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U.S. Response: Washington Authorities Prepare for Biochemical Attacks Transit authorities and hospitals in the U.S. capital are devising plans to respond to a biochemical terrorist attack, the Washington Times reported. Washington’s subway and local and federal agencies will simulate a terrorist chemical attack at a subway station in early December to test a sensor system designed to detect chemical agents and authorities’ responses. The simulation will involve Metro Transit Police and D.C. fire and police departments who will not be notified of the test’s exact date or time. The test is part of a five-year, $17 million test program. The Washington subway, the only transit agency in the United States with the sensing technology, began preparations following the 1995 subway chemical attack in Tokyo, Japan. Transit Police Chief Barry McDevitt said Metro began installing sensors to detect chemical agents in subway stations in 1999. Sensors are installed inside and outside certain stations, and Metro plans to install sensors on subway cars. The sensor system would show where chemical agents are in the subway system and could track the spread of chemical agents, showing the best exits for the public and entrances for rescue workers. The system would allow Metro operators to change the airflow inside the subway system, moving chemicals away from passengers. Metro also has air filters that could dilute toxins. The sensors would sound an alarm to alert the public in the vicinity of chemical agents to “run the other way,” according to one source. “Our scientists have estimated that if one can respond within six minutes … over 1,800 lives would be saved in a small-scale sarin nerve-gas attack,” said Page Stoutland, former director of the Energy Department’s Chemical and Biological Nonproliferation Program. Metro might install biological weapons sensors by the end of 2001 (Daniel Drummond, Washington Times, Sept. 29). Hospital Preparations Washington hospitals are increasing education and updating emergency plans to respond to biochemical attacks. Georgetown University Medical Center has held three seminars and additional staff meetings since Sept. 11 to train hospital personnel to recognize symptoms of biological attack. The center convened a task force in 1999 that created response scenarios for small, large or massive biological attacks. Dr. Luciana Borio, a fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies, said many physicians are not used to looking for signs of biological attack, and raising their awareness is the first step in preparing a response. George Washington University’s Medical Center faculty have training in nuclear, biological and chemical exposure. Dr. Keith Holtermann of George Washington said most hospitals do not have electronic records, which makes spotting similar cases difficult. “There’s not a protocol for community hospitals, or even university hospitals, for detecting this,” he said. Holtermann said cost cutting has also eroded medical facilities’ ability to handle a massive attack. In the past, hospitals were able to attain an extra 100 or 200 beds when necessary, but they no longer have that excess capacity, he said. Holtermann said hospitals do not want to spend resources on plans for scenarios that might happen “once in a lifetime,” so he suggested strengthening the systems hospitals use every day so that those systems can expand to respond to large biological attacks. A 1993 U.S. congressional Office of Technology Assessment report estimated that an aerosol attack using 100 kilograms of anthrax upwind of the Washington metropolitan area could kill 130,000 to 3 million people (Matthew Cella, Washington Times, Sept. 29).
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