Terrorist attacks

Discovered in the late 1930s in Germany as improved poisonous insecticides, organophosphorus ChEIs were developed as chemical warfare agents (e.g. sarin, soman, and tabun) and were more recently employed in the 1995 terrorist attack in the Tokyo subway system [5]. 

Not all toxic organophosphoms compounds have uses beneficial to humans. Sarin is an extremely toxic nerve gas that is lethal to humans. In March 1995 this substance was released in a terrorist attack on a Japanese subway, resulting in several deaths and many serious injuries. Sarin and related nerve gases bind an amino acid in the enzyme responsible for muscle action. When this enzyme is deactivated, muscles contract but cannot relax. Even a small dose can be lethal if the nerve gas reaches the muscles of the heart. 

Based on the history of terrorist attacks, which have mostly involved hijacking and bombing of aircraft, current threat-detection measures have concentrated on detecting weapons or explosives. In the future, terrorist attacks could also involve the use of toxic chemicals, chemical and biological warfare agents, or even radiological and nuclear materials.1 2... 

This chapter describes examples of the chemical/biologi-cal threat agents that might be used in a terrorist attack on the U.S. air transportation system, as well as some key physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of these agents that would affect the number of people exposed to such an attack. Some plausible scenarios for the release of these agents into the air transportation environment are also discussed. 

Develop effective ways for mitigation of chemical, radiological, and biological terrorist attacks, and devise ways to decontaminate the sites of such attacks. 

Protection of our food and water supplies against terrorist attack presents a major challenge, because the supply chain is so extensive and open. But it is a challenge that chemists and chemical engineers should accept. Moreover, the threats to food and water are not limited to terrorism—a variety of natural disasters could wreak havoc as well. 

C. Dishovsky et al. (eds.), Medical Treatment of Intoxications and Decontamination of Chemical Agents in the Area of Terrorist Attack, 3-11. 

Recently, Noort et al developed a procedure that is based on straightforward isolation of adducted BuChE from plasma by means of affinity chromatography with a procainamide column, followed by pepsin digestion and LC/electrospray tandem MS analysis of a specific nonapeptide containing the phosphonylated active site serine-198 residue (5). This method surpasses the limitations of the fluoride-reactivation method, since it can also deal with dealkylated ( aged ) phosphonylated BuChE. The method allowed the positive analysis of several serum samples of Japanese victims of the terrorist attack in the Tokyo subway in 1995. Furthermore, the method could be applied for detection of ChE modifications induced by, e.g., diethyl paraoxon and pyridostigmine bromide, illustrating the broad scope of this approach. This new approach... 

All of these may be targets for the terrorist attack, with high impact in the population. 

Unfortunately the time we are living now brought the terrifying shadow of terrorist attacks, and Nairobi, Tokyo and New York already experienced them. 

The terrorist attack is very difficult to be predicted and it could be performed everywhere, anytime. A wide range of weapons and methods could be used by the terrorists to achieve their goals. Explosives, guns, chemical and biological agents may be used. Water and food contamination, pollution of air controlled systems and many others could be listed, and the imagination has no limit, as shown by the 9/11 attack. 

In the terrorist attack many other items must be considered, as the follows ... 

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