In the wake of news that the Army is restricting access to a proven chemical agent antidote, local emergency agency officials expressed a mix of concern and confidence over their preparedness for a chemical incident. When wiped on exposed skin, the product, called Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion (RSDL), neutralizes sarin, mustard gas and other chemical agents. It was cleared by the FDA in 2003 for use by the military, and is available to emergency agencies and the public in several countries, according to the Associated Press. If sold in the U.S., RSDL would cost roughly $20 to $22 per unit, according to its manufacturer, O'Dell Engineering Ltd. of Canada. The Army has said it wants to carry out further testing on the product before making it available to first responders or the public. Working only miles from the Anniston Army Depot’s chemical weapons stockpile and incinerator, area emergency agencies have an urgent need for agent antidotes, said Calhoun County Sheriff Larry Amerson. He worries that the protective suits his deputies carry in their patrol cars are insufficient. “The only way they will survive is by having the antidote immediately available, Amerson said. Sheriff’s deputies and most other emergency personnel shouldn’t ever be in a situation that might expose them to chemical agents, said Anniston police Chief John Dryden. If an area is considered a possible contaminated “hot zone,” first responders should wait for teams trained and equipped to deal with the situation, Dryden said. The gas masks and protective suits Dryden’s officers are equipped with are “strictly escape suits,” he said. The Anniston Fire Department, the primary agency for chemical event response in the area, is well prepared to treat victims and decontaminate anyone or anything that has been exposed, according to fire Chief Bill Fincher. The fire department is equipped with various sophisticated detection devices, 100 doses of an injectable antidote called atropine and decontamination equipment to treat about 100 people an hour. Additionally, Fincher said, hospitals keep supplies of atropine. With proper training, other agencies should be given access to atropine as a precaution, Fincher said. It might take more than an antidote, Amerson said. If called upon to respond to a potentially contaminated terrorist hideout, Amerson said, his deputies should have antidotes and self-contained breathing devices. Chemical agent detection devices, while not essential for law enforcement agencies, according to Amerson, should be widely available to public safety workers, he said. Amerson worries that law enforcement officers are dangerously under-unequipped for situations such as the terrorist scenario. “We are nowhere near prepared for that,” he said. Dan Long, head of the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency, said he hadn’t heard of RSDL, but is confident that first responders have sufficient tools to deal with a chemical incident. He cited a mix of training, careful preparation and high-tech equipment such as the county’s early warning system. For Dryden and others, there’s comfort in knowing destruction of the stockpile’s most dangerous airborne component, sarin gas, is slated for completion by late summer. The stockpile’s other agents are either non-airborne, like VX, or, like mustard gas, significantly less dangerous than sarin. For Amerson, the danger remaining in the stockpile and incinerator is part of a larger, potentially more dangerous puzzle. “For the first time in my life, local law enforcement is on the front line protecting our country from foreign attack,” Amerson said. “The issues with the incinerator just pushed the issue on us before most everyone else.

About Rob Jordan

Rob Jordan covers criminal justice issues for The Star.