This weekend I attended yet another lecture on Bio/Chem/Nuke terrorism and that maybe changed my mind about the entire ordeal a bit. Mix it with my EMT Bio/Chem. response training and Army training I came to some conclusions.

-in order to properly use equipment you need training and you have to maintain your skills.
-equipment has to be maintained and that's get expensive
-decon areas has to be established. If you put on your bio suit and leave contaminated area (example NYC) and drive to other area (example Jersey City) you just successfully migrated germs/virus etc etc. Actually using 9/11 facts. If bio weapons were used half the NY, NJ and PA would be wiped out. The only place that had a decon area was Jersey City and they treated anyone coming from NYC with a nice a healthy shower.
-lets say that you are going to dodge the gear in area where there is no people. You will contaminate yourself from the surface of the suit.
-there is a lot of surplus stuff out there which will give you a false sense of security. Chinese gas masks, Russian Bio suits… Those things were not tested, improperly stored, abused and than sold as novelty items. Do you thing that poor country like Russia is going to sell good stuff? They would rather keep old but still good equipment rather than manufacturing new ones. They are just getting rid of “cold war” relics.
-new equipment is gov’t regulated (mostly) and expensive to begin with. Most of the professional suits have separate respirators which only last certain amount of time
-where are you going to go? In the even of chem./bio attack the entire are will get quarantined and separated. And if you are in the epi center of the attack your will be contaminated before you put on your suit.
-where are you going to keep your suit? Home? Car? Carry it in your backpack? We were told to be on the lookout for prepared individuals because they may as well be the one who started something. Remember when everyone buying large quantities of Ciprio was targeted as a potential anthrax terrorist?
-with public on the edge there are con artists ready to make a buck. $500 for a gas mask? There was an article in Time that stated that a man few blocks away from Ground Zero is ready to retire from sales of gas masks and other protective equipment.

Now if you really are interested in purchasing one look at www.galls.com. They have some decent gear that we use and train with.

There is a lot of ifs and buts out there and a lot of people are scared. A lot of those things are exaggerated. Yes there is danger and possibility but the scale of the account and people not being informed the right way is the reason that any type of act of terrorism will have greater psychological impact than actual physical one. I looked at the radius of the strike from nuclear bomb that was used on Hiroshima. Than I compared it with what is dear to me which is NYC. The damage wasn’t so great if you really look at it (about ten city blocks) but also one has to understand that no country (except Russia) would be able to launch such a strike against the US. The biggest possibility is a dirty bomb that would just contaminate couple of blocks. Chemical weapons are also very unlikely to be used on our soil due to their price and size. The most dangerous thing probably is bio weapon because it’s cheap and easy to make. But even that it is limited. Units in NYC are right now being equipped with Mark 1 kits to help people in case of bio attack. But again if you leave the area being infected nobody can help you. The best thing is to stay put and being cleared by medics. A lot will say that this is attitude is the same one that sheep have when they are being lead to the slaughter house. That it’s not true. Sometimes you have to trust others in order to get up and fight another day.


Matt