Posted: 12/12/2006 9:14:47 AM EDT
| I want one made from Tyvek. But I'm a tall heavy six, and i want one for my mom who is around 5/6. Been looking at approved gas masks but not sure what i need. Will the surplus suits fit fat people? |
The key terms when dealing with radiation exposure are time, distance, and shielding. The less time you spend exposed, the further you are from the source, and how much stuff is in the way determines how much ratiation you absorb. At 120 miles your problem won't be the blast, it will be the fallout. |
|
by the time you know you need it you won't need it anymore. you can easily sheild from fallout by generally staying indoors and blocking most ventalation. use it to get the f*ck out of dodge but don't think for a min it's going to offer any real or long term protection. |
O-rly? What are they used for? I wanted something that would protect me from being outside for a while, in case someone tried to loot me and i needed to stop them. I'd stock several sets of them. |
with that plan you are just going to end up dead. NBC gear <even most commercial gear> isn't designed for long term use and or protection. it's designed for short term one time use and is disposable. In the event of a SERIOUS NBC realted threat your plan should be to unass yourseld from the contaminated area ASAP. sitting and defending is just plain stupid. You will not have access to proper decon methods for long term, the gear is not design for long term use, filters MUST be replaced after EVERY use. Survival in a contaminated area is a team effort and requires a LOT more preperation and expertise than the average joe has access to. use the gear to get your ass out and DON'T retun until is been cleared. |
|
You can be protected from B and C with that gear, but N is not really an option. Mostly it is used to prevent you from being contaminated while in an area with stuff on your cloths and skin. This is from stuff that would not normally kill you if you stood around a few hours even in the nude. (well for the most part). But anything that was going to kill you in a hour or so is still going to do it in one of those suits. If you look at the shielding numbers, you will find it would be impossible to shield someone walking. 2 inchs of lead is one tenthickness. That is enough to (as I recall) cut the rad level down by half. So call it 100 rem/hour, which will kill you in about 2 hours, now you get 4 hours, but you have to wear 2 inchs of lead around your body. Oh and that is only for gamma rays. You don't have to worry about alpha or beta, cloths should protect you from that. Apha your dead skin layer protects you from that, but you need a respirator because if you breath it in, it can destroy the soft tissue in your lungs. If you eat it, it can destroy your internal soft tissue as well. For neutron (which should only be an issue at the begining of the blast, in any quantity,) you need 2 feet of water. There is also something called poly(don't remember the rest of the name) that only needs 4 inches to be equivilant to 24 inches of water. As for a gas mask, you have to make sure that it is rated for nbc on the filters. A charcol filter may not be enough. Oh and it doesn't help if you don't know the levels. If the filter is only 99 percent efficent, and you are in an area that has 1000 times the allowed dose, guess what, you are still going to die. |
even Bio/chem isn't great. Our bio suits we used at ft detrick were impretical and useless past about 1-2 hours. Due to complete isolation all humidity stayed in the suit and after an hour of moderate / light work in air conditioned enviornments you'd end up with a 1/2 of sweat and water in your boots. imagine that in a hard work area in the heat and you'd pass out quickly. Also consider hydration. Even the best of drinking adapters are not good. they all have exposure points and inside a bio/chem suit you will sweat your ass off in the best of cases. expect to reasonably be able to function an hour or two tops in a suit unless you are experienced in working with it. as said above if it's nuke and your close enough to need it..... it's too late already. |
|
NBC suits are generally more for protection against the B & C, than the nuclear part. Protection against biologics or chemicals, you need to make sure that it doesn't touch your skin or get into your respiratory system. The Tyvek will prevent the touching, and a good pro-mask or SCBA will protect your breathing. The Tyvek will protect you against the Alpha radiation, as it's effects will generally be stopped by normal skin. Just don't breath it, or get it into an open wound. Beta radiation can be stopped by 1/10th inch of lead, or 1/2" of paper or plastic. The Tyvek isn't going to protect you from that. Gamma radiation takes a lot more to shield you than you'll be able to carry. Just reducing the radiation level by 50% (wherever you are) takes approximately 1 cm of lead or 2.5" of concrete or 3.5" of dirt. My HazMat team uses Tyvek Class "A" & "B" suits, which are used with SCBAs. But I also know that it only protects me against the B & C parts. If there's anything radioactive involved, there'd better be a damned good reason for me going anywhere near it, since you can't fire a volunteer!  (That's it in a nutshell w/o getting into technical-ese.....) |
this is just MY opinion, but i'd be more worried about that than i would a nuke going off nearby. especially in TN. If the bad guys decide to nuke a city it's going to be someplace big. They want intimidation and fear to go along with a body count. a big blast in monkey nuts alabama ain't gonna do much. a small blast in LA will. |
| The suits have to stay sealed in their packaging right up til being used, even the mask filters once unsealed are only good for actual NBC use ( versus training) for a limited time. As was said, its a gear and manpower intensive proposition. No harm in preparing for the worst case scenario , but dont expect to do it cheaply or half-assed. |
 That's going to be an interesting present to explain. "Well, remember how you were saying to your bridge club how you were terrified of nerve agents? Merry Christmas!" |