Chemical casualties

United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense. Medical Management of Chemical Casualties Handbook. 3rd Edn. Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense, July 2000. 

For a terrorist who is intent on causing chemical casualties, acquiring higher end agents such as... 

More critically, in cases of large numbers of serious chemical casualties, it may reach the point that limitations of personnel, time, equipment, and space do not permit the degree of medical intervention usually called for on any other given day. Most modern health care settings are not used to making very difficult triage decisions, where some casualties must be allowed to deteriorate or even die so that others can be saved. 

U.S. Army Medical Command. (1999). Medical management of chemical casualties course, medical response to chemical warfare and terrorism [Satellite broadcast]. Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD U.S. Army Medical Research Institute for Chemical Defense and U.S. Federal Drug Administration. 

Locate the Web site for the United States Army Medical Research Institute for Chemical Defense. Locate the TLiage of Chemical Casualties chapter. Describe each of the triage categories and how they would be used in a mass chemical exposure event. 

Rumack, B.H. (1983). Cyanide poisoning. si Respiratory Care of Chemical Casualties (H.H. Newball, ed.). Proceedings of the Symposium on Respiratory Care of Chemical Casualties (McLean, Virginia, November 28-30, 1983), US Army Medical Reasearch and Development Command, Fort Detrick, Maryland. 

Sidell, F.R. (1996). Chemical Casualty Consultant, Bel Air, Md. Personal communication, August. 

Department of Health, UK report (2003). Blain, P., Treatment of poisoning by selected chemical compounds. First Report. Expert Group on the management of chemical casualties caused by terrorist activity. Department of Health, UK, 1-43. 

USAMRICD (2007). Medical Management of Chemical Casualties Handbook. USAMRICD, Aberdeen Proving Ground. 

Cancio, L.C. (1993). Chemical casualty decontamination by medical platoons in the 82nd airborne division. Mil. Med. 158 1-5. 

Due to the possibility of pediatric casualties from chemical agent attacks, several pediatric advocacy groups, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), have commented on the urgent need for pediatric chemical casualty research (Blaschke and Lynch, 2003). The Committees on Environmental Health and Infectious Diseases have provided the following consensus statement regarding children and chemical-biological threats (CEH/ CID, 2000). 

Kassa, J. (2005). The role of oximes in the antidotal treatment of chemical casualties exposed to nerve agents. In Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Terrorism. Chemical Terrorism and Traumatism (A. Monov, C. Dishovsky, eds), pp. 193-208. Publishing House of the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria, Sofia (available at http //wwwjmedchemdef.org/ archives.html). 

However, there are some caveats for the use of RSDL. The application of RSDL directly to open wounds impaired wound strength and decreased collagen content in the early phases of wound healing. This may have clinical implications for the treatment and outcomes of chemical casualty combat trauma (Walters et al, 2007). RSDL is also reported to be flammable. 

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