European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 7, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Facing up to Poison Gasby Guy Gugliotta Washington Post. ,. Poison Gas strikes fear in the hearts of the uninitiated but the experts of operation. Desert shield agree that it is a poor Way to make War a inefficient  and relatively harmless an artillery Shell is Likely to kill Many More . Soldiers than a canister of nerve Gas. \ i a /. Ii a demystifying chemical warfare a a significant weapon in the Arsenal of Saddam Hussein the iraqi president a is an important objective in desert shield training with proper preparation experts believe casualties from chemical warfare can be minimized. Poison Gas ceases to be a threat and becomes merely a nuisance. Yet while . Forces Are confident they can avoid major a casualties from the Poison Gas itself chemical warfare poses Many secondary problems How to treat a contaminated soldiers who have other wounds How to a decontaminate Large numbers of soldiers when it takes 15. Minutes to decontaminate each one How to fight a desert a War wearing a Gas mask and an impermeable chemical suit in an environment where daytime temperatures even in the dead of Winter routinely surpass 80 f. A a treatment acknowledged cmdr. Thad Zajdowicz. Chief of internal Medicine and infectious diseases at the . A Navy s Fleet Hospital can be Quot very cumbersome Quot which does Worsen the  he added it is difficult to know How. Countermeasures will work because Quot i Don t have firsthand experience in the front line.�?�. A a. Nor do any of the other desert shield soldiers Iraq is. Known to possess both nerve Gas and Mustard Gas a blistering agent and used both against Iran in the Tran Iraq -. War and against civilians in Kurdistan in the late 1980s. A Western nations have not encountered Mustard Gas. Since world War i in which both sides used Poison Gas extensively. Nerve Gas invented in  the. 1930s, has never served As a  in any War involving the United states. Unfamiliarity coupled with the appalling history of Poison Gas has created a chemical warfare myth that in one sense is far More dangerous than reality. Quot much of the problem 1 said Zajdowicz Quot is  anxiety is part of his Job. He and other experts note that Only 3 percent of the iranians contaminated with nerve Gas during the Iran Iraq War died Many because they could not fit masks Over beards worn for religious  Gas is not a particularly effective or efficient Way to make War Quot Zajdowicz said. Wearing a protective suit and with help  detection vehicles and instruments soldiers Are taught to navigate contaminated areas easily and without fear. At the same time new countermeasures and treatments Are being developed. To late november for. Instance  military forces began distributing the tranquil Izer diazepam a a More commonly known by its Trade name valium a As a an antidote to the terminal symptoms of nerve Gas Quot diazepam is a new part of the doctrine but the doctrine itself has not changed Quot said Zajdowicz. Quot it s a question of being prepared for what needs to be  / despite their Confidence however Zajdowicz and others emphasize that chemical warfare can have a grim effect on the unschooled and the unwary. For them myth can become reality. ,. Nerve gases known generically As Quot a agents Quot Are. Chemically Akin to common Organo phosphate agricultural pesticides. Tabun the nerve agent used by Iraq is similar to the pesticide malathion and can be made just As easily. A Tabun attacks the nervous system in three stages first causing a , salivation tightness in the Chest and dim vision. Later victims experience headache dizziness a sweating nausea involuntary defecation and urination. In the final stage the Gas attacks the Central nervous system producing muscle spasms convulsions coma and  untreated death. The Basic antidote to nerve Gas is atropine a venerable drug once made from the deadly nightshade Plant and used in shakespearean times As a Beauty Aid to enlarge the pupils of women s eyes. It was called Belladonna a Quot Beautiful lady Quot in italian a and taken in Large doses is itself a Poison., soldiers feeling the Early effects of nerve Gas Are. Instructed to give themselves one to three injections of atropine carried As part of their chemical warfare kits. Atropine is a direct antagonist of nerve Gas and can reverse its effects immediately restoring vision nerve Gas contracts the pupils of the eyes and halting involuntary loss of body fluids. Injections of a second drug Pali dome Chloride restore the internal chemical balance upset by the Gas the h re in c is p 9 w p c s the to or h e t re 9 the d a Aby Douglas Frantz los Angeles times a s hould . Troops go to War against Iraq Thea deadliest weapon unleashed on them by Saddam Hussein a forces could be stamped Quot made in. A America Quot. Over the objections of its    provided iraqi agents with technology for developing Luel. Air explosives such  to times More powerful a than conventional weapons and Are considered by some a experts to be Quot a poor Man s nuclear  am Quot along with design data for a missile warhead armed with fuel air explosives the 300-Page a they Well study obtained by Iraq described ways to inflict the maximum damage and listed the most vulnerable targets a personnel air bases planes naval ports Oil refineries and ships. Am. A the Story of the role played in Iraq s development of these weapons by Honeywell one of America s biggest defense companies illustrates  see As both Tiro laxity of . Exj3ort controls and the peril facing  troops As a result of the United states quiet a gtd to Iraq during its eight year War with Iran. A / Quot the Case also shows Hows with such technology. A transfers perfectly Legal and tacitly  by tee Reagan and Bush administrations executives and a engineers were left to use their own judgment about tee proliferation of  weapons technology in Vogue regions such As the Middle fact t Quot we have made the a stake Tor  Lono of Iraq bristles with . Technology considering some nations friends and others enemies and we eventually find out that in some cases our Friend is really our enemy said sen. John Mccain r-anz., who has proposed legislation to toughen . Law s restricting the spread of weapons technology. A the Honeywell physicist who compiled the Tuel air. Explosive study in 1984 said that it was sold to an Quot intermediary for bag Over Strong objections from company. Insiders an As ser tron supported by internal Honeywell memos. He said that he omitted some potent data. Because be and others were. Worry Sci about i Trp Ducine the weapon into the Middle East. Quot Quot that it could be aimed at our soldiers is my worst. Nightmare come  said  who m Rod fion Honeywell Jive months ago. H o r r e Yew c 11,. A h i c h designed tool if egg a. O Bon is f c r the  military sold tie study to a was cd Sipany acting ii i Iraq  Egypt according to company documents and Niihau and congressional sources. At the request of five senators the Pentagon is. Investigating the use of . Technology in iraqis development of fuel air explosives and other weapons. Honeywell representatives have met with investigators but the department of defense said that it is not specifically investigating the company. A a Honeywell hired an outside Law firm to conduct its own inquiry into whether the technology was transferred. Improperly. The Minneapolis company a chairman James Rem i Quot said information that Honey wets technology  to Iraq was Quot very  u a Honeywell spokes woman Susan m. Eich said that the design data obtained by Iraq appears to consist of unclassified material that was already available. She Sab the the company does not believe that the information was sufficient to build a fuel air explosive weapon or Fae. A yet a copy of the 1984 Honeywell Fae study obtained by los. Angeles times says that the Quot Little information. A to w c the re d w Siai the the to. A it in b d a a it re Sci n. The or