There isn't much info about this and I'm afraid that everyone I know already thinks I'm nuts, including my wife but... We live in San Diego. I have purchased a hooded gas mask. Since the prices of full suits is prohibitive I also bought a couple heavy rainsuits, heavy chemical gloves, and rubber rain boots that fit over shoes plus tons of duct tape. My thinking is in the case of a chemical accident (I can't find any info about chemical storage facilities in my area close to Sea World), a nuclear accident, or biological terrorism I would tape us up in these makeshift outfits. OK, here's my questions: Is this sufficient? If I sense that chemicals have become airborne, how long do we have to suit up? What indications should I be looking for? Anyone have any additional advice? I wish I had found this forum long ago. Thank you all for being such a great source of information. Jeff K. San Diego, CA

-- Jeff K.k (jeffonob@hotmail.com), December 15, 1999

Answers

Hi Jeff....Yup, you're crazed alright (...me too :@). Hope you/we never need these preps.

The problem with your setup is you may cook in it. The mil MOPP suits are breathable which your rainsuit is not. Mil doctrine is to drink 1 quart of water an hour, at least in their breathable suits. You can buy surplus MOPP suits from Cheaper than Dirt, Sportsmans Guide and other sources for around $30. Barring that you could get tyvek hooded suits (with sealed seams) from Graingers or Gemplers for about the same money which are also breathable. Another option is to get them without sealed seams and seal them yourself. I would also get some glove liners, Class 1 medical nitrile or latex. You'd be in much better shape than 99.999 percent of the populace.

How long to suit up, indications, etc. is tough. Most likely a biological attack will be unnoticed until people start dropping which could be hours or days after exposure. The best bet is to "don't be there" but I understand that's a tough thing to do.

A few things to read:

At http://www.nbc-med.org/SiteContent/main.asp download the appro sections of the textbook of Military Medicine which will explain much more than I can. Richard Preston's Books (1 real/1 fiction but accurate) The Hot Zone, and The Cobra Event (?) will be very educational.

Also consider decontamination procedures (per the Mil Med site). Bleach will work, Envirochem is better but hard to find and pricey. You may also want to consider some antibiotics such as tetracycline, penicillin, Amoxicillin (rifampin or chloranphenicol would be nice but very pricey and hard to get). Check the site at www.lambrairvet.com for non-prescription animal meds.

Also lots of good info at:

http://www.wsu.edu/~hurlbert/pages/101biologicalweapons.html

Best of Luck...Feel free to ask more questions.

-- Don Kulha (dkulha@vom.com), December 15, 1999.

clickable links to above:

http://www.nbc- med.org/SiteContent/main.asp

www.lambrairvet.com

http://www.wsu.edu/~hurlbert/pages/101biologicalweapons.html

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), December 15, 1999.

A bit on Masks...

I'm not sure what your "hooded gas mask" is...does it have a drinking tube? Do you have spare filters? have you checked it's sealing integrity, etc.? All important things...

After looking at over a dozen different masks, M17's, Israeli, German Draegers, Russian civilian and M17 clones, U.S. etc. I decided that for us the only ones worth considering were the U.S. M40 and MCU-2P. They have superb seals, good visibility, voice emitters, drink tubes, in-mask microphone connectors, etc. We settled on MCU-2P's. You might just find these available in surplus places around Sandy-eggo.

-- Don Kulha (dkulha@vom.com), December 16, 1999.