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| Army witholds anitdote for chemical terror attack |
| 2004-06-14 |
| WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite the interest of emergency officials, the government is refusing to provide U.S. communities an antidote controlled by the Army and stockpiled by other countries to treat victims of a chemical terror attack. The product, Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion, was developed by the Canadian military years ago, won Food and Drug Administration approval in 2003 and is sold in other NATO countries for neutralizing sarin, mustard gas and other chemical agents. It is being tested by the Army. But the companies that make it aren’t permitted to sell it or even advertise it to state and local governments in the United States. "Right now they have no product to decontaminate people other than soap and water," said Phil O’Dell, president of O’Dell Engineering, a Canadian-based company licensed by the Canadian government to sell the lotion. "There is only one FDA-approved. It’s the RSDL. These first responders correctly have been trying to buy RSDL since FDA approval." Dr. Dani Zavasky, a deputy medical director for the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism bureau, thinks the antidote is promising and wonders why her agency cannot buy it. As described by the FDA at the time it approved it for the Army in April 2003, a lotion-soaked sponge is packaged in a special foil pouch that people can carry, ready to rip open and wipe on any exposed skin as soon as possible after exposure to a chemical attack. Zavasky said she heard about the antidote from Marines, not from the Army or the Homeland Security Department, whose duties include tipping off state and local governments to new anti-terrorism technologies. "I’m not aware of any substance other than this out there that has been used for so long by others that has this benefit," Zavasky said. "I’ve been hearing about it for a year and a half now and still it’s not widely available." The Army says it wants to do more testing on issues such as whether the lotion is safe to use with bleach, before it making it standard issue for its troops or letting police, firefighters and other first responders buy it. "The manufacturer will have to be patient. Until the compatibility with bleach solutions is determined and can be clearly defined, we can’t field it," said Maj. Gary Tallman, an Army spokesman. "It wouldn’t be proper to field it to our war fighters and our first responders." In the United States, the Army rather than O’Dell Engineering obtained the FDA’s approval, meaning O’Dell cannot sell it to state and local governments without Army permission. But that doesn’t preclude other federal agencies from trying to bring the drug to first responders. Homeland Security Department spokesman Kirk Whitworth said the agency doesn’t comment on specific products but is "committed as a department to speeding the access to the most effective products available." Frustrated by the delay, O’Dell Engineering and its U.S. business partner, New York state-based E-Z-EM Inc., have started lobbying lawmakers and the Army. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #4 I recall the "antidote" prescribed for the population of Australia in the great epic "On the Beach" Does it cure it? Hmmmmm.... it ends it. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-06-14 11:22:38 AM |
| #3 Oh, this whole thing is utter hooey. First of all, it's just some buffered oxidizer. Like bleach but with some goop added to protect the skin. Which is good if your chemical agent is absorbed through the skin--which is not the kind of chemical weapon terrorists would use. Terrorists would want to use a *vapor* weapon, like the SARIN used in the Tokyo subway. Most likely, they would choose whatever industrial toxic chemical they could get their hands on, out of the FIVE THOUSAND different chemicals that could work. In other words, this thing is about as useful to civilians as the old Soviet "anti-radiation" pills (aspirin). |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2004-06-14 11:17:57 AM |
| #2 Take 2 Zoloft and call somebody who cares in the morning. |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-06-14 10:37:43 AM |
| #1 Remind me please, aren't there a number of claim for disability and suffering now on behalf of numerous servicemembers because they were told to take drugs as a preventative to possible use of nerve agent on the battlefield in the first Gulf War? Haven't we seen claims in the past decade linking Gulf War Syndrome to the use of these drugs? It's one thing to place servicemembers in harms way since their claims are simply shuffled to the VA for handling under law, but the distribution to non-military members would place the federal government and the tax payer in a free fire zone for torte lawyers for years to come. Don't like it, then change the torte laws. Or in this case, I wonder if O'Dell and E-Z-EM would take all financial responsibility? Of course after making their money, they just go out of business, and the federal government would still be held liable. |
| Posted by: Don 2004-06-14 8:49:01 AM |