weapons of mass destruction » OSHA

Dispersing radiation for Nuwax-81 exercise

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:01:46 +0000

This is clipped from the 1982 Defense Department film, NUWAX-81 Documentary Nuclear Weapon Accident Exercise. This clip shows the spraying of short-lived radioisotopes via an agricultural sprayer to a localized area to simulate contamination by weapons-grade plutonium.
The Nuclear Weapons Accident Exercise (NUWAX-81) was conducted in April 1981 jointly by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Energy (DOE) at the DOE’s Nevada test site and included FEMA and the State of California. The six day exercise scenario involved a simulated crash of an U.S. Army helicopter transporting nuclear weapons to a storage site. Aircraft parts and pieces of inert nuclear training weapons were prepositioned at the site. Short-lived radioisotopes, radium-223 and mercury-197, were distributed via an agricultural sprayer to a localized area to simulate contamination by weapons-grade plutonium. More than 600 accident response personnel participated in the exercise. The major objectives were to exercise and evaluate the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s interface with DOD, the command and control of the joint DOD-DOE response forces, and the coordination of their technical and logistical support. The exercise aroused greater awareness within federal and state governments of the need to plan and coordinate response procedures and to practice these procedures and was followed up by additional exercises. The entire film, NUWAX-81 Documentary Nuclear Weapon Accident Exercise, has been digitized by the nonprofit Public.Resource.Org (http://public.resource.org/index.html ) in a cooperative agreement with the National Technical Information Service (http://public.resource.org/ntis.gov/index.html ) and is available at the Internet Archive at www.archive.com .

Duration : 0:0:54

Technorati Tags: 1981, Alamos, Army, atomic, California, CBRNE, contamination, decontamination, dod, DOE, drill, emergency, EPA, exercise, hazardous, hazmat, health, hygiene, industrial, Los, materials, mercury, Monitoring, Nevada, NIOSH, nuclear, NUWAX, OSHA, PPE, practice, radiation, radioactive, radioisotopes, radium, response, safety, weapon, WMD, worker

Nerve Agent History WWII

admin — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 11:09:03 +0000

First discovered accidentally during the 1930s by industrial chemists in Germany conducting pesticide research, the nerve agents Tabun (GA) and Sarin (GB) were developed into chemical weapons and stockpiled by the Nazi regime. Fortunately, Hitler did not order their use during World War II because German intelligence believed–incorrectly–that the United States and the Soviet Union had developed similar weapons. After the war, the victorious Allies competed among themselves for the secrets of the Nazi nerve agent program. In the early 1950s, British industrial scientists accidentally discovered a second generation of nerve agents that were even more toxic than Sarin and were dubbed “V agents” because of their venomous (skin-penetrating) properties. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union pursued a chemical arms race in which they produced and stockpiled various nerve agents in the thousands of tons. For a detailed history for the general reader of the discovery, development, proliferation, and control of nerve agents such as Tabun, Sarin, Soman, and VX, read the 2006 book, War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda, By Jonathan B. Tucker. During the 1960s, ocean dumping, openpit burning, and land burials were the U.S. Armys method of destroying chemical weapons. In 1969, the National Academy of Sciences recommended that ocean dumping be avoided. In the late 1960s President Nixon halts the production of chemical weapons. In 1972, the Army formed the U.S. Army Materiel Commands Program Manager for Demilitarization of Chemical Materiel, headquartered at Picatinny Arsenal, near Dover, NJ. The Army developed chemical weapons disposal methods using incineration and chemical neutralization. Project Eagle incinerates six million pounds of mustard agent and neutralizes eight million pounds of nerve agent GB (sarin) at Rocky Mountain Arsenal, Colo. between 1972 and 1976. Today, The U.S. Army’s Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) safely stores and destroys the nation’s aging chemical weapons and recovers the nation’s chemical warfare materials. The agency is based at the Edgewood Area of the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, while other managers and staff fulfill the agency’s mission from weapons storage and disposal at locations across the county. For more on the CMA, link to their website at http://www.cma.army.mil/home.aspx . This clip is from the 1963 film, Nerve Agents, available at the national Archives. The film is from the U. S. Army Training Film series on the features and tactical use of GA (tabun), GB (sarin), and V-class nerve agents as munitions for chemical warfare. Explains how the nerve gas agents enter the human body and the symptoms of poisoning, and shows the protective and first-aid measures that may be taken against them.

Duration : 0:2:11

Technorati Tags: agent, Army, CBRNE, Chemical, disposal, dod, DOE, EPA, GA, GB, Germany, hazardous, hazmat, hazwoper, health, history, hygiene, industrial, material, military, Nerve, NIEHS, OSHA, pesticide, safety, sarin, us, VX, warfare, WMD, worker, wwII

Decontamination of Ships after an Atomic Test Bikini Atoll 1946

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 08:11:34 +0000

This clip shows efforts after the BAKER test to decontaminate navy ships. Operation Crossroads was an atmospheric nuclear weapon test series conducted in the summer of 1946. The series consisted of two detonations, each with a yield of 23 kilotons: ABLE detonated at an altitude of 520 feet (158 meters) on 1 July and BAKER detonated 90 feet (27 meters) underwater on 25 July. This clip is from after the BAKER test. The detonation of BAKER caused most of the target fleet to be bathed in radioactive water spray and radioactive debris from the lagoon bottom. . The test produced a radioactive mist that deposited active products on the target fleet in amounts far greater than had been predicted. As the Joint Chiefs of Staff evaluation board later noted, the contaminated ships “became radioactive stoves, and would have burned all living things aboard them with invisible and painless but deadly radiation.” With the exception of 12 target vessels anchored in the array and the landing craft beached on Bikini Island, the target fleet remained too radiologically contaminated for several weeks for more than brief on-board activities. The inability to complete inspections on much of the target fleet threatened the success of the operation after BAKER . A program of target vessel decontamination was begun in earnest about 1 August. This involved washing the ships’ exteriors using work crews drawn from the target ships’ companies under radiological supervision of monitors equipped with radiation detection and measurement devices. Initially, decontamination was slow as the safe time aboard the target ships was measured only in minutes. As time progressed, the support fleet itself had become contaminated by the low-level radioactivity in marine growth on the ships’ hulls and seawater piping systems. By 10 August, a decision was made to stop work in Bikini and tow the surviving target fleet to Kwajalein Atoll where the work could be done in uncontaminated water. The move was accomplished during the remainder of August and September. A major task at Kwajalein was to offload ammunition stored aboard the target ships. this work continued into the fall of 1946. Personnel continued to work on target ships at Kwajalein into 1947. Eight of the major ships and two submarines were towed back to the United States and Hawaii for radiological inspection. Twelve target ships were so lightly contaminated that they were remanned and sailed back to the United States by their crews. The remaining target ships were destroyed by sinking off Bikini Atoll, off Kwajalein Atoll, or near the Hawaiian Islands during 1946-1948. The support ships were decontaminated as necessary and received a radiological clearance before they could return to the fleet. This decontamination and clearance process required a great deal of experimentation and learning at Navy shipyards in the United States, primarily at San Francisco. All CROSSROADS operations were undertaken under radiological supervision intended to keep personnel from being exposed to more than 0.1 roentgen (R) per day. At the time, this was considered to be an amount of radiation that could be tolerated for long periods without any harmful effects on health. For more on this, go to http://www.hss.energy.gov/healthsafety/ohre/index.html . This is clipped from the 1946 Department of the Navy film, Operations Crossroads, which tells of the Able and Baker Atomic tests at Bikini Atoll in the summer of 1946. The entire video has been digitized by the nonprofit Public.Resource.Org (http://public.resource.org/index.html ) in a cooperative agreement with the National Technical Information (http://public.resource.org/ntis.gov/index.html ) and is available at the Internet Archive at www.archive.com .

Duration : 0:0:56

Technorati Tags: 1946, Army, Atoll, atomic, Bikini, CBRNE, Chemical, contamination, control, decon, decontamination, DHS, dod, EPA, equipment, hazard, hazardous, hazwoper, health, hygiene, industrial, materials, military, Navy, NIOSH, OSHA, protection, radiation, radiological, safety, WMD, worker, wwII

Respirator or Surgical Mask Confusion or Why Healthcare Providers Need Occupational Health Training

admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:00:20 +0000

A surgical mask is not a respirator and that’s an important distinction for physicians and all healthcare workers to understand. Unfortunately many healthcare employers and Infection Preventionist do not understand this important fact. Several reports from the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) over the past few years have address this and related issues. For the details of this debate, go to the 2009 IOM report at http://www.iom.edu/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/2009/RespProtH1N1/H1N1%20report%20brief%20FINAL%20for%20web.ashx . It is important that healthcare employers and workers understand the significant differences between these two types of personal protective equipment. The decision whether or not to require workers to use either surgical masks or respirators must be based upon a hazard analysis of the workers’ specific work environments and the different protective properties of each type of personal protective equipment. Respirators are designed to reduce a worker’s exposure to airborne contaminants. Respirators come in various sizes and must be individually selected to fit the wearer’s face and to provide a tight seal. A proper seal between the user’s face and the respirator forces inhaled air to be pulled through the respirator’s filter material and not through gaps between the face and respirator. Surgical masks are used as a physical barrier to protect the user from hazards, such as splashes of large droplets of blood or body fluids. Surgical masks also protect other people against infection from the person wearing the surgical mask. Such masks trap large particles of body fluids that may contain bacteria or viruses expelled by the wearer. Surgical masks are not designed or certified to prevent the inhalation of small airborne contaminants. An OSHA video describing the differences is found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovSLAuY8ib8 . All workers have a right to a safe and healthful workplace. Whenever respiratory protection is required to be worn to protect from hazardous airborne contaminants, the employer is responsible for implementing a comprehensive respiratory protection program and providing an appropriate respirator, in accordance with OSHAs respiratory protection standard, 29 CFR 1910.134. This program must include training, medical evaluation, and fit testing. When workers must wear a respirator to protect against airborne contaminants in the workplace, it is very important to follow proper procedures for putting it on and taking it off. For more on this important issues for healthcare, go to the OSHA factsheet, Respiratory Infection Control:Respirators Versus Surgical Masks at https://www.osha.gov/Publications/respirators-vs-surgicalmasks-factsheet.html . This is clipped from the 2000 video Biological Warfare and Terrorism: The Military and Public Health Response produced by the Department of the Army and the Food and Drug Administration. The entire video has been digitized by the nonprofit Public.Resource.Org (http://public.resource.org/index.html ) in a cooperative agreement with the National Technical Information (http://public.resource.org/ntis.gov/index.html ) and is available at the Internet Archive at www.archive.com .

Duration : 0:0:25

Technorati Tags: agent, anthrax, bacteria, Biological, BW, CBRNE, CDC, control, decontamination, disease, droplet, EPA, hazwoper, health, HEPA, hygiene, industrial, infection, inhalation, mask, microbe, microbiology, military, N95, NIEHS, NIOSH, occupational, OSHA, P100, protection, Respirator, respiratory, spore, terrorism, warfare, WMD

Psychoactive Agents Research Chemical Warfare Edgewood Maryland 1950s US Army

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:31:40 +0000

Beginning in the mid-1950s, the U.S. Army conducted research involving thousands of human subjects on various chemical agents, including LSD, BZ and marijuana derivatives, to assess their utility for chemical warfare applications. Army doctors gave soldier volunteers synthetic marijuana, LSD, BZ and other psychoactive drugs during experiments aimed at developing chemical weapons that could incapacitate enemy soldiers. The program, which ran at the Army’s Edgewood, Md., arsenal from 1955 until about 1972, concluded that counterculture staples such as acid and pot were either too unpredictable or too mellow to be useful as weapons. One of the leading participants in that enterprise, Dr. James S. Ketchum, has published a memoir entitled “Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten.” (http://www.forgottensecrets.net/ ), a detailed autobiographical reconstruction of the Edgewood Arsenal program of evaluating possible incapacitating agents in human volunteers (enlisted men) during the 1960s. This clip is from the 1950s episode, the Unseen Weapon, from the The Big Picture documentary television program which ran on the American Broadcasting Company from 1953 to 1959. The program consisted of documentary films produced by the United States Army Signal Corps Army Pictorial Service

Duration : 0:0:58

Technorati Tags: 1950s, aerosol, agent, Airborne, animal, Army, BZ, cat, CBRNE, Chemical, dod, DOE, drugs, Edgewood, hazwoper, human, hygiene, industrial, Nerve, nervous, NIEHS, NIOSH, OSHA, psychoactive, research, Speedy, us, warfare, WMD

History of Chemical Warfare

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:46:04 +0000

The use of poisons that could be considered chemical weapons (CW) dates to antiquity. During the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), for example, the Spartans used arsenic smoke. A millennium later at the siege of Constantinople (637 AD), the Byzantine Greeks employed “Greek Fire” – a mixture of petroleum, pitch sulfur and resins. The first modern use of CW, however, occurred during the First World War. At the second battle of Ypres in April 1915, the German army released hundreds of tons of chlorine gas. Thousands of Allied troops were killed or wounded in the gas cloud attacks, including nearly 7,000 Canadians (1,000 dead and 5,975 injured). The British war poet Wilfred Owen described the horror of seeing a fellow soldier guttering, choking, drowning, as if under a green sea of chlorine gas. Throughout the war, both the Allied and the Central Powers developed toxic chemical warfare agents and the means to deliver them. They also refined their tactical doctrines to take into account the new reality of chemical warfare. By 1918, the World War I battlefield was saturated with a variety of persistent and non-persistent chemicals, which caused casualties among troops and increased the danger and difficulty of military operations. By the end of the First World War, approximately 125,000 tons of toxic chemicals had been used, causing more than 1.3 million casualties, including more than 100,000 deaths. To this day, live rounds of World War I chemical munitions remain buried beneath the battlefields of Europe. While the consequences of the use of gas during the war – images of wounded and blinded men waiting in long lines to be given medical assistance – created in the general public a visceral loathing of chemical weapons, the development and use of CW continued throughout the twentieth century. Italian troops employed chemical weapons during their invasion of Ethiopia (1935-1936) while Japan used CW during its war with China (1937-1945). During the Second World War, both the Allied countries (including Canada) and Axis powers developed a significant inventory of chemical weapons; the lack of effective large-scale delivery systems played a part in the decision of both sides not to use them (another powerful constraint was the fear of retaliation). Egypt used chemical weapons in North Yemen (1963-1967) and both Iraq and Iran employed CW during the Gulf War (1983-1988). It wasnt until 29 April 1997, after long and difficult negotiations, that the International Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force. By banning these weapons, the Convention heralded the beginning of the work to destroy the stockpiles that had been amassed. April 29 is Remembrance Day to pay tribute to the victims of chemical warfare. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)( http://www.opcw.org/ ) is the implementing body of the Chemical Weapons Convention. The OPCW is given the mandate to achieve the object and purpose of the Convention, to ensure the implementation of its provisions, including those for international verification of compliance with it, and to provide a forum for consultation and cooperation among States Parties. This clip is from the 1950s episode, the Unseen Weapon, from the The Big Picture documentary television program which ran on the American Broadcasting Company from 1953 to 1959. The program consisted of documentary films produced by the United States Army Signal Corps Army Pictorial Service.

Duration : 0:1:6

Technorati Tags: agent, CBRNE, Chemical, chlorine, convention, day, dod, DOE, EPA, hazard, hazwoper, history, hygiene, industrial, International, military, NIOSH, opcw, OSHA, Remembrance, safety, UN, warfare, Weapons, WMD, wwI, Ypres

Routes of Exposure to Hazardous Materials 1950

admin — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:24:08 +0000

Some hazardous materials are not harmful by any route of exposure, while others are harmful by some or all of the routes of exposure. Inhalation (Breathing) – Chemicals in the air can be inhaled into the body through the mouth or nose. In the workplace airborne chemicals may occur in different forms such as gases, vapours, dusts or mists. Skin Contact -Many chemicals can cause direct effects at the point of contact with the skin. Some chemicals can be absorbed into the body through the skin. Eye Contact – Chemicals can also come in contact with the eyes as dusts, mists, gases ,vapours,or when liquids are splashed.Some chemicals can be absorbed through the eyes causing harmful effects elsewhere in the body. Ingestion (Swallowing) – Chemicals can be ingested through the mouth. In workplaces, ingestion can result from hand-to-mouth contact, consuming contaminated food or drink, or smoking cigarettes that have come into contact with a chemical or unclean hands. Sometimes workplace chemicals are accidentally swallowed. This is clipped from the 1950 film, Self Preservation In an Atomic Attack, produced for the US Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and available at the Internet Archives.

Duration : 0:0:9

Technorati Tags: atomic, blast, bomb, contamination, decon, DOE, dust, Explosion, fallout, hazardous, hazwoper, material, monitor, NIEHS, NIOSH, nuclear, OSHA, radiation, radioactive, radiological

How Much is A Safe Dose1950

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:30:09 +0000

In 2003, the US Biologic Effects of Ionizing Radiation Report, BEIR VII, developed the most up-to-date and comprehensive risk estimates for cancer and other health effects from exposure to low-level ionizing radiation. It was among the first reports of its kind to include detailed estimates for cancer incidence in addition to cancer mortality. In general, BEIR VII supports previously reported risk estimates for cancer and leukemia, but the availability of new and more extensive data have strengthened confidence in these estimates. A comprehensive review of available biological and biophysical data supports a linear-no-threshold (LNT) risk model—that the risk of cancer proceeds in a linear fashion at lower doses without a threshold and that the smallest dose has the potential to cause a small increase in risk to humans. The report is available from the National Academies Press at http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/beir_vii_final.pdf . This is clipped from the 1950 film, Self Preservation In an Atomic Attack, produced for the US Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and available at the Internet Archives.

Duration : 0:0:13

Technorati Tags: atomic, blast, bomb, contamination, decon, DOE, dust, Explosion, fallout, hazardous, hazwoper, material, monitor, NIEHS, NIOSH, nuclear, OSHA, radiation, radioactive, radiological

Surviving an Atomic Blast 1950

admin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:40:05 +0000

This is clipped from a military training film on how soldiers can survive and atomic attack. This is clipped from the 1950 film, Self Preservation In an Atomic Attack, produced for the US Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and available at the Internet Archives.

Duration : 0:3:27

Technorati Tags: atomic, blast, bomb, contamination, decon, DOE, dust, Explosion, fallout, hazardous, hazwoper, material, monitor, NIEHS, NIOSH, nuclear, OSHA, radiation, radioactive, radiological

You’ve Gotten Out of the Danger Zone 1950

admin — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:37:06 +0000

One of the greatest threats to the life and health of people in the vicinity of a nuclear explosion is exposure to radioactive fallout. People may be exposed to dangerous levels of fallout in the moderate damage (MD) and light damage (LD) zones, and further out to 10 or 20 miles in the dangerous fallout (DF) zone. In the case of widespread fallout, the primary protective actions are to take shelter and to evacuate. Evacuation reduces time spent exposed to radiation; the goal, of course, is to avoid exposure. This is clipped from the 1950 film, Self Preservation In an Atomic Attack, produced for the US Armed Forces Special Weapons Project and available at the Internet Archives.

Duration : 0:0:8

Technorati Tags: atomic, blast, bomb, contamination, decon, DOE, dust, Explosion, fallout, hazardous, hazwoper, material, monitor, NIEHS, NIOSH, nuclear, OSHA, radiation, radioactive, radiological