Aerosolized weapons

Francisella tularensis is very infectious. A small number (10-50 or so organisms) can cause disease. If F. tularensis were used as a weapon, the bacteria would likely be made airborne for exposure by inhalation. People who inhale an infectious aerosol would generally experience severe respiratory illness, including life-threatening pneumonia and systemic infection, if they are not treated. The bacteria that cause tularemia occur widely in nature and could be isolated and grown in quantity in a laboratory, although manufacturing an effective aerosol weapon would require considerable sophistication. 

Saxitoxin, the best known example of this group, is a potent neurotoxin found in shellfish such as mussels, clams, and scallops. Saxitoxin is a sodium channel-blocking agent and is more toxic by inhalation than by other routes of exposure. Unlike oral intoxication with saxitoxin (paralytic shellfish poisoning), which has a relatively slow onset, inhala-tional intoxication with saxitoxin can be lethal in a few minutes. Saxitoxin could be used against our troops as an antipersonnel weapon, but because it cannot currently be chemically synthesized efficiently, or produced easily in large quantities from natural sources, it is unlikely to be seen as an area aerosol weapon on the battlefield. 

Toxic chemical munitions have unique characteristics in comparison to other weapons systems, reaching personnel both widely dispersed and concentrated in fortifications, ie, gases and aerosols are not bound by corners. These materials can penetrate crevices reaching personnel physically protected from high explosives. In addition, toxic chemicals are minimum-destmction weapons as regards matHriel (5). 

Denmark 1.5 days after the explosion. Air samples collected at Roskilde, Denmark on April 27-28, contained a mean air concentration of 241Am of 5.2 pBq/m3 (0.14 fCi/m3). In May 1986, the mean concentration was 11 pBq/m3 (0.30 fCi/m3) (Aarkrog 1988). Whereas debris from nuclear weapons testing is injected into the stratosphere, debris from Chernobyl was injected into the troposphere. As the mean residence time in the troposphere is 20-40 days, it would appear that the fallout would have decreased to very low levels by the end of 1986. However, from the levels of other radioactive elements, this was not the case. Sequential extraction studies were performed on aerosols collected in Lithuania after dust storms in September 1992 carried radioactive aerosols to the region from contaminated areas of the Ukraine and Belarus. The fraction distribution of241 Am in the aerosol samples was approximately (fraction, percent) organically-bound, 18% oxide-bound, 10% acid-soluble, 36% and residual, 32% (Lujaniene et al. 1999). Very little americium was found in the more readily extractable exchangeable and water soluble and specifically adsorbed fractions. 

Attempt to identify agent or weapon, type of dissemination (aerosol/liquid/vapor/solid), and characteristics of the agent and threats posed. Search the area for secondary explosive devices or booby-traps designed to kill or maim first responders. Limit the number of personnel and exposure time on scene. 

Caution Both glanders and melioidosis may occur in an acute localized form, as an acute pulmonary infection, or as an acute fulminant, rapidly fatal, sepsis. Combinations of these syndromes may occur in human cases. In addition, melioidosis may remain asymptomatic after initial acquisition, and remain quiescent for decades, but these patients may display active melioidosis years later which is often associated with an immune-compromising state. Aerosol infection produced by a biological weapon containing either glanders (B. mallei) or melioidosis (B. pseudomallei) could produce any of these syndromes... 

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