Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: wdstarr@athena.mit.edu (William December Starr)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Defense against nerve gas
Message-ID: <1990Aug18.182756.24858@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 18 Aug 90 18:27:56 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: Northeastern Law, Class of '93
Lines: 38
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: wdstarr@athena.mit.edu (William December Starr)
>From the 8/16/90 New York Times:

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   WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 (Reuters) -- The Defense Department has
asked for rush deliverly of kits containing the nerve gas
antidote American troops would use in the Middle East, the
president of the only American supplier of the antidote said
today.

   The company, Survival Technologies Inc. received a rush order
this week for $2 million worth of the kits, said the company's
president, James Miller.

   Before Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, the Pentagon had
contracted for half that amount, enough for 210,000 kits.  The
kits contain atropine to reverse the effects of nerve gas and
pralidoxime chloride to help return body functions to normal
after a nerve gas attack.

   In case of a poison gas attack by Iraq, American troops in
Saudi Arabia carry two to three antidote kits in their packs
along with gas masks, rubber gloves and special uniforms filled
with charcoal to absorb chemicals.

[deleted: discussion of Iraqi use of chemical weapons
 in the past]

   Iraq is believed to possess nerve gases so potent that a drop
inhaled or absorbed into the skin could kill in minutes.  But the
kits have an auto-inject device that also works quickly,
premitting injection of the antidote in seconds.

   "They would have time to administer it," Mr. Miller said.
"The action of the drug is nearly instant as well."