used potentially by a terrorist will be at the most a 1 kiloton
bombs; that's the equivalent of 1,000 tons of TNT. Here's the real deal,
flying debris and radiation will kill a lot of exposed (not all!) people
within a half mile of the blast. Under perfect conditions this is about a
half mile circle of death and destruction, but, when it's done it's done.
EMP stands for Electro Magnetic Pulse and it will fry every electronic
device for a good distance, it's impossible to say what and how far but
probably not over a couple of miles from ground zero is a good guess.
Cars, cell phones, computers, ATMs, you name it, all will be out of order.
There
are lots of kinds of radiation; you only need to worry about three, the
others you have already lived with for years. You need to worry about Ionizing radiation, these
are little sub atomic particles that go whizzing along at the speed of
light. They hit individual cells in your body, kill the nucleus and keep
on going. That's how you get radiation poisoning; you have so many dead
cells in your body that the decaying cells poison you. It is the same as
people getting radiation treatments for cancer, only a bigger area gets
radiated. The good news is you don't have to just sit there and take it,
and there is much you can do rather than panic. First,
your skin will stop alpha particles, a page of a news paper or your
clothing will stop beta particles, you
just have to try to avoid inhaling dust that's contaminated with atoms
that are emitting these things and you'll be generally safe from them.
Gamma rays are particles that travel like rays (quantum physics makes my
brain hurt) and they create the same damage as alpha and beta particles
only they keep going and kill lots of cells as they go all the way through
your body. It takes a lot to stop these things, lots of dense material; on
the other hand it takes a lot of this to kill you. Your defense is as
always not to panic. Basic
hygiene and normal preparation are your friends. All canned or frozen food
is safe to eat. The radiation poisoning will not effect plants so fruits
and vegetables are OK if there is no dust on them (rinse them off if there
is). If you don't have potable running 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 gently from the top. The dust with the bad stuff in it
will settle and the remaining water can be used for the toilet which will
still work if you have a bucket of water to pour in the tank. Finally
there is Biological Warfare
There's
not much to cover here. Basic personal hygiene and sanitation will take
you further than a million doctors. Wash your hands often; don't share
drinks, food, sloppy kisses, etc. with strangers. Keep your garbage can
with a tight lid on it, don't have standing water (like old buckets,
ditches, or kiddy pools) laying around to allow mosquitoes breeding room.
This stuff is carried by vectors like bugs, rodents, and contaminated
material. If biological warfare would be as easy as the TV makes it sound,
why has Saddam Hussein spent twenty years, millions, and millions of
dollars trying to get it right? If you are clean of person and home you
eat well and are active, you're going to live. Overall preparations for
any terrorist attack are the same as you would prepare for a big storm. If
you want a gas mask, fine, go get one. I know this stuff and I'm not
getting one and I told my Mom not to bother with one either (how's that
for confidence). We have a week's worth of cash, several days’ worth of
canned goods and plenty of soap and water. We don't leave stuff out to
attract bugs or rodents so we don't have them. These people can't conceive
a nation this big with this much resources. These weapons are made to
cause panic, terror, and to demoralize. If we don't run around like sheep
they won't use this stuff once they find out it doesn’t have the
expected effects. The government is going nuts over this stuff because
they have to protect every inch of Finally,
there are millions of caveats to everything I wrote here and you can think
up specific scenarios where my advice isn't the best. This letter is
supposed to help the greatest number of people under the greatest number
of situations. If you don't like my work, don't nit pick, just sit down
and try explain chemical, nuclear, and biological warfare in a document
about three pages long yourself. This is how we the people of the |
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