CBRNe Low Probability High Impact

"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led like sheep to the slaughter."

George Washington

Most of us don’t need to or like to think about chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive events, yet they happen every day, somewhere.   

We don’t think about them because there is a very low probability that they will happen...but they do. And when they do, unfortunately, they are very high impact. Think 9/11, the Boston Marathon, and the Ebola outbreak as just a few recent examples.

Fortunately, there are experts and private companies meeting the challenge of identifying such events BEFORE they happen. 
I had the privilege of meeting a number of the experts who are creating the adaptive systems, innovative technologies, comprehensive training, detection platforms, testing assays, systems and protocols, and training classes to combat CBRNe catastrophic impacts.

I met these experts at the Nonconventional Threat, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives (NCT CBRNe) conference (http://www.cbrneusa.com/) was held from April 29 to May 1 in Fairfax, Virginia. It was sponsored by ib-consultancy (www.ib-consultancy.com) based in the Netherlands. Their mission as stated in their brochure Welcome says it well:

 “The United States of America continues to take a leading role when it comes to counte3ring global threats which are as nuanced as rogue regimes, terrorist threats, but also infectious diseases . . . The U.S. Armed Forces are playing a significant role in this asymmetrical combat...terrorist organizations, such as the Islamic State, are growing in numbers and are increasingly exerting their negative influence on international stability and security. Preventing these organizations from obtaining or using WMDs is vital...”

“NCT CRBNe USA aims to be exactly that, a useful platform for experts, facilitating such coordination to effectively face the menaces of CBRN threats.  An Innovation Stream will run in parallel with the Conference Stream, exploring novel solutions to non-conventional challenges. A wide spectrum of topics, ranging from CBRNe capabilities in Myanmar to the Medical Preparedness and Consequence Management, ensures an all-encompassing business, networking and informative experience.”

My role at the conferees was to give a talk about “ISIS Use of Social Media as a Force Multiple” (see the TACDA Journal Issue 1, 2015) during one of the Innovation Stream sessions. I’m happy to report of that those who attended, from a U.S. Army general to a fire company battalion chief, they got my main point that the jihadi’s will use social media to create even more death and chaos when they use it in tandem with conventional guns and explosives when they strike.

Read the other Innovation Stream talks below that took place for the three days of the conference to begin to understand the complexity and enormity of CBRNe:

Day 1

·        Dealing with the conseque4nces of a collapse in economic activity and law and order after a viral pandemic

·        Introduced species as a form of biological weapons

·        Are we prepared for the next infectious disease

Day 2

·        Organizing and training for Combat CBRNE hazards

·        CRISMA project improving CBRN training using models

·        Enhancing CBRNe response with scenario-based training

·        The threat of agroterrosim and zoonotic diseases in the U.S

·        Unmanned aerial vehicles in maritime security

·Day 3

·        Entolimod, an innovative medical radiation countermeasure

·        A novel device for preventing acute radiation syndrome in emergency first responders

·        Threats and realities of synthetic biology

·        Differential excitation spectroscopy: A new high-specificity technique for threat detection

·        Rapid detection of processed uranium in food

·        Countering nuclear and radiological materials illicit trafficking through maritime security initiatives: paper tiger or concrete solution

·        Mass casualty terrorism and CBRN weapons

·        United against a common enemy: formation of international alliances for the war on terrorism and the WMB dimension

·        Determination of an ideal category A agent for a terrorist attack

If you want to see the Innovation Stream papers about these topics, go to: http://www.cbrneportal.com/tag/nct-cbrne-usa-2015/. My paper about ISIS using social media as a force multiplier can be found at: http://www.cbrneportal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Curley-NCT-CBRNe-USA-2015.pdf

There were so many CBRNe experts delivering so many talks, and so many vendors creating and delivering products for this area, I cannot possibly cover it in this brief piece. So, I am going to highlight some of the resources I believe are most useful to TACDA members below. Then, I will provide as many links to resources in Table 1 CBRNe Detection and Mitigation Resources at the end of this article so you can look up those that may be useful to you.

Airborne Spectral Photometric Environmental Collection Technology (ASPECT), EPA CBRN Consequence Management Team, Contact Mark Thomas, Program Manager, 513 675 4753, Thomas.markj@epa.gov; John Cardarelli (Radiation POC Contact, 513 675 4745, Cardarelli.john@epa.gov; ASPECT 24 Hour Number 202 564 8602/EPA EOC 202 564 3850

ASPECT is the country’s only airborne 24/7 stand-off chemical and radiological detection, infrared and photographic imagery platform. This plane is a platform rigged with highly sensitive instruments to measure neutrons, gamma rays, chemicals and other indications of a CBRNe event.

Here’s the miraculous part.

This detection platform, with its radiation exposure contour maps, high resolution , geo and digital aerial images, is available to first responders and others on a moment’s notice. Emergency responders in most towns, counties and cities just do not have this capability. Infrared and photographed images with geospatial chemical and radiological information can be provided, according to ASPECT, “...to the customer within minutes to hours.” 

The ASPECT detection platform includes:

·        An infrared Line Scanner to image chemical plumes

·        A High-Speed Infrared Spectrometer to identify and quantity the composition of the chemical plume in the ppb to pm range

·        Gamma-Ray Spectrometer for radiation detection and isotope identification

·        Neutron Detection System for enhances radiological detection

·        High resolution digital cameras (aerial and  oblique) that rectify for inclusion into GIS

·        Broadband satellite data system (SatCom)

They have contractor pilots on continuous standby and respond immediately to any call. I saw them do a live demonstration at NCT CBRNE 2015. The EPA physicists called the pilots live as they flew over a prepositioned radiological event.  The pilots spoke and conveyed live digital images from a base camp to the IR plume and created a radiological map on the screen in near-real time.

ASPECT is a national CBRNe detection technology wonder that can is proven (150 deployments) and offers emergency managers a power life-saving tool. Keep this information for when you need it. Or better yet, call them and get them to explain it in greater detail than I can here.

Homeland Defense and Security Information Analysis Center (HDIAC)

104 Union Valley Road, Oak Ridge, TN 37830, 865 535 0088, inquiries@hdiac.org, http://hdiac.org, info@hdiac.org

HDIAC provides information and collaboration for Homeland Defense and Security, and it establishes provides, and maintains extensive Scientific and Technical Information (STI) from DoD organizations, federal, state, and local governments, in the following areas:

·        Homeland Defense and Security

·        Critical Infrastructure Protection

·        Weapons of Mass Destruction

·        CBRN Defense

·        Biometrics

·        Medical

HDIAC saves DoD scientists time and effort by quickly locating information and providing support to address critical, emerging needs. It supports short-term queries (quick technical questions) and longer term studies (impact of a new chemical release). They apply operational research to the warfighter. Customers include: federal agencies and contractors, state and local government, emergency workers, first responders, academia, private industry.

While the Innovation Stream was going on, there was a simultaneous Conference Stream. Here are the topics that were covered during that simultaneous stream:

Day 1

·        Measures introduced to help mitigate the risk of nuclear terrorism

·        Capability development for CBRNe at the Defense Reduction Threat Agency

·        CBRN Response capabilities and preparedness at EPA: Current state and the way forward

Day 2

·        JUPITR biosurveillance program in Kora

·        Integrated multiplex assay and sampling system

·        Nuclear smuggling detection and deterrence

·        The integrated chemical safety and security program in Ukraine: An introduction

·        DIY biotechnology risks and opportunities for enhance biosafety

·        Enhancing CBRN emergency preparedness in the USAAA New York City as a case

Day 3

·        Planning for the unthinkable: Medical countermeasure planning for the response to CBRNe incidents

·        The role of public health laboratories in CBRN crisis management

·        Medical preparedness for large scale public health emergencies in Florida: The cities readiness initiative

·        Live demonstration led by EPA

·        Bioforensics and its role to enhance bioterrorism preparedness

·        State of the art CBRN detection solutions: the approach made in Germany

·        Rapid respond to radiological terrorist incidents

·        WMD hazmat response SOPs and capabilities at the USCG National Strike Force

·        The dirty bomb scenario: How real is the threat

·        Stockpiling of medical countermeasures and radiological public health emergencies

·        DHS activities to prevent, protect against, respond to, and recovery from CBRN terrorism

If you visit the websites listed above you can see videos of these Conference Stream talks by the leading experts in these fields.

CBRNe is a huge, complex, multi-layered, and ever changing field of study, work, process, policy and...never forget...human lives and property. In the 1980’s when I wrote for Hazard Monthly about such topics, all the issues we face today existed then as well. Despite irrational and wishful thinking that they just go away, they are real, they are here, and they must be managed if we and our offspring are to have a positive future.

I pray that the information provided here, be you just beginning to learn about it or are an expert in the field, helps you to better manage your CBRNe challenges successfully.

 Table 1: CBRNe Detection and Mitigation Resources

Organization/Tools	Expertise	Website, Phone, Email
Bruker Detection Corp, a CBRNE  detection company out of Leipzig , Germany US office: 40 Manning Road Billerica, MA, USA Nuclear, radiation detection Biological agent detection Chemical warfare agent detection Personal chemical agent detector Chemical emergencies and demilitarization	Hand-held CBRN detection, critical infrastructure protection, trace explosives and narcotics detection, Enhanced environmental mobile mass spectrometer, biological detection, external collection protection filter technologies, maritime detection, software and data system protection, training	www.bruker.com http://bit.do/bruker-contact www.bruker-cip.com www.bruker-etd.com www.bit.do/responders www.bruker.com/cbrne 978 663 3660 (USA) 49 0341 2431 30  (Germany) detection @bruker.com sales@brukerdetection.us www.brukerdetection.com
Chemring Sensors and Electronic Systems 4205 Westinghouse Commons Drive Charlotte, NC 28273, USA	Under vehicle surveillance to identify explosives, weapons, narcotics, people and other foreign objects concealed under vehicles. Specialize in critical infrastructure (airports, etc.) border security and event security.	980 235 2213 704 577 5402 athebes@chemringds.com
3D-Radar US 23031 Ladbrook Drive Dulles, Virginia, USA	Sensors and electronic systems, under vehicle scan	703 661 0283 www.rd-radar.com
Scott Safety Monroe Corporate Center POB 569 Monroe, NC 28111 Air-Pak and Accessories First Responder Respirator	Reverse reflex sealing surface facepiece with two voicemitters and communications bracket attachment, high visibility inhalation valves. CBNR respirators, face seals, exhalation valves, and inline secondary filtration.	800 247 7257 704 291 8330 www.scottsafety.com sh-shale@tycoint.com
Proengin 140 South University Drive Suite F Plantation, FL 33324 Biological alarm monitors, portable handheld chemical warfare TIMs and TICS hazard Detection.	Continuously analyses atmospheric particles searching for specific chemical signatures of bacteria or toxins such as anthrax, plague, Botox, legionella, etc.	954 760 9990 sales@proenginusa.com
International Centre for Chemical Safety and Security (ICCSS) Targi Kielce SA Zakladowa 1, 25-672 Kielce, Poland	Chemical safety and security solutions in the supply chain of raw materials, production, infrastructure transportation and use of chemicals. Enhances measures to prevent and respond to the misuse of CBRN agents.	Amb. Krzysztof Paturej President of the ICCSS Michael Luhan, ICCSS Director of Communications 33 7 8863 3757 m.luhan@iccss.eu www.linkedin.com/profile 48 41 365 12 22 48 692893437 Witek.m@targikielce.pl
Immediate Response Technologies 3341 75th Ave., Ste. GG Landover, MD 20785USA Decontamination systems, decontamination systems, chem/bio isolation systems, personal protective equipment	Rapid deployment shelter systems, chem/bio isolation systems, decontamination systems, respiratory protective systems, CBRN missions, methamphetamine lab clean up, chemical, industrial spill cleanup, NIOSH CBRN CAP 1 protection	301 352 8800 800 598 9711 www.imresponse.com
Tactual Defense Media Publications	Armor & Mobility Combat & Casualty Care DOD Power & Energy Annual Tactical Gear Guide Unmanned Tech Solutions	www.tacticaldefense media.com Kevin Hunter, Editor kevin@tacticaldefensemedia.com 301 605 7564 contact@tacticaldefensemedia.com
Armor & Mobility Magazine Clothing, footwear, chest rigs, pouches, packs & hydration, knives & tools, lights, combat electronics	War fighter gear, tactical boots, Blackhawk, optics, and other warrior products.	www.tacticaldefensemedia.com Tactical Defense Media, Inc. Leisure World Plaza POB 12115 Silver Spring, MD 20908-0115
Security & Border Protection Magazine CBRNE training integration, a and wide area coordination	CBRNE, cross border threats, threat detection in the field, rail security (reducing the risks, responding to attacks),	Tacticaldefensemedia.com
DOD Power, Energy & Propulsion Magazine	Tactical, battlefield, and static power needs identified with solutions identified.	George Jagels, Editor George@tacticaldefensemedia.com

Children and Civil Defense: My TACDA Journal of Civil Defense Article

My latest article Social Media for when disaster strikes has just been published in the Journal of Civil Defense, Volume 55, 2021 Issue 1 of the American Civil Defense Association for which I am the volunteer Vice President. 

On page 18 you can read my article "Children and Civil Defense." It has much information and resources to teach children important civil defense skills. 

All are of use to you as a parent or grandparent. 

Do not be the leader of your family who, when your children and grandchildren ask you what to do during a disaster, you go blank. 

Know what to do before the event.

Do it now.

Civil Defense: On What the Future of Civilization Depends

Civil defense depends on civilization.

Civilization, in turn, depends on married couples co-creating children with God.

For American civilization, this is especially true.

Below is my poem, On What the Future of Civilization Depends, and the story behind the poem, to encourage young people to marry and have children.

Many, many years ago a Nor' Easterner tore up the East Coast doing it's usual catastrophic damage to cities, towns, and neighborhoods.

Always eager to see a disaster up-close and how Americans responded to it, I drove down to Ocean City, MD. The Nor' Easterner had swept away most of the beach there. Always searching for civil defense lessons from natural and manmade disasters, I wanted to view the damage and how Americans were recovering from it.

When I taught Emergency Management at the Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, MD in the late 1980's, I first learned that Ocean City never should have been located where it was. Basically a floating island covering and surrounded by an ocean and bay that regularly floods, it was a poor choice for where to locate a city.

But like many American cities built near flood zones, like Pittsburgh, PA for example where the mighty Monongahela and Susquehanna rivers collide in their downtown area, it was built near water because of all the advantages water offers.

But because Ocean City, NJ is basically a floating island, when huge water events like a Nor' Easterner strike, millions of tons of sand are swept away along with any houses, businesses or buildings on that sand.

"Build not your house on sand!" the Bible tells us, and Ocean City is an example. It is why the state of Maryland spends hundreds of millions of dollars pumping sand from the Atlantic Ocean back onto the beaches there. If they did not do so, nature would reclaim the city into the Atlantic Ocean before too long.

As I drove around Ocean City that day, the damage to the beach and beach houses and businesses was extensive, almost breathtaking. The tons of incoming ocean water combined with the backflow from the bay water had created a pincer movement that took out millions of tons of beach front and properties to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.

Then, in those moments God blesses us with when our awareness is at its peak as when viewing massive storm damage I saw a stunning site. A group of teen age guys were circling a block trying to get the attention of several teen age girls who were laughing and flirting back and forth with them.

I flashed back on my own teen age years doing the same in Wildwood, Ocean City, Barnegat, Brigantine, Cape May and other New Jersey vacation spots. Having grown up in Philadelphia I regularly went "down the shore" and engaged in the same flirting, romance and fun with girls that these guys were doing.

Instead of concentrating on the heart-breaking disaster damage that was all around that I came down to see and analyze, I was amazed at the teen agers ability to ignore the horror and instead laugh, romance and have fun.

That Holy Spirit inspiration struck hard, I pulled the car over, grabbed some scrap paper from the glove box, and wrote the following poem: "On What the Future of Civilization Depends."

When painting houses in high school, before the electrical accident that changed my life, I painted the house of a brilliant alcoholic. He was kind enough to let me borrow from his extensive library as I worked for him. 

I was fortunate at 16 to be able to read their Eleven Volume Story of Civilization, and especially the final 102 page Lessons of History where they summarized the lessons they learned from their study of mankind and the civilizations he created. I say fortunate because that book eventually led me to write the poem On What the Future of Civilization Depends.

Will and Ariel Durant in their epic Lessons of History note that although history is the study of the lives of the kings and queens, it is more important that the peasants down by the water continue to procreate if civilization is to continue.

I see so many young people who have, sadly, given up on romancing, marrying and having children. Yet, the American Civilization, especially now, can only survive and grow strong if they do marry and have children.

I include my poem, On What the Future of Civilization Depends, in this post in hopes it inspires some young Americans to marry and procreate beautiful children. Otherwise, our great American Experiment is history. 

On What the Future of Civilization Depends

The third of the summer blondes
Asks the streetcornered muscled boys.
"Right here, baby!  Get outta dat car
And come over here! 
We'll show youse how ta party!"
Smiles Tenderness Tony to his friends
First, and then to the summer blondes,
Fully aware of what hangs in the balance.
 
"Well, we're kinda lookin' for real men.
Youse guys don't look old enough
Ta drive our cars or even work on our engines!
Wheel it Angela!" laughs Marie.
 
They cruise around the Wildwood block,
Circle and return, compelled by a mating ceremony
As old as any migrating naked rhizopod's
As insistent as any remoras on a tiger shark
As powerful as any copulating American saddle horses.
 
At the same time Tenderness Tony and Angela circle each other warily,
Hundreds of thousands of others dance the same dance floor
To repeat ancient and glorious tribal mating rites
Less understood than the circling rites of shark whales off Tahiti.
 I know many who do not see the wonder of this.
Instead, they spend their days saying to whoever will listen,
"See!  See there!  This life is only abuse, death, destruction,
Hate and finally pain, pain, pain and cruelty!"
And it is not just journalists saying this these days.
 

Perhaps such as these have never visited Wildwood, NJ
At the height of the mating season.
For there, on any given sultry summer night
When the air is as thick with mating pheromones
As the Brazilian rain forest, everything is possible.
 
"Youse guys still where the party is tonight?"
Now it is Maria talking, newly revealed as the princes in waiting
Who throws out the challenge to all willing to chance the future.
All three boys respond by raising themselves high
To preen their feathered haircuts like cocks
About to meet their flaring hens.
 
"Yeah, Baby!  I'm here for youse only tonight!
He's "VAA VAA VOOOMM Vic!  I'm Tenderness Tony
Dis here's happiness itself,
Whose otherwise known as Loverboy Louie."
 
This night laden with romance and possibility,
Despite the miles of backed up traffic
Tens of thousands in cars, clubs, bars,
All along these dazzling street-lit courting avenues
Rhythmically step to this genetically programmed dance
Unbothered by anything but the moment of contact.
 

Like a novice nun fingering her rosary,
Theresa brushes her hair with tender strokes
As Maria parks the car in one swift motion.
All three watch the boys in the car mirror,
Well aware of what their charged rituals
Are producing in the awaiting Tony, Vic, and Louie.
Each reapplies her love-red glossy candy flavored lipstick,
Sprays wave after wave of perfume on her neck and breasts
And saunters over to her instant date for that night.
 
For those who snootily laugh at these young people,
Who dismiss their substandard English or their different ways,
I ask youse to please consider the following.
 
It is on the perpetual success of such everyday rituals
Far more than on what laws Congress passes,
Or what breakthroughs our medical schools make,
Or what discount rate the Fed establishes,
Or what new worlds the Hubbell discovers,
Or what programs the President proposes,
That the future of civilization depends.
 
"Youse guys ready to party?" Shouts Marie.
"Yooooooooo!!! Honey!  The party's just begun!"
Answers Tenderness Tony.  "The party's just begun!"
 

Seventeen years later,
Within a mile of where her parents met,
The oldest of Tony and Marie's girls'
Drives by some guys on the corner of 58th and Atlantic
In "Wildwood by the Sea,"
And shouts, "YO! Youse guys know where the party is tonight?"
When she does, on the successful answer to her question,
Will the future of civilization depend.
"YO! Youse guys know where the party is tonight?"

On What the Future of Civilization was first published in Under a Gull's Wing: Poems and Photographs of the Jersey Shore, Edited by Rich Youmans and Frank Finale, by Down The Shore Publishing, Harvey Cedars, NJ, 08008, First Printing 1996. You may order a copy here.

Here is a fuller explanation of the Durant's fertility lesson.

4. Life must breed. 

Nature has no use for anything that cannot reproduce abundantly.

“The third biological lesson of history is that life must breed. Nature has no use for organisms, variations, or groups that cannot reproduce abundantly. 

She has a passion for quantity as prerequisite to the selection of quality; she likes large litters, and relishes the struggle that picks the surviving few; doubtless she looks on approvingly at the upstream race of a thousand sperms to fertilize one ovum. 

She is more interested in the species than in the individual, and makes little difference between civilization and barbarism. She does not care that a high birth rate has usually accompanied a culturally low civilization, and a low birth rate a civilization culturally high; and she (here meaning Nature as the process of birth, variation, competition, selection, and survival) sees to it that a nation with a low birth rate shall be periodically chastened by some more virile and fertile group.” 

(Think Red China over the United States.)

“If the human brood is too numerous for the food supply, Nature has three agents for restoring the balance: famine, pestilence, and war.”

“Naturally, you would expect that the educated would inherit the Earth. The fertile inherit the Earth…it teaches the law of biology that you have to breed as well as breathe.”