All tagged Chemical Warfare

“I don’t think you are doing that right…” Equipment selection and use in CBRN Operations: Part 3

Part 3 of the CBRNPro.net series on CBRN equipment selection and use examines Ion-Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) based Chemical Agent Detectors, how they work and sometimes don’t work the way you expect, as well as a few best practices for their use, along with some useful tips and techniques to help you get the most out of your IMS detector.

“I don’t think you are doing that right…” Equipment selection and use in CBRN Operations, Part 1

CBRN world is full of technology and various “magic boxes” designed to provide information. Many of these devices are in the hands of operators who lack an understanding of the technology they use. This series examines some of the critical pieces of equipment in CBRN operations and the ways operators can utilize their equipment properly to improve safety and increase operational awareness.

Aum Shinrikyo Part 4: Conclusion and Summary

In the conclusion to our series exploring the Aum Shinrikyo attacks on the Tokyo Subway, CBRNPro.net argues that medical facilities, like St. Luke's in Tokyo, are a main locus for CBRN incident response, even more so than incident scenes in many cases. Planning, coordination, and information management are key to solving the problems associated with CBRN incidents, and have wider application to mass casualty incidents.

Aum Shinrikyo, Part 3: Worried Well

CBRNPro.net continues its series on Aum Shinrikyo and the response to the sarin attacks on the Tokyo subway system. In this, our third post, we examine the vexing problem of worried well that is particularly associated with major CBRN events. This problem poses significant short, medium, and long term challenges for responders, medical care givers, emergency management, and local, state, and federal officials and policy makers. We examine ways to manage the problem and explore options for implementing procedures to deal with both worried well and psychological casualties.

Re-examining the History of Chemical Warfare - Part I

Chemical warfare in the WWI is usually relegated to a side show in most history. That is a fundamental error. Chemical casualties in the last year of the war accounted for 30-40 percent of casualties in major operations. The final year of the war demonstrated the tactical efficiency of chemical weapons in both the offense and defense, a stark departure from chemical warfare between 1915 and 1917. Historians usually talk about the early attacks when chemical warfare was largely insignificant, but this leaves out the importance of the chemical war to the end of the war. 

In the first in a multi-part series re-examining chemical warfare in the First World War, with particular emphasis on the American Experience. CBRNPro.net examines long-held myths about chemical warfare in WWI, and the propaganda that pushed them into the history books. Many of the lessons that history failed to learn, still apply today.