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From: ut-emx!osmigo@emx.utexas.edu (rn)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Nerve Gas
Message-ID: <1990Aug22.025219.15961@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 22 Aug 90 02:52:19 GMT
References: <1990Aug18.182811.24916@cbnews.att.com>
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From: ut-emx!osmigo@emx.utexas.edu (rn)

Can someone here state how the nerve gas antidote injection works? I've spent
quite a bit of time working in and around hospital environments in the past,
and I know that if you just "stick the needle in your arm" (or thigh, hip, or
wherever), also known as an IM (intramuscular injection), it takes at least
30-45 minutes to begin taking effect, as the drug must be absorbed by the 
muscle tissue, then the circulatory system, etc. To work "instantly," as
it *seems* would be necessary to counteract a nerve gast that kills in a few
minutes, the injection would *have* to be IV (intraveinous, i.e., injected
directly into a vein, as in the inside of the elbow). I can't see a soldier
on a battlefield giving himself an IV, but it's been my experience that even
an orally administrated medication (in liquid form) takes effect much faster
than an IM injection.

Ron Morgan
osmigo@emx.utexas.edu