“…digging up some dead sheep often does the job. However, Anthrax dug up from the English countryside is not the same as Soviet weapon grade Anthrax; it is just not as potent…”
political change. Although this article is not the place for the “one man’s terrorist, other man’s freedom fighter discussion”, the political component of terrorism is crucial in understanding the value and danger of CBRN terrorism. It seems that a terrorist needs less physical impact (casualties) with a CBRN attack to achieve a certain political effect than he would need with conventional means. This means that a CBRN scenario may need less of an agent, and to be less lethal in order to have a societal and political impact and therefore a CBRN attack could be more feasible for more groups than previously thought. A terrorist does not have to kill thousands of people merely to scare them.
Countering the Threat: detection, protection and training Airports have a number of standard measures in place to increase security. However, most airports pay only limited attention to CBRN in terms of training and planning. Security staff are rarely trained in CBRN awareness in part because the detection of CBRN materials is difficult. Despite these limitations, the most important countermeasure when it comes to CBRN is detection. Explosives and automatic gunfire are hard to miss, but a terrorist releasing Anthrax in your HVAC system is more
difficult to notice. Without detection equipment, you will not know you are under attack until it is too late. For both chemical and radiological agents there is plenty of equipment available on the market that can detect the vast majority of these agents.
Detection is also the starting point for staff to start using personal protective equipment (PPE). Airport and airline staff do not need the Level A space suits some first responders wear. It would be good though to have at least escape hoods and facemasks with the right canisters or pressured air for staff members. Most of the danger of CBRN agents comes from inhaling or ingesting them. Concentrations must be really high before people are incapacitated by skin contamination or by radiation. For 95% of all relevant scenarios, respiratory protection is the most important protection and often the only protection people need.
April 2013 Aviationsecurityinternational
www.asi-mag.com
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