posted
I saw a website on this and looked it up some more...this is some scary stuff. I dont get how the U.S. govt does this to its military and even citizens.
I find it bothersome that a congressman serving just one term gets medical care and benefits for life, and as a two tour infantry vet i have to fight to get post service healthcare after 6 months of my final out date.
am i missing something here?
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so.
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posted
thats one of those questions i always like to ask the people "afraid" of "socialised medicine"...
i was "in" post-Nam and Pre-gulf-war...
the VA changed alot as i watched mostly cuz post-nam Vets got organised.
get into politics. you don't have to run for office yourself. you can do it as an advisor. find somebody with a future and help them. you have valuable experience. there's a lot of stuff you've learned in the military that you take for granted right now.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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posted
here's some details provided by the Canadians on some of our more interesting weapon systems... they say this was discontinued but who really knows?
The gas causes temporary slowing of physical and mental activity, disorientation, and hallucinations. The effects last for up to 6 hours. According to the U.S. Army's Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine, which publishes current factsheets on many known chemical warfare agents, "BZ" is the Army's designation of the psychedelic chemical 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, also know as in military circles as "agent buzz" or by the Army chemical code designation EA2277. While BZ was produced at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas between 1962 and 1965, it was discontinued from the chemical arsenal in the late 1960's because "its effects on enemy front-line troops would be varied and unpredictable"(WWW1). To indicate the magnitude of BZ's role in the Army's chemical arsenal at that time, military records reveal that in 1962 alone two million dollars were allocated to the construction of a facility designed exclusively for weaponizing coventional bombs with BZ. Between 1962 and 1964, over one hundred thousand pounds of the chemical were produced solely for that purpose (Harris and Paxman 1982). With the incapacitating dose (ICt50) of BZ at 110 mg-min/m3, which translates to an effective respiratory dose of about 2 milligrams, the sheer quantity of BZ production reveals the considerable potential of its intended use. Still, in comparison to other chemical agents stockpiled in the US arsenal such as nerve and blister agents, the quantities of BZ were relatively small (SIPRI 1973).
The Army factsheet indicates that the primary method of dispensing BZ was in aerosol form, which would facilitate entry into the body via the respiratory system (WWW1). However, the possibility of BZ as a contact hazard is documented by the record of a chemical defense employee's resultant incapacitation after exposure through a punctured rubber glove (SIPRI 1973). Additionally, BZ's ability to penetrate the skin could be magnified 25 times or more by solvating in dimelthylsulfoxide, or DMSO (SIPRI 1973 cit. Stroughton 1964). Quinuclidinyl benzilate is a glycolate ester (SIPRI 1973) and a potent competitive inhibitor of acetylcholine at postganglionic muscarinic synaptic sites, although in high doses it can also affect nicontic sites as well (Voth 1994). Pharmocologically, it acts on central and peripheral nervous system like atropine, but with a much longer duration, blocking the action of acetylcholine in the brain as well as in the peripheral nervous system (WWW2) and directly at base organs. Both atropine and BZ are tertiary amines, posses a similar structure (SIPRI 1973) and have the ability to cross the blood brain barrier. The basic signs of acute exposure outlined in the Army factsheet are increased heart and respiratory rates, pupil dilation (involving contraction of the dilator muscles), paralysis of eye muscles used for near focusing, dryness of skin and mouth, elevated body temperature, impaired coordination, flushing of skin, hallucinations, stupor, forgetfulness, confusion. Within 15 minutes and up to 4 hours after exposure, the principal effects are dizziness, dry mouth, and elevated heart rate. These are followed by restlessness, involuntary muscle movements, rear vision difficulty, and total incapacitation. The final symptoms occur 6-10 hours later and are listed as "psychotropic in nature." Full recovery is expected after 4 days (WWW1 and Glanze 1986).
The symptoms of BZ exposure listed above are consistent with those linked with atropine poisoning: dry mouth, difficulty swallowing and talking, blurred vision, increased heart rate, dry/flush skin, rash on face, neck, and upper chest, increased ventilation, and increased temperature due to atropine's secondary inhibition of sweating. The nicotinic effects of atropine overdose include orthostatic hypotension, attributable to an overall decrease in vascular tone, and skeletal muscle weakness, which has also been indicated in soldiers exposed to BZ in controlled tests (WWW2). High doses of atropine, and especially of other anticholinergics such as scopolamine, can lead to restlessness, confusion, delirium, and even seizures, coma, and respiratory failure due to medullary ventilary center paralysis (Voth 1994). The sites of primary anti-muscarinic activity are the heart, salivary glands, and smooth muscle of the gastrointestinal and genitourinary tract (Negele 1997). Atropine increases the heart rate by slowing down some parts of the nervous system while simultaneously speeding up other parts (WWW3). Clinical uses of atropine as well as other anticholinergics include pre-operative sedation and antisialagogue (i.e. saliva inhibiting) effects, treatment of reflex-mediated bradycardia, and the reversal of non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocking drugs when administered with acetylcholinesterase (Negele 1997).
Most records of military experiments involving BZ are still classified and prolonged attempts to obtain them through the Freedom of Information Act have been unsuccessful (WWW2).A group called American Citizens for Honesty in Government, part of the Church of Scientology, tried to locate former soldiers who were exposed to BZ during Army experiments by placing full-page advertisements in newspapers during the summer of 1979. They found 30 former volunteers who claimed residual after effects including memory gaps, difficulty concentrating, and occasional flashback hallucinations (Marshall 1979).
basically? this stuff was considered superior to lsd for disabling troops, and alotof tests were run on our troops with it....
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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