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Weapons of Mass Destruction

Weapons of Mass Destruction. Martin Donohoe. Outline. The history and epidemiology of war Nuclear weapons Chemical weapons Biological weapons. Outline. Economic and environmental consequences of militarism and war Health consequences of militarism and war Contemporary issues.

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Weapons of Mass Destruction

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  1. WeaponsofMass Destruction Martin Donohoe

  2. Outline • The history and epidemiology of war • Nuclear weapons • Chemical weapons • Biological weapons

  3. Outline • Economic and environmental consequences of militarism and war • Health consequences of militarism and war • Contemporary issues

  4. History of war • 10,000 yrs ago – agriculture • Stable populations, division of labor, warrior class • 3500 yrs ago – bronze weapons and armor • 2200 yrs ago – iron • 1900 yrs ago - horses

  5. History of war • Ninth Century China - bombs developed • Thirteenth Century China – rockets • Forgotten until the 19th Century • 1783 - Balloon • 1903 - Airplane • 20th Century - WMDs

  6. History of War • Belief that each new invention would eliminate warfare • Instead, increased casualties, killing at a distance

  7. Epidemiology of Warfare • Deaths in war: • 17th – 19th Century = 11-19/million population • 20th Century = 183/million population • Increasing casualties to civilians • 10% late 19th Century • 85-90% in 20th Century

  8. Contemporary Wars • 250 wars in the 20th Century • Incidence of war rising since 1950 • Most conflicts within poor states • 25 separate civil wars currently underway

  9. Consequences of War • Deaths, injuries, psychological sequelae • Collapse of health care system affecting those with acute and chronic illnesses • Famine

  10. Consequences of War • Refugees • Environmental degradation • Increasing poverty and debt • All lead to recurrent cycles of violence

  11. Atomic Weapons - History • Hiroshima, August 6, 1945 • “The day that humanity started taking its final exam” – Buckminster Fuller • 15 kiloton bomb, 140,000 deaths • Nagasaki, August 9, 1945 • 22 kiloton bomb, 70,000 casualties

  12. Atomic Weapons – Other Victims • Hundreds of thousands of hibakusha – atomic bomb survivors • 80,000 cancers (15,000 fatal) in US citizens as a result of fallout from atmospheric testing • NCI/CDC

  13. Atomic Weapons Today • 20,000 nuclear weapons • Several thousand megatons • US and Russia have 13,000 actively deployed warheads

  14. Atomic Weapons Today • 2500 (US) and 2000 (Russia) on high alert • Fired within 15 minutes, reach targets in 30 minutes • Vastly redundant arsenal • 150-200 weapons adequate to destroy all major urban centers in Russia

  15. Atomic Weapons Today Accidental intermediate-sized launch of weapons from a single Russian submarine would immediately kill 6.8 million Americans in 8 cities

  16. Nuclear Weapons – Oops! • Pentagon: 32 nuclear weapons accidents since 1950 • GAO: 233 • Since 1950, 10 nuclear weapons lost and never recovered • All laying on seabed, potentially leaking radioactivity

  17. Effects of a Nuclear Explosion • Immediate: • Vaporized by thermal radiation • Crushed by blast wave • Burned and suffocated by firestorm

  18. Effects of a Nuclear Explosion • Intermediate: • Suffering, painful deaths • Health care personnel/resources overwhelmed • Famine • Refugees • Devastated transportation infrastructure

  19. Effects of a Nuclear Explosion • Late effects: • Cancer • Psychological trauma • Nuclear winter (mass starvation due to disruption of agricultural, transportation, industrial and health care systems)

  20. Effects of a 20 megaton nuclear explosion • Ground zero → 2 miles: • Fireball hotter than sun • everything vaporized • 2 - 4 miles: • Buildings ripped apart and leveled

  21. Effects of a 20 megaton nuclear explosion • 4 - 10 miles: • Sheet metal melts; concrete buildings heavily damaged (all others leveled) • 16 miles: • 100 mph winds, firestorm, T = 1400° C • 100% mortality

  22. Effects of a 20 megaton nuclear explosion • 21 miles: • Shattered glass, flying debri • 29 miles: • 3° burns over all exposed skin • 40 miles: • Retinal burns blind all who witness explosion

  23. Effects of a 20 megaton nuclear explosion over Boston • Death toll: • 1,000,000 within minutes • 1,800,000 survivors: • 1,100,000 fatally injured • 500,000 with major injuries • 200,000 without injuries

  24. Types of Injuries • Burns • Blindings • Deafenings • Collapsed lungs • Fractures • Shrapnel wounds

  25. Radiation Sickness • Medium to high doses: death within 1-7 days • Low doses: BM failure, infections, bleeding, sores, ± death

  26. Effects on health professionals • 70% killed or fatally wounded • 15% injured • < 1000 survive

  27. Effects on health care system • Most major hospitals destroyed • EMS system debilitated • No X-ray machines, electricity, water, antibiotics or other meds, blood/plasma, bandages

  28. Effects on health care system • 2000 burn unit beds in US (100 per major city) – essentially destroyed • No bone marrow transplant capability

  29. Effects on Health Care System • 1500 patients/doctor • 10 min/pt • 4 hours sleep/noc • 2 weeks to see all injured

  30. Nuclear Terrorism • Attack on nuclear power plant or other nuclear installation • Dirty bomb • Potential tens to hundreds of thousands of deaths, billions of dollars of damage, chaos • Numerous radiation sources left over from Cold War in post-Soviet countries

  31. Nuclear Terrorism • Reports of weapons/numerous radiation sources missing from Soviet arsenal • The Nth Country experiment (1964): 3 science post-docs with no nuclear know-how designed a working atom bomb

  32. Chemical Weapons • 428 BC – Athenians and Spartans burned wax, pitch and sulfur • Davinci – arsenic and sulfur shells • WW I • Italians vs. Ethiopians • Japanese vs. Chinese • Germans vs. Allies • chlorine gas • 91,000 deaths and 1.3 million injuries

  33. Chemical Weapons • Egypt vs. South Yemen (1963-7) • Iran/Iraq War (1980s) • Gulf War (versus Kurds, ? Others) • 1995 Tokyo subway attack by Aum Shrinko cult using sarin • 12 dead, 5000 injured or incapacitated

  34. Types of Chemical Weapons • Nerve gasses / paralytics • E.g., sarin, VX • S/S: paralysis (incl. resp. muscles), headache, dizziness, N/V • Rx: ± gas masks, pretreatment with pyridostigmine, decontamination, antidotes (atropine, pralidoxime, diazepam, tropicamide)

  35. Types of Chemical Weapons • Blistering agents: • E.g., sulphur mustard • S/S: burns, blindness, pulmonary toxicity, BM suppression, N/V/D • Rx: decontamination, analgesia, pulmonary and eye care

  36. Types of Chemical Weapons • Pulmonary toxicants • E.g., chlorine, phosgene • S/S: pneumonitis, laryngeal spasm, pulmonary edema, ARDS • Rx: O2, bronchodilators, corticosteroids, ?ibuprofen, ?acetylcysteine

  37. Chemical Weapons • 1972 Biological and Toxic Weapons Convention prohibits development, production, and stockpiling • 1989 stockpiles: • US – 36,000 tons • Russia – 270,000 tons (1/2 = nerve gas) • Current amounts unclear

  38. Other Chemical Weapons • Tear gas, pepper spray • Calmatives: mind-altering or sleep-inducing weapons (benzo-, SSRI-, and anesthetic derivatives) • Cramp-inducing agents

  39. Other Chemical Weapons • Stink bombs (“?Race specific?”) • Colored smoke as an obscurant • Crowd control vs use in warfare • US pilot amphetamine use

  40. Biological Weapons - History • Ancient Greeks, Romans and Persians • US Civil War (General Johnson at Vicksburg) • 14th Century: Tatars catapulting plague-infested corpses

  41. Biological Weapons - History • Sir Jeffrey Amherst (French and Indian Wars - smallpox): “You would do well to try to inoculate the Indians, by means of blankets, … to extirpate this execrable race” • WW I: Cholera, plague, glanders, anthrax

  42. Biological Weapons – WW II • Unit 731, Manchuria, Shiro Ishii • British “Operation Vegetarian” (anthrax cakes / Germany) • US military personnel received typhoid, smallpox, yellow fever and tetanus vaccines

  43. Biological Weapons Post WWII • Swerdlosk - anthrax • Zimbabwe - anthrax

  44. Biological Weapons Today • 17 countries possess (+ Al Qaeda?) • US role in supplying other nations: • e.g., 1985-1989: US companies sold to Iraq: • Bacillus anthracis, Clostridium botulinum, Histoplasma capsulatum, Brucella melitensis, Clostsridium perfringens, Clostridium tetani, and E. coli • Despite evidence of use of chemical weapons against Kurds

  45. Biological Weapons Today • 1972 Biological Weapons Protocol: signed by 158 nations • Lacks adequate enforcement mechanisms • US has rejected enforcement (wary of foreign inspectors discovering military secrets and/or trade secrets of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies)

  46. Biological Weapons - Agents Anthrax Brucellosis Cholera Glanders Pneumonic plague Tularemia Q Fever Smallpox Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers (e.g., Ebola) Botulism Staph enterotoxin B Ricin Mycxotoxins

  47. Biological Weapons of the Future • Genetic weapons – targeted at specific ethnic groups

  48. Smallpox • DNA virus; decimated native American populations; eradicated by WHO vaccination campaign in 1972 • ?Only remaining viral stocks at CDCP and in Siberia?

  49. Smallpox • Incubation period 7-17 days (avg. = 12) • Spread by droplet infection; highly contagious • Symptoms: abrupt onset of F/HA/myalgias → rash → MSOF → death

  50. Smallpox • Rx: isolation, post-exposure vaccination, supportive care, ?antivirals • 30 % fatality rate

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