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Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Agents Primer
By SFC Red Thomas (Ret)
Armor Master Gunner
Mesa, AZ

It is my hope that understanding the application and effects of NBC (Nuclear, 

Biological & Chemical) agents will calm your fears. This essay explains how and why 

these agents work and, if by some slim chance you are exposed, how you should deal 

with the situation.



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 airborne particles. The agent must be delivered in sufficient 

quantity to 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 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 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 heard 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 in 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 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 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 kiddy 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 as 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.



Submitted By 

Bob Eppens

US Army Ranger Assoc. 

member