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Mass Spectrometers
Protect Soldiers in Iraq
Mass
spectrometers act as sensitive chemical
warfare detectors to protect troops in war
on Iraq.
With troops from the US, UK and Australia
now deployed in Iraq, the soldiers are
grateful for the powerful chemical warfare
detection equipment being used in Iraq.
The $US20,000 portable GC-mass
spectrometers can detect the faintest
trace of chemical agents used as weapons
in the environment and are being used
ahead of troop movements to provide
protection.
The possibility of chemical attack scares
most soldiers. "No military in the world
is as well trained or equipped as we are
to deal with a chemical or biological
attack," says Lt. David Chasteen of the US
Marines and soldiers have been ordered to
remain in chemical suits for the duration
of the fighting.
In the event of a chemical attack all of
the troops' personal belongings, anything
that is exposed to chemical agents, will
be incinerated by decontamination units.
Major Paul Dunn, of Provo, an air defense
officer, is a former teacher at Brigham
Young University and father of five. He
emphasized the threat of chemical attack
dampens any sense of optimism. "We'll be
attacking them in their own back yard and
chances are very good that they will use
chemical weapons at some point," Dunn
said.
The Iraqi military is so technologically
inferior that Dunn said he is not that
worried about its conventional weapons.
However, he said, "it takes only a single
officer to fire off one round of a
chemical or binary agent and you can have
massive casualties."
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