From: aj359@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Christopher C. Morton)
Subject: Re: Nature of the Waco gas
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Lines: 37
Reply-To: aj359@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Christopher C. Morton)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc10.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, dbernard@clesun.Central.Sun.COM (Dave Bernard) says:

>Just heard on the network radio news a spokesman from the
>army saying that the type of CS gas used in Waco had been
>banned from military use.  Its use is also banned by a
>draft international agreement on the use of chemical
>weapons in warfare.
>
>The reason given was that the use causes extreme nausea,
>blindness, disorientation, total irrationality, raging paranoia.  

I don't know about the paranoia and irrationality, but the rest is
pretty close, all though you left out the inability to breath.  Of
course you can make a claim that people will do some fairly deranged
things to get away from it.  I've seen teenagers flatten 200lb. drill
sergeants to get out of tents full of it.  Which raises another
issue....

>Children would be all the more susceptible, and show the results all the
>earlier.  
>
>This is the stuff Janet Reno was told would be safe for children.

What they didn't mention is that IN THE OPEN, it probably wouldn't do
TOO MUCH harm to children, although I wouldn't use it in close proximity
to infants.  On the other hand, IN CONFINED spaces, the effects are
GREATLY intensified, to the point of LETHALITY, since a sufficient
quantity of CS will displace OXYGEN.  When running a CS chamber CAREFUL
attention is paid to ventilation.  I wonder if they checked to see if
any of the BDs were asthmatics or suffered from other respiratory
diseases.  I doubt it.

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