Bio Nukes and Chemical Attacks

[Guest guest]

This came into my email. I do not know if it is true but thought was interesting all the same-

Coyote

 

 

The "Real" Deal about Nuclear, Bio, and Chem Attacks

by SFC Red Thomas (Ret)

 

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 1990s 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 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.

 

So, a chemical attack will have it's best effect an hour of so 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 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. 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 gonna 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.

 

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.

 

If you are in public and you start experiencing these symptoms, first ask

yourself, did anything out of the ordinary just happen, a loud pop, did someone

spray something on the crowd? Are other people getting sick too? Is there an

odor of new mown hay, green corn, something fruity, or camphor where it

shouldn't be?

 

If the answer is yes, then 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/quit

breathing it by putting space between you and the attack.

 

Blood agents are cyanide or arsine which effect 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 are used up. Fresh air is the 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

fear 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, 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 a second. Then there will be two blast waves, one out

going, and one on it's 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 grasshoppers the size of tanks. These will be at the most 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 lived with for years. You need to worry about "Ionizing

radiation," these are little subatomic 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's 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's lots 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 gotta try and 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 to not 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's no

dust on them (rinse them off if there is). If you don't have 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's 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 kiddie pools) laying around to allow

mosquitoes breeding room. This stuff is carried by vectors, that is bugs,

rodents, and contaminated material. If biological warfare is so 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're clean of person and home

you eat well and are active, you're gonna live.

 

Overall preparation for any terrorist attack is the same as you'd take 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 after they find out it's no fun.

The government is going nuts over this stuff because they have to protect every

inch of America. You've only gotta protect yourself, and by doing that, you

help the country.

 

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

explain chemical, nuclear, and biological warfare in a document around three

pages long yourself. This is how we the people of the United States can rob

these people of their most desired goal, your terror.

 

SFC Red Thomas (Ret)

Armor Master Gunner

Mesa, AZ

 

Unlimited reproduction and distribution is authorized. Just give me credit for

my work, and, keep it in context.

 

(Everything I learned in 40 years in Emergency Management leads me to believe

that what SFC Thomas says is correct. Hope it helps you have some piece of

mind. Steve LeBoutillier)