Return-Path: <sentto-279987-2415-1001571177-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com> Delivered-To: fc@all.net Received: from 204.181.12.215 by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.1.0) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Wed, 26 Sep 2001 23:15:09 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 3587 invoked by uid 510); 27 Sep 2001 06:14:27 -0000 Received: from n1.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.51) by 204.181.12.215 with SMTP; 27 Sep 2001 06:14:27 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-2415-1001571177-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.1.221] by hh.egroups.com with NNFMP; 27 Sep 2001 06:14:10 -0000 X-Sender: fc@big.all.net X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_3_2_2); 27 Sep 2001 06:12:56 -0000 Received: (qmail 95333 invoked from network); 27 Sep 2001 06:12:56 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by 10.1.1.221 with QMQP; 27 Sep 2001 06:12:56 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO big.all.net) (65.0.156.78) by mta3 with SMTP; 27 Sep 2001 06:14:07 -0000 Received: (from fc@localhost) by big.all.net (8.9.3/8.7.3) id XAA03982 for iwar@onelist.com; Wed, 26 Sep 2001 23:14:07 -0700 Message-Id: <200109270614.XAA03982@big.all.net> To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List) Organization: I'm not allowed to say X-Mailer: don't even ask X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL1] From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net> Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 23:14:06 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Subject: [iwar] [fc:Hospitals.told.to.prepare.for.germ.warfare] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 26 2001 Hospitals told to prepare for germ warfare London Times BY JILL SHERMAN AND IAN COBAIN EMERGENCY guidelines on dealing with chemical or biological warfare are to be issued to every hospital in Britain this week as emergency planners step up preparations for a possible terrorist strike against the country. The move comes after the World Health Organisation warned Western governments to be alert and prepare for bio-terrorist raids in retaliation for any US action against the Taleban. Alan Milburn, the Health Secretary, is advising NHS trusts what to do if there is a localised germ or chemical attack. His officials held six hours of talks last Friday with senior Scotland Yard officers, fire chiefs and ambulance service managers to update their emergency plans. The advice will update guidelines issued to health authorities in March last year that gave details on how germs can be identified and where people can be treated. It will also list vital contact numbers for medical specialists and scientists. The Civil Contingencies Secretariat, set up by the Prime Minister in July in response to last year s fuel protests, has been revising emergency plans for dealing with a wide range of possible terrorist incidents, from hijackings and bombings to chemical or biological attacks. Details of any revised emergency plans are expected to be passed to local authority planners, police forces, hospitals and ambulance services. The Secretariat s 70-plus staff at Whitehall and at the Emergency Planning College at Easingwold, North Yorkshire, have been ordered to examine the plans, codenamed Exercise Misty Scene, that were drawn up after sarin gas was released on Tokyo's subway system in 1995. Officials were anxious yesterday to play down the likelihood of a biological attack, saying that the new NHS guidelines were merely a precaution to ensure that hospitals had all the latest information. We have been guided from the centre that there is no evidence of any specific threat, a health official said. But it is important that people stay vigilant and important that the Government continues to contingency plan. The WHO released a draft report of its technical guide, Health Aspects of Biological and Chemical Weapons, to health ministries around the world yesterday, several weeks earlier than planned. The organisation s executive director, David Nabarro, said: We hope that we are not being alarmist. Several countries have contacted the WHO over the last few days just wanting to reassure themselves about the kind of precautions they need to take in case there was any kind of deliberate use of biological agents. We think it is prudent to respond to make sure they get the information they need to plan in case such a terrible thing was to happen. He added that terrorists could use anthrax, smallpox or botulism, a toxin drawn from a bacterium, which causes paralysis. Although this is a pretty frightful scenario, there is some suggestion that smallpox could be used, he said. That s the sort of family of agents concerned. Dr Nabarro did not know how easy it would be to mount a large-scale attack on a Western population. Because we don t know enough about what s involved in using these agents effectively to cause harm, we are suggesting people take the risks seriously and recognise that it might be much easier than the use of other forms of potential terrorist weapons, he said. The US has grounded crop-dusting planes amid fears that terrorists could use them to spread chemical or biological agents. When FBI officers arrested Habib Zacarias Moussaoui, 33, a former resident of Brixton, South London, who paid for Boeing 747 simulator training before the attacks on September 11, they discovered crop dusting manuals at his home. One hijacker, Mohammed Atta, had tried to buy a crop-spraying plane. In Britain yesterday Special Branch detectives checked companies licensed to conduct aerial sprays of crops and pollutants such as oil slicks. The Civil Aviation Authority said that six companies were licensed as agricultural aviation operators and they tended to use helicopters. Of the six, only three now carry out the work. British hospitals were asked last week to upgrade their major incident emergency plans to cope with mass casualties. Mr Milburn confirmed yesterday that he had asked the NHS to review contingency planning arrangements and to ensure they are flexible and can cope with different eventualities . Many hospitals are equipped with decontamination units and some NHS trusts stock antibiotics that can be given to those infected by deadly viruses, including anthrax. Officials said that enough vaccine is stored nationally to deal with localised germ attacks, and each health authority would have a specialist laboratory with vaccine and antibiotics. Other officials suggested that the run on gas masks may be ill-judged. Our advice from public health doctors would be that the gas masks around would not be any use against some of the biological agents which we know about, one said. Nerve agents affect the skin and a mask would provide little cover and would provide false reassurance. The Army Store in Leith, Edinburgh, which is one of Scotland s biggest Army supply stores, normally sells ten masks in a year. Yesterday it said that it had had requests from more than 300 people. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get your FREE VeriSign guide to security solutions for your web site: encrypting transactions, securing intranets, and more! http://us.click.yahoo.com/UnN2wB/m5_CAA/yigFAA/kgFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ------------------ http://all.net/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-09-29 21:08:50 PDT