"The body shuts down and you can be dead in minutes".

[kentuck]

I just heard this description on CNN as people were pouring water or liquids on victims of gas poisoning, possibly sarin, in Damascus.

My question is: How fast does this gas disperse?

How could those folks help the victims without breathing the gas themselves?

They had no gas masks.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Fuck this bullshit. We should send over every goddamn B-52 we have available....

And drop gas masks and medical aid to every area affected.

[Avalux]

2. I've thought of this too - gets my vote. n/t

[Politicalboi]

3. Yup

I totally agree. Fuck bombs, give food, medicine and masks. Much cheaper than bombs, and if dropped right, no deaths.

[nomorenomore08]

17. Exactly. Nothing more than - gasp! - treating the Syrian people like the human beings they are.

Which I realize is a somewhat foreign concept to Middle America...

[MNBrewer]

5. I can go for that.

[joshcryer]

6. won't work

you need early warning alarms, once you breathe it you are dead

[NYC_SKP]

10. OK, let's place a US congressperson with an early warning alarm at each major intersection first.

It's not like they're doing anything useful in DC lately.

[NV Whino]

12. Best idea yet.

[nomorenomore08]

18. OUCH. Not unjust, though, I must admit.

How many other Americans make that much money and are simultaneously that useless?

[fadedrose]

19. ++

[Solly Mack]

4. CDC link about Sarin

Facts About Sarin

Hope this helps.

[kentuck]

8. Thanks Solly.

Good info.

[CurtEastPoint]

7. Who makes this stuff, or is it easy to make?

It was developed as an insecticide in 1938.

[NoOneMan]

9. A lot of dangerous gases are highly reactive in the open environment

I don't know about Sarin specifically. But when thing react they can become inert via a chemical reaction. Sometimes that reaction happens within the human body, breaking down tissues and stopping processes.

[kentuck]

11. How come it didn't affect the other people?

???

[NoOneMan]

13. What I am getting at is that what isn't dispersed is "spent"

Being highly reactive, and not a catalyst, its "used up" in the reaction quickly and transformed to inert stable substances. Thats what I remember in chemistry classes (which I didn't take a lot of) when talking about such things like chlorine and whatnot. The highly reactive nature of these types of gases that make them deadly also limit their active window greatly (their strength is a weakness). Again, Im not specifically sure if this is the case with Sarin.

[kentuck]

14. From the link above:

"How sarin works

The extent of poisoning caused by sarin depends on the amount of sarin to which a person was exposed, how the person was exposed, and the length of time of the exposure.
Symptoms likely will appear within a few seconds after exposure to the vapor form of sarin and within a few minutes to hours after exposure to the liquid form.
All nerve agents cause their toxic effects by preventing the proper operation of an enzyme that acts as the body’s “off switch” for glands and muscles. Without an “off switch,” the glands and muscles are constantly being stimulated. Exposed people may become tired and no longer be able to keep breathing.
Sarin is the most volatile of the nerve agents. This means it can easily and quickly evaporate from a liquid into a vapor and spread into the environment. People can be exposed to the vapor even if they do not come in contact with the liquid form of sarin.
Because it evaporates so quickly, sarin presents an immediate but short-lived threat."

[NoOneMan]

15. Thanks. BTW, in the context of our current technological innovations....

Chemical weapons actually aren't immensely "destructive" (Fareed Zakaria mentioned this a bit recently on CNN and basically said the US exagerated their magnitude to use it as a technicality to box Saddam in). Drop in the proper biological agent and people would still be dying. And while nukes are massive, we know today's conventional bombs are enough to obliterate a population. Our standards on this are pretty arbitrary. Its an awful way to die. So is starvation. So is cancer. So is being shot by an M16 or having a bomb dropped on your house.

[longship]

16. Interesting take on this.

But given your post up thread, I think I see where you are going with this.

Kudos for taking a stand. Although I don't know if I entirely agree, you have brought something to the discussion for consideration.

I am just not very comfortable that reason is sufficient in this case where emotions seem to rule here recently.