From The Alpha and the Omega - Chapter Five
by Jim A. Cornwell, Copyright © 1995, all rights reserved
"Tenth Plague in the Tenth Month on the Tenth Day by Ten Persons"
The following was added on August 15, 2004 for interest about above subject"
8/12/2004 - Two drugs to ease effects of radiation win approval of FDA by Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration approved two new products yesterday to help deal with the consequences of terrorists using dirty bombs.
- Approved were:
- Penetate calcium trisodium injection, Ca-DTPA.
- Penetate zinc trisodium injection, Zn-DTPA.
Acting FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford said that the products, to be available by prescription only, are designed to speed up elimination of radiation from the body. Dirty bombs have become an increasing concern. Unlike warheads designed to kill and destroy through a huge nuclear blast and heat, so-called dirty bombs are radiation weapons. They would rely on conventional explosives to blow radioactive material far and wide. A successful bomb could make a section of a city unihabitable for years.
The FDA said the goal is to provide protection from both nuclear accidents and threats. It said the two drugs are safe and effective for treating contamination from the elements plutonium, americium or curium.
The FDA said that while these drugs have been used on an experimental basis for several years, until now there have been no approved drugs for treatment of internal contamination by the three radioactive elements.
Plutonium, americium or curium can enter the body through a variety of routes including ingestion, inhalation or direct contact through wounds. By removing them quickly the victim may avoid possible future effects including the development of certain cancers, which may occur years after exposure, the FDA said.
The following was added on October 7, 2012 for interest about above subject"
8/12/2004 - Secret Cold War tests raise concerns - Professor thinks radiation used by Jim Salter, Associated Press
ST.LOUIS — Doris Spates was a baby when her father died inexplicably in 1955. She has watched four siblings die of cancer, and she survived cervical cancer.
After learning that the Army conducted secret chemical testing in her poor St. Louis neighborhood at the height of the Cold War, she wonders if her own government is to blame. In the mid-1950s, and again a decade later, the Army used motorized blowers atop a low-income housing high-rise, at schools and from the backs of station wagons to send a potentially dangerous compound into the hazy air in predominantly black areas of St. Louis. Local officials were told that the government was testing a smoke screen that could shield St. Louis from aerial observation in case the Russians attacked. But in 1994, the government said the tests were part of a biological weapons program and St. Louis was chosen because it bore some resemblance to Russian cities that the U.S. might attack. The material being sprayed was zinc cadmium sulfide, a fine fluorescent powder.
Now, research by St. Louis Community College-Meramec sociology professor Lisa Martino- Taylor has raised the possibility that the Army performed radiation testing by mixing radioactive particles with the zinc cadmium sulfide, though she concedes there is no direct proof. Her report, released last month, was troubling enough that both U.S. senators from Missouri wrote to Army Secretary John McHugh seeking answers.
Aides to Sens. Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt said they have received no response. Army spokesman Dave Foster declined an interview request, saying the Army would first respond to the senators.
A committee of the National Research Council determined in 1997 that the testing did not expose residents to harmful levels of the chemical. But the committee said research was sparse and the finding relied on limited data from animal testing.
This page updated on August 15, 2004,and October 7, 2012.
Return to the Table of Contents or the Home Page
Of interest is the articles regarding modern day radiation experiments and victims.