Human casualties

The Chemical Corps had already sustained a serious black eye after an accident with nerve gas near Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah. In 1968, a small plane had sprayed VX as part of a dissemination test. Unexpectedly, winds blew it in the wrong direction. Although there were no human casualties, many sheep grazing on nearby farms died. 

Table 3.5 summarizes the effects of explosion overpressure on structures. With respect to human casualties, heavy building damage usually is equated to a fatal effect, as the people inside the buildings probably would be crushed. People outside of buildings or structures are susceptible to direct blast injury (blast overpressure) and indirect blast injury (missiles or whole body translation). 

In this chapter the various antidotes and treatment regimes conducted on animal models and the treatment regimens recommended in human casualties are reviewed. 

Radiological terrorism is the use of radioactive material to cause human casualties, environmental destruction and maximum disruption, panic and fear (1) in the general population for political purposes. Since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945, with 150,000 casualties and 75,000 fatalities (2), people have feared nuclear explosives more than any other weapons of mass destruction, because of the ability of these weapons to cause immediate devastation and trauma, and because radiation, undetected by human senses, can cause ongoing morbidity and mortality, including cancer, years after exposure (3). 

Adducts with N-terminal valine, histidine and as-partic/glutamic acid residues have been detected in samples from human casualties. N -Terminal valine adducts were detected in blood from Iranian casualties collected up to 26 days after exposure (Benschop et al, 1997 Black et al., 1997a), and in blood collected 2-3 days after exposure from the two subjects (see above) accidentally exposed from a WWI munition (Black et al., 1997a). In the case of a sample collected 26 days after exposure, adduct concentration corresponded with that found in human blood after incubation with 0.9 qM sulphur mustard. The... 

Table 1. Analyses of samples from human casualties of deliberate or accidental exposure to sulphur mustard. 

Effect on Livestock. The effects of chemical agents on livestock will be the same as those upon human casualties apart from species specific variations. Mustard does not cause blistering in animals. The presence of large numbers of dead animals may indicate contamination in the area and these animals should not be eaten. 

Table IXB. Threshold Criteria for Human Casualties by Air Blast " ...

If the local wind velocity is high or luckily not towards populated areas it will be diluted or may not cause a hazardous situation. However, if the air is still or close to an inhabited area, disaster can occur in the form of human casualties. This can happen up to 1 km from the leak spot. 

Estimation of losses in urban areas from future earthquakes is essential for disaster preparedness and decision making at the local, regional and national levels of government. The process of loss estimation due to earthquakes involves different analyses, such as seismic hazard assessment, estimation of earthquake characteristics on the ground surface, vulnerability and fragility analyses of structures and human casualties. Various numerical and empirical methods have been developed over the past years to perform each of these analyses yet, few attempts have been made to combine the whole process into a single computer code. 

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