COLLIER'S (September 26, 1942)
The Truth About Poison Gas
by Leonard MillimanThe most formidable thing about poison gas is the panic it can cause among uninformed populations. As a weapon it's reltively a flop when you know all the things to do about it, gas mask or no gas mask.
Nearly 2,400 years ago, during the Greek tribal wars, some warriors attacking the city of Megara put on a gas attack. They soaked kindling wood in sulphur and pitch and set it afire to windward of the town. The idea was okay--but the wind changed and the attackers cried their eyes out while getting away, fast. The Megara boys said it just went to prove poison gas never would replace the spear.
Down through the centuries since then, poison gas has been touted as the thing to replace bows and arrows, culverins, battleships, tanks, warplanes and snickersnees--but it never has. It is a great deal less deadly than high explosives or shrapnel: a lot easier to guard against or just simple dodge. Its greatest danger to us is that it may cause mass hysteria among people ignorant of its effects and how to combat them. But gas will fail, even as a panic-maker, against civilian population that knows what it is all about.
Fear of poison gas has been created largely by fictionists and by "facts," such as "a ton of mustard gas will kill 45,000,000 people." This last is theoretically true--if you could get 45,000,000 people to file slowly into a lethal chamber saturated with the gas.
A better fact, however, is that at the close of the last war, when most soldiers had some protection, it took eight tons of mustard gas to kill one fighter. In this same war, three and a half years of scientific and military effort to kill and injure men by gas and smoke resulted in 91,198 deaths and 1,205,655 nonfatal injuries. Americans kill more than 100,000 and injure more than 3,000,000 other Americans on highways--without trying.
Gas casualties in the other war would have been much lighter but for the fact that many soldiers at first were completely unprepared; other thousands were given no instructions in what to do after they had been gassed, and so died because they did not take simple precautions.
If gas is used against American cities in this war, it will be for one main purpose--to create panic. Defense against that is a clear understanding concerning various gases, how to foil them, how to nullify their effects.
Within the past decade, every great nation has been credited with possession of some new, mysterious and super-deadly gas. However, as far as American chemists know, these stories all are untrue. There may be and probably are new combinations of old gases, but that's about all: no "Dew of Death" to wipe out whole cities in a few seconds. As far as anyone knows, there is no gas that can't be guarded against by any intelligent citizen who knows what to do. One man who didn't quite know what to do was gassed, by mustard, on October 14, 1918--a guy named Hitler. Didn't get enough of it, though. Too bad.
There are six or seven major war gases. Let's have a look at some of them, in the hope that familiarity will breed, not contempt, but confidence.
First, there's chlorine. It comes in greenish-yellow clouds; gauze masks usually are sufficient protection. Then there's phosgene, a combination of chlorine and carbon monoxide. The latter, of course, is the odorless, invisible gas emitted by millions of automobiles in city streets, without ill effect because it is in small quantities and quickly dissipated upward. Phosgene is deadlier than straight chlorine, but is made harmless by masks dipped in a solution of sodium phenolate.
Then there's mustard, the so-called "King of War Gases." The vapor from this brownish, oily-looking stuff may persist in some spots for a week. It poisons everything it touches. It penetrates clothing and shoes, raises skin blisters, temporarily blinds, inflames the lungs and induces pneumonia. It is a nuisance gas, putting forty people out of action for every one it kills.
Another gas--lewisite--is American, invented just as the last war was ending. It's one-fifth deadlier than mustard, but not as persistent or stable. It's hard, dangerous and expensive to make, and contains arsine, a poisonous arsenic compound. There's arsine, too, in another poison gas--ethyldichlorarsine. This temporarily paralyzes the hands, raises blisters and causes vomiting, but it isn't as deadly as lewisite.
Chloropicrin and diphosgene are lung irritants, like phosgene, but not as troublesome. In addition, there are irritant smokes. One is called adamsite. These smokes cause great pain, if they get into your lungs.
Since all war gasses are heavier than air, they can be sprayed from planes as well as dropped in bombs or carried in artillery shells. What you should never forget is that gases flow downhill like water and drift with the wind. That means for you: Stay away from low places and get to windward of a gas bomb. There is, mathematically, only one chance in three million you will be directly hit by a bomb.
How to Seek Shelter
If you are caught near a gas-bomb burst, walk briskly across wind out of danger. Any near-by building will provide some protection; the lee side of a second floor is relatively safe. A third-floor apartment or office on the side away from the wind is good protection against anything except a long, tremendously heavy gas attack. Shut the windows and stay inside until the gas-decontamination squads have sounded an "All clear."Anyone living in a home lacking second and third stories can quickly make a relatively gasproof room on the leeward side of the house. On the next windy day, survey your potentially gas-resistant room for leaks and drafts.
The antigas room should not be in a corner, if avoidable, and should have a minimum number of windows. It should also be a blackout room, because lights will be needed for gas-proofing at night.
If an attack comes, go into the room, close all doors and windows and ventilators, and put out the fire, if you have one. Stop up the flues as best you can with old clothes. Seal the joints of doors and windows with adhesive or plastic tape. Caulk any crevices, such as around radiator pipes. You may use wet newspapers for larger cracks. If you have plywood over the windows, seal it along the edges. If you don't have plywood, tack wet blankets over the windows in case high explosive blasts out the glass.
Five years ago, the British government proved the safety of a protected room against gas. A windy-side room was selected, to make it tougher, and the windows were boarded up and a single blanket hung outside the door. Nearly two tons of chlorine, released twenty yards away, seeped perceptibly into the other rooms of the house within seven minutes. Air in the gasproofed room stayed pure. Then mustard was sprayed on the house for an hour, followed by a 20-hour attack of mustard vapor. Animals held in unprotected rooms were not even seriously hurt, while those in the protected room were not harmed at all. Then tear gas was tried. It got into unprotected rooms in thirteen minutes, but not into the gasproofed apartment.
A few casualties have to be expected from a gas raid, but far fewer than from a high explosive attack. But, of course, any dolt can get himself killed or badly hurt by staying deliberately in a gassed area.
The persistence of any gas in a neighborhood depends largely on the weather. Rain, winds and updrafts are all death on gas. Decontamination squads, looking like invaders from Mars, eliminate gas in various ways and get rid of pools of liquid mustard or lewisite, which give off poisonous vapors. But, you could safely stand upwind from a pool of lewisite or mustard. It isn't recommended however; the wind might change or another bomb might burst farther upwind, putting you on a sort of lee shore.
Dread of poison gas is as natural as the fear of being killed by any other means. It was felt even by F.N. Pickett, who in 1918 had the job of destroying the most gigantic accumulation of war gas of all time, in ammunition dumps in France. Pickett probably went through more gas clouds than any other human being, and he went through unharmed. He used to tell his helpers. "You'll feel frightened, but don't be ashamed of it. Have complete confidence in the precautions you take. Once you have controlled your fear long enough to carry out the rules, your fear will vanish."
For bad cases of "gas nerves" Pickett used to recommend a couple of aspirin tablets or a five-grain tablet of potassium bromide.
If you want to go into the thing thoroughly, you can buy a $5 "Sniff Set" through the Office of Civilian Defense. This is a set of liquid-filled bottles with simulated odors of typical war gases, and sniffing them is completely harmless.
The generally accepted odor-descriptions are these:
Mustard smells like garlic, horseradish, or mustard. Lewisite is like geraniums and gives a biting sensation if concentrated. Phosgene smells like freshly cut corn, or like ensilage, if concentrated. Chloropicrin resembles anise, flypaper or licorice. Chloracetophenone (tear gas) smells like locust or apple blossoms or ripe fruit. Adamsite is like coal smoke.
Since 1918, the only acknowledged improvements in gas warfare have been in methods of protection, in development of the irritant smokes, and in the means of dispersing gases. The strangest variation in methods involves chloropicrin, a bad lung irritant used by the Germans against the Russians in the other war. Now gas-masked nurserymen near Olympia, Washington, sow chloropicrin in the earth to kill weeds, root rot and harmful fungi before planting evergreen tree seedlings.
Millions for Masks
These men, who work in a swirl of deadly gas, are most emphatic in telling you: Don't be afraid of poison gas.Churchill has warned Hitler against using poison gas against the Russians. President Roosevelt has warned the Japanese, who have been repeatedly accused by the Chinese. The Roosevelt threat was that "retaliation in kind will be meted out in full measure," and probably no nation is better prepared to mete out this sort of punishment than our own. We never have subscribed to any of the international paper scraps outlawing gas.
Our own precautions, too, are more extensive than is usually realized. In February, Congress set aside $29,893,894 to by gas masks for civilians. They cost, in peacetime, about $3 each and, like Army masks, are invulnerable to all known war gases. In many combat zones, especially on the Pacific Coast, policemen, firemen, air-raid wardens, fire watchers and others, now carry masks. Precautions in Hawaii, where decontamination squads hold regular drills, include "Bunny Masks" for toddling youngsters.
For months, many Civilian Protection Schools, staffed by officers from the Chemical Warfare Service, have been offering courses in gas detection, dispersal and defense. Doctors have similarly been schooled in recognition and treatment of gas cases, to prevent repitition of mistakes made by some physicians in 1917--who at first diagnosed mustard gas blisters as scarlet fever. Nothing like that is likely to happen this time.
Remember this about gases: Respect them, don't fear them. Before an attack, learn what to do and practice doing it; in an attack, keep your head and do the right things, and the chances are you'll be all right.
--Collier's, September 26, 1942
It most likely won't come, but if it does--
Don't let Poison Gas panic you
by Paul W. Kearney
Military authorities have felt that the odds are againstthe use f oion gas by our enemies. Yet they concede that with Axis troubles piling up, the time may come when the Germans and the Japs will jettison discretion and resort to gas raids against civilians on an all-or-nothing gamble. Indeed, the Japanese have already several times used gas on the Chinese.
This speculation was most recently voiced by Hon. James W. Gerard, former Ambassador to Germany. It is logical, because gas has been pictured by thriller writers as a terrible killer and because apprehension of it is so exaggerated that, unless the truth is broadcast, it may become the ace of all panic weapons.
Not that gas isn't an efficient weapon of war; it most assuredly is. Yet defense against it improved so rapidly after 1915 that the total number of American troops who died from gas in World War I was only 1,399--as contrasted to 2,370 who died from measles! Soldiers trapped in trenches are much finer targets than civilians who can take refuge indoors.
War gas is dangerous; but the above simple comparison sums up the story in a nutshell: the basic defenses against it are kowledge and training. Here are some salient points about war gases:
Modern war gases fall into two broad categories, Persistent and Nonpersistent--so called because some gases are harder to get rid of than others. The Persistent types, including Mustard and Lewisite, are oily liquids, which vaporize slowly after striking the earth. The Nonpersistent ones, such as Phosgene and Tear Gases, are actually clouds of vapor, which move with the wind. War gases aren't necessarily visible to the eye; some can be seen, others can't.
Those most likely to be used are Mustard and Lewisite, called "blister" gases because they blister the skin. Mustard (smelling like garlic or horseradish) and Lewisite (with a geranium odor) are least affected by wind and vaporize so slowly that they may give off poisonous fumes for days, even weeks, in cold, dry weather.
Most gases are heavier than air, hence tend to stay close to the ground, but will rise to the upper air levels wth warm air currents. Urban buildings are likely to be relatively safe refuges from the third floor up. Most American dwellings will be sufficiently gasproof if a room on any floor can have all openings tightly shut: windows, fireplaces, ventilating ducts, etc. A tight house, even if it is one-story, is the best protection against any gas. As a precaution, blankets or wooden panels should be kept in readiness to replace broken window glasses.
Unless you are trained in gas defense, don't waste time trying to identify gasses by their odors: get out of the area quickly or seek shelter indoors, preferably upstairs, and stay there. Avoid subways and basements.
If you hear the gas signal during a raid, stay indoors intil your warden notifies you it is safe outside. The gas alarm signal is made by rotating a wooden clacker like those used as noisemakers on New Year's Eve.
If caught outdoors in a gas attack, don't get panicky. Forget the fantastic yarns you've heard, and remember that exposure to war gases is usually not fatal and may not even be serious. People exposed to war gases usually recover completely. Get indoors; remain quiet; if necessary, carry out the self-aid measures recommended below.
If exposed to blister gas, remove your outer clothing before going indoors, leaving it outside. If first-aid materials aren't handy, remove all clothing without delay and get under a shower or pour water over yourself in a tub, using soap generously. Don't wait for symptoms: they may take a half-hour or more after exposure to appear.
Exposure to Mustard or Lewisite calls for quick first aid. But the details are simple and most homes have the necessary essentials, to wit: An enema bag (for irrigating eyes, nose, and throat); several bottles of any common laundry bleaching and disinfecting solution containing sodium hypochlorite (your grocer or druggist can tell you which they are); baking soda; soap; a metal container with a lid, such as a garbage can; an ample supply of cotton or dry cloths about half the size of a man's handkerchief.
The steps in emergency treatment, after removing outer clothing, are:
- With the cotton or cloth, blot (don't rub) any liquid gas from the skin.
- Saturate a washcloth or hand towel with laundry-bleach solution, and apply it to the affected skin areas. Sodium hypochlorite is the best available antidote for blister gas.
- Irrigate each eye for two minutes with a 2-percent solution of baking soda (1 tablespoonful to a quart of water). This should be done within 5 minutes after exposure. If no enema bag is available, pour the solution from a pot that has a spout.
- Take a shower, using plenty of hot water and soap; wash the hair, too. And be sure the drain is open. If you have no shower or bath spray, pour water over yourself from a pail. Do not take a tub bath; this may spread the liquid gas over your body.
- Irrigate nose and throat with a solution like that used for the eyes.
- If blisters form, don't touch or break them.
- If your lungs feel heavy or oppressed, if you cough much, if smoking is distasteful, lie down and stay absolutely quiet; you will probably require medical attention.
- Deposit all contaminated clothing, cotton, rags, etc., in the container; put the lid on tight; take it outdoor s soon as it is safe to do so. Do not touch the clothing with your hands; pick it up with sticks. Later it should be burned or should be decontaminated by the proper authorities.
Gas is no play-toy; but a little knowledge pulls its teeth. It is definitely a panic weapon rather than a killer. Hence the more we know about it, the less chance there is of the enemy's using it against us successfully.
--Good Housekeeping, May 1943
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