PROTECTION
sweaty and difficult to breathe in. Parents find it extremely challenging to have to explain to their children why they must be enclosed in a hood. Indeed, children lack the skills and experience to understand their own health needs in such unusual circumstances. And adults are not fully experienced and psychologically prepared to ‘play it by the book’ during a man-made disaster or terrorist attack. As a result, we cannot expect children to under- stand the situation and to behave accordingly. Instead, they are more likely to be very frightened, and are reluctant to wear enclosing protective gear – or they may even try to pull the masks off. Therefore, if a government decides to
incorporate protective respiratory systems for children in their preparedness programmes, they must include the associated training needed to make them tolerable as well as effective. According to CBRNE training provider and consultancy Hotzone Solutions, awareness levels would be achieved through comprehensive educational training at different levels through the cycle Recognize →Respond →Manage. Educational training is a difficult
task because it must raise awareness in children without scaring them. For example, a Sesame Street character, Moishe Oofnik (Hebrew for grouch!), has been created to help teach homeland security to Israeli children. Parents and teachers must be included in the cycle. They need to be able to help infants and young children who cannot don the protective equipment themselves, and they must be trained to make their children feel secure. Furthermore, we must take into
consideration that children could be at home, at school, at the park, or in a street. How do we reach all children? Should protective equipment be distributed to everyone in a country under threat? Should the government build strategic stockpiles near or inside schools? How much funding would be allocated?
When to distribute? There are noted historical precedents, when European and other governments have organized gas mask distribution in preparedness for war. In 1935, the fear of war and the mass chemical weapons trauma of World War 1 – the world’s first example of WMD use – led France and the UK to plan preparedness and organize supplies. Now, in the present day, the threat from transfer of Syrian chemical weapons to Hezbollah – based on several reports in January 2013 – has prompted the need for the Israeli
70 CBNW 2013/02
population to go to distribution centres to receive new respirators. But as terrorists nearly always use the element of surprise, time to access and deploy the equipment is limited. With the increasing threat of chemical attack, some civilians
PROTECTIVE HOODS
FOR CHILDREN Protective-hood systems for children consist of several components that cover the head and the upper body: l An impermeable and transparent plastic hood allowing parents to see their children completely so that they can check if they are anxious, and for health symptoms. The wide field of view is intended to reduce claustrophobia.
l An air supply unit creating an enclosed positive air pressure that prevents leakage and provides a constant and cooling airflow to the child. It consists of a special filter connected to a powered blower that pushes air through the canister.
l A jacket supporting the air supply unit and the hood.
l A drinking device to feed the child and a strap system to carry infants safely. Protective hood systems are able
to deliver, on average, 45 litres of filtered air per minute from 25 to 70 hours. Their maximum efficiency depends on the model and the type of toxic agent. For instance, different models have a minimum efficiency of 10 or 14 hours and resistance against mustard agent for more than 6 hours. Both types of protective respiratory
systems have a long shelf life of between 10 and 20 years. Most traditional gas masks are available in special sizes for children and in several age ranges: for infants (3 months to 3 years), children (3–8 years) and pre-teenagers (8 years and above). Gas masks and hoods systems also offer an interesting advantage: freedom of motion – to allow children to continue basic activities such as walking, eating and playing.
The Israeli
Bardas protective hood system.
have started to act independently. They are buying gas masks from army supply stores and off the Internet (like most things these days, they are available on eBay). In these cases, the government must encourage people to verify the origins of the products to check if they comply with state requirements, and also to check if it is adaptable for child use and if the filter is full. Additionally, civilians should be aware against which chemical agents the filter is designed to protect. An attack could occur with a deadly agent that is not filtered by the system, making the gas mask useless and the consequences, fatal.
Prediction and prevention Respiratory protection depends on timing. The masks are effective only if users wear them before or immediately upon exposure to the biological or chemical agent. Thus, they are effective only if the masks have the appropriate filters. A bioterrorist attack – the ultimate CBRN wildcard -may go undetected for several days, making masks useless. In a built-up environment, wind direction and plume effects of dispersed agents and their deposition make the effects of attacks complicated and difficult to predict. Wind may disperse the toxic agent – therefore, the use of a gas mask may not be necessary. But this may not be a constant factor of the weather on a particular day. The extensively documented effects
of modern warfare, terrorism and chemical attack presuppose that ‘zero risk’ does not exist for civilians. In the event, the goal is damage limitation – to limit the number of fatalities, to minimize the immediate effects on civilians; to delay the long-term adverse effects of injury and illness; and to minimize the psychological effects, which may take months or years to develop. As medical research and pediatric medicine continue to advance, respiratory protection systems may be a convenient temporary solution and a useful first protective layer in the event of an unconventional attack. However, the masks must be used properly and must effectively filter the toxic agent. The population has to be aware of the attack, if masks are stored near the incident site, and if they are usable for escape purposes. And most important, the system must prevent the weapon- ized agent from being inhaled and absorbed through the skin. zy
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