Respirators offered to civilians,
station workers at Iwakuni, just in case
By Greg Tyler, Sasebo
bureau chief
Greg Tyler / Stars and Stripes
Lance Cpl. John Presutti measures 10-year-old Sebastian Armentrout for an industrial
respirator as his mother Gloria looks on at the Sakura Theater at Iwakuni Marine
Corps Air Station. The base is fitting all civilians, dependents and Japanese employees
with respirators should there be a chemical spill in the area, or a terrorist attack. |
IWAKUNI MARINE CORPS AIR STATION, Japan — Every civilian,
dependent and Japanese employee at this air station is receiving a fitted, industrial
respirator.
Marines already have masks offering similar protection, issued as
military gear.
The respirators are smaller than traditional military gas masks. They
have pink plastic bodies that fit over the nose and mouth, and the unit cleans air through
stacks of multigas filters on the unit’s sides.
The base spent $80,000 from reserve funds for the respirators.
“What I want here is a reasonable approach to getting life in
this community back to as close to normal as possible,” said Col. David Darrah, base
commander.
“But you’ve got to know that life as we knew it before
Sept. 11 has changed,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “I myself lost a member of my
extended family on that day. Everyone was touched by what happened in some way.”
In addition to chemical or biological terrorism, Iwakuni has another
concern, he added.
Along the base’s northern boundary, local Japanese operate a
large chemical plant. A railroad used to transport the chemicals runs parallel to the
front of the base. Train cars carrying dangerous chemicals regularly pass about 250 yards
from the Matthew C. Perry schools.
Darrah said some of the chemicals produced by the plant would be
dangerous if released.
“This is why I have concerns about our base that most other
bases don’t,” he said.
Community protection
Base leaders gathered in late October to look at the plans of the
Marine Air and Ground Task Force. These plans make sure the base has clear and swift
measures in place to counter chemical warfare.
A major part of the task force concentrates on civil defense, Darrah
said, and it involves the “three Cs” concept.
“The three Cs are cover, contain and communicate,” Darrah
said. “There is no 100 percent solution. The key is vigilance, and with the three Cs,
we are well protected.”
Residents are told to put on their respirators at the first sign of a
chemical spill or terrorist attack; they are asked to stay in their homes and communicate
with the command to let them know where they are — and that they have taken the
correct steps.
On Tuesday afternoon, Richard Perry, Iwakuni’s grounds safety
officer, conducted a community training session. About 200 people gathered at the Sakura
Theater, where he explained how the respirators work before those attending were fitted
for the devices, which will arrive soon.
Perry said the base considered ordering respirators similar to those
used by the military, but at $120 per unit, the cost was too much. They opted for
3M’s 6000 Series respirator with multigas organic filters at $20 each.
For children, the 3M N100 Series will be provided. The filtration on
the smaller respirators block the same size of gaseous particulates as the 6000.
The filters remove anthrax, sarin, tear gas, nerve gas formaldehyde,
chlorine and other dangerous substances down to 0.3 microns, Perry said. The inhaled
version of anthrax is 0.5 microns.
“So, when do you know when to put them on? Well, you don’t
see the military walking around with their gas masks handy right by their sides,”
Perry said. “It all depends on the threat conditions.”
Learning about anthrax
Devin Johnston-Lee, Iwakuni’s assistant fire chief, held a
training session for key personnel about anthrax and the probability of being exposed.
“Be vigilant, and if you get a letter from bin Laden High
School, don’t open it,” Johnston-Lee joked during the session.
He explained that anthrax is a bacteria that occurs naturally. It can
be contracted by inhalation, through broken skin and by digesting the substance. The
symptoms, following a seven-day incubation period, are flu-like, minus nasal congestion,
he said.
“So far, all three strains of anthrax that we know about have
been linked in some way,” Johnston-Lee said. “But the reality is that no
weaponized anthrax has been found, despite what we’ve heard in the news media.”
He said weaponized anthrax comes from state-sponsored processes.
“Use common sense,” he said. “Ask yourself, ‘Why
would a terrorist want to send me a letter?’ And remember that all the strains are
linked.”
Chief Warrant Officer Mark Waberk, Iwakuni’s postal officer,
said his department is doing everything possible to screen mail for anthrax, or anything
that looks suspicious.
“We have no indication of any threat in Iwakuni, but that
doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen,” Waberk said at the training session.
“We have a filtering system in place in Iwakuni, and we isolate any suspicious
mail.”
Iwakuni officials, including Waberk and Johnston-Lee, agree the
anthrax threat in Iwakuni is probably minimal.
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