DOCTORS FOR DISASTER PREPAREDNESS NEWSLETTER

JANUARY 2005

VOL. XXII, NO.1

WHAT IF THE “DIRTY BOMB” ISN'T STOPPED?

Occasionally, there is an alarm, a flurry of press coverage, and congratulations to America's crack security team for fending off a possible threat. Then Americans punch the snooze button and go back to sleep.

Teams of police officers prowled Boston streets with radiation detection devices after an anonymous tip told of a plan to smuggle radioactive material from Mexico through New York into Boston. An informant left pictures of four Chinese men and some names at a drop site on the Mexico-California border but did not show up for a meeting (WND 1/19/05).

Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) officials detained four apparently illegal Chinese immigrants and a Mexican pilot at a San Antonio airport; it was thought that they might be linked to the “dirty bomb” plot. Contrary to early reports, the plane did not have to be “forced to land,” and the four Chinese are “simply illegal immigrants” (WOAI.com 1/26/05).

The use of a “dirty bomb,” a radiological weapon created from a conventional explosive packaged with radioactive material that is scattered when the bomb goes off, is an “enormous threat,” says the Higgins Counter-Terrorism Research Foundation. Materials are widely available, and an al-Quaida plot has been suspected for some time (Insight 10/30/04). An “improvised explosive device,” like the one that recently killed U.S. Army Captain Christopher Sullivan in Iraq, could be triggered by everyday electronic devices, such as a cell phone, garage-door opener, or child's remote-control toy. The Pentagon is scrambling to find high-tech methods to neutralize such weapons (Wired News 1/26/05).

An actual nuclear device, however, is the “greatest danger facing the United States in the war on terrorism,” according to former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. There is evidence that terrorists are attempting to develop a nuclear capability (NewsMax.com 1/28/05), as are governments hostile to the United States. Illegal border crossing is one possible delivery mechanism; as many as 10,000 illegals cross the U.S./Mexican border every day, according to Madeleine Pelner Cosman, who spoke at the 22nd annual meeting of DDP. About 4,000 per day cross into Arizona alone (Time 9/20/04).

Defending America's borders and homeland security were ranked as the highest of five military or foreign policy priorities of the U.S. federal government by 43% of voters surveyed by the Opinion Research Corporation for the Civil Society Institute (WorldNetDaily 1/20/05). However, “in view of potential catastrophes of which we have a great deal of forewarning, we have yet to provide adequately for what used to be called `civil defense',” writes Mark Helprin (“Our Blindness,” Wall St J 1/24/05).

At previous DDP meetings, the late Conrad Chester of Oak Ridge National Laboratories asked what level of catastrophe it would take to get the U.S. to launch a serious civil defense program. He concluded that it would require nothing less than a nuclear explosion on American soil–with appalling casualties, many or most of them preventable.

At present, Americans are on their own. A search of the official DHS web site (www.dhs.gov) on “fallout shelter” turns up three documents. Two contain references to the fallout shelter program of the 1950s, and one has some useful but limited information on “national security emergencies,” including detonation of a nuclear weapon.

 

What You Should Do Now
You should immediately download and print “What to Do If a Nuclear Attack Is Imminent,” recently revised by Shane Connor (www.ki4u.com/guide.htm). Read the article, make yourself a shopping list, and take action on at least one small item today. (The hardest step is the first one. It often motivates one to take the next.) Think water and sanitation first. “It will be very hard to have stored too much water,” Connor writes. Do you have large containers, such as new garbage cans, and plastic liner bags, to fill at the first warning? Water-filled containers also make excellent shielding for your expedient shelter, or to place in the entrance tunnel to your permanent shelter. Do you have buckets with lids, and bleach, for expedient sanitation?

DHS emphasizes battery-powered radios. We hope that the government will at least be transmitting news and information. Do you have several such radios? Are they wrapped in nonconducting insulation like layers of paper or bubble wrap, and stored–with batteries removed–in a metal container or aluminum foil to protect against EMP (the electromagnetic pulse)? Do you have enough batteries? Do you have rechargeable batteries and a recharger that will work with a marine battery? (See www.KnowledgePublications.com for practical information on surviving the loss of electrical power.)

Do you have an instrument to measure radiation levels? There is no excuse for a member of DDP or a subscriber to this newsletter not to have one–at least a kit for rapid assembly of a Kearny Fallout Meter (KFM). Can it measure high levels of radiation? Some instruments sold for wartime use cannot measure any level higher than 1 roentgen (about 10 mGy) per hour. Many readers have taken advantage of the NukAlert program of Physicians for Civil Defense, or have purchased one from www.NukAlert.com. Do your emergency responders have one? It could keep them on the job by reassuring them that they are not being exposed to doses that are immediately hazardous.

Do you have enough copies of Nuclear War Survival Skills in places where you or a family member might need one? (Download or order copies from www.oism.org.)

Shelter Maintenance
Those who have prudently provided a permanent shelter as insurance for their family need to have a regular maintenance schedule. Sharon Packer and Paul Seyfried have supplied their checklist for a buried steel NBC shelter (click on “civil defense” at www.oism.org/ddp). Many items should be on your checklist even for a more modest shelter: inventory supplies, check radios, rotate dry-cell batteries and food stores, inspect water level in lead-acid batteries quarterly, and check for signs of rodents.

 

POSSIBLE REGULATORY FALLOUT FROM A DIRTY BOMB

A dirty bomb is a “weapon of mass disruption,” said Siegfried Hecker, former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory (Wash Post 12/5/01), rather than a weapon of mass destruction. Most deaths would be caused by the explosion, or by panic, not by radiation. A DHS proposal to dramatically reduce the requirements for cleaning up radioactive contamination from a dirty bomb or nuclear explosive would greatly diminish economic losses. More than 50 groups have protested, including Physicians for Social Responsibility and the Union of Concerned Scientists. The “benchmark” acceptable levels would be 2,500 times “less protective” than for Superfund sites and would set a “dangerous precedent” (TWTW 12/11/04, www.sepp.org). Readers should already be aware of the regulatory overkill in current EPA standards based on the linear no-threshold hypothesis. Exposures up to 260 mGy/yr (26,000 mrad) in Ramsar, Iran, have caused no adverse health effects.

COME TO DDP MEETING, JULY 16-18; DON'T MISS NEVADA TEST SITE TOUR

The 23rd annual meeting of DDP will be held at the Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV, July 16-17, with a welcome reception on July 15. Call (800) 675-3267 for reservations. Be sure to mention the “DDP Annual Meeting” to receive our group rates of $49 (7/14/04), $99 (7/15, 7/16), and $59 (7/17, 7/18). A tour to the Nevada Test Site of the Nevada Test Site is scheduled for Monday, July 18. Bus transportation will be provided. Watch your mail and the web site for the schedule and registration information.

Tapes and CD-ROMs from previous meetings are still available at www.oism.org/ddp.

DDP, 1601 N. Tucson Blvd. Suite 9, Tucson, AZ 85716, (520)325-2680, www.oism.org/ddp