INFORMATION REGARDING TERRORIST ATTACKS

You should not live in fear.  Here is some good information about
nuclear biological and chemical threats.  Potential terrorism is
reported with increasing frequency. Anthrax, threatened smallpox and
other attacks have scared the nation. People hope their symptoms are the
flu, not anthrax. Eighteen people so far have died from anthrax; 20,000
will die this year from the flu.  Since the media has decided to scare
everyone with predictions of chemical, biological or nuclear warfare on
out turf, the truth will help dispel fear, keep things in their proper
perspective, and allow you to concentrate on the real danger and the
things that you can control.

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 1% of the injured died.

A 60 Minutes program once had a fellow telling us that one drop of nerve gas 
could kill a thousand people; what he didn't say was that the thousand
dead people per drop was theoretical.

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.  These are not gasses, they are vapors
and/or airborne 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 the worst at these times of the day. So, a chemical attack will have
its best effect an hour or 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.  This stuff has to get on you, or
you must 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 you have probably 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.

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 impair 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'll
probably 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.  Here 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, didsomeone 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 immediate 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 deeply, then repeatedly lick the residue off the ground.

Remember,they have to do all the work, 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 affect 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 and rapid breathing.  The
military's antidote is amyl nitride, and just like nerve agent antidote,
it just keeps your body working for five minutes until the toxins are
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 effects 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.

The bottom line on chemical weapons (it's the same if they use industrial 
chemical spills)is that they are intended to make you panic, to terrorize 
you.  If there is an attack, leave the area and go upwind, or to the sides 
of the wind current.  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 really  are on your 
side.

Nuclear bombs 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 in a second.  Then there will be two blast waves, one 
outgoing 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.