What is this about? In the field of CBRN, it is common to distinguish “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMD) as nuclear weapons and “Weapons of Mass Disorganization“. The latter, although responsible for very significant physical and psychological injuries, have devastating social and economic disruption consequences that are not comparable in intensity to those of…
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Today, many fire brigades have equipped their units with thermal cameras. They provide invaluable services in terms of fire detection, victim search or electrical circuit monitoring, for example. For the 125th National Fire Brigade Congress to be held from 26 to 29 September 2018 in Bourg en Bresse, we wanted to know more about the…
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We have talked about anthrax several times in this blog and have focused on the “biological weapon” aspect of anthrax. We can refresh our memory by following these links : North Corea and anthrax, Sverdlovsk, Sverdlovsk again, 2001 October letter-bomb, Gruinard Island The outbreak this summer of a serious epidemic in France allows us to recall what anthrax…
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In our blog dated August 30, 2016, we already looked at firefighters’ health and in particular the long-term impact of toxic substances such as polycyclic aromatics (PAHs), PCBs, bisphenol A, benzenes and heavy oils, VOCs and other oxygenated compounds causing cancers of the rectum, anus, prostate and liver, melanoma, multiple myeloma and other acute myeloid…
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A very interesting review article has just been published in the journal “surgery”. It’s signed A. Calder and S. Bland and we can find him by following this link . Several major accidents involving a CBRN component have occurred over the past 25 years. These include the deliberate use of chemicals in Tokyo in 1995 (Sarin), Iraq…
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We have just learned that 7 ex-members of the Aum sect who participated in the sarin gas attack in Tokyo in March 1995, sentenced to death had just been executed this morning, July 6, 2018. This allows us to come back to this dramatic attack and to assess Sarin gas and its use. Aum Sect…
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Even if the subject is not an easy one, it is good to remind that the corpses can represent a real danger on the infectious level but also they can be at the origin of chemical or radiological contaminations in the case of situations falling under the NRBCe. We will review the various dangers and…
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The recent newspapers warned us about an epidemic in India, and in particular in the Kerala region. The responsible is the Nipah virus and it caused the death of about ten people in a few weeks. We are told that “the Nipah virus is fatal in 70% of cases”. What is this virus? What should…
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A review has just been published in: The New England Journal of Medicine, 2018, 378, 1611-1620 “G.R. Ciottone, Toxidrome recognition in chemical-weapons attacks”. It makes an excellent evaluation of the clinical signs to know to apply the good treatments in case of chemical attack. Specialists can refer to the original article for more information. Definition…
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Recent scientific publications show that mustard gas and organophosphates can cause epigenetic changes: we found it interesting to study this problem in order to better understand it and the consequences in terms of pathogenicity. These phenomena are especially important because they also seem to be implicated in the “Gulf War Syndrome”, which is not yet…
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