Dear Readers,

SIRIUS is pleased to re-circulate this common-sense explanation of how you
should fear possible use of so-called weapons of mass destruction far less
than the networks suggest. When you have read this you will understand why
Al Qaeda and other terrorists much prefer a dramatic explosion.

Yes chemical and biological, even radiological weapons can be scary, until
you remember your science. As the author (a retired Army Sergeant First
Class) explains, though, it is very easy to protect yourself from their
effects. In most cases, warm soapy water provides sufficient protection;
with anthrax, you need anti-biotics.

One other point I'd like to add is that the threat of those Russian
"suitcase nukes" is zero; they've been accounted for, and have also passed
beyond their shelf-life. These small devices were designed to generate a
massive electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) effect in order to crash our computers,
telephones, electronics in general and the basic power grid.


18 February 2003

MILINET: COMMON SENSE ON BIO AND CHEM HAZARDS--A Reposting
By: SFC Red Thomas, USA (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 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
is 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 its 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 Karo 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 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 l t 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 in a second. Then there will be two blast waves, one
out going, and one on the 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, one 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," 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'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 are safe to eat. The
radiation poisoning will not affect plants, so fruits and vegetables are OK
if there's no dust on 'em (rinse 'em 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 in context."



  _____

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