Chapter 5

UNDERSTAND THE HAZARDS OF NUCLEAR ATTACK

SUMMARY

1. The main hazards of a nuclear attack are blast, heat, fire, and fallout radiation.

2. You _may_ be able to protect yourself against blast and heat by getting inside a shelter or taking cover, before the nuclear explosions occur. You may be able to avoid fire injuries by putting out small fires or escaping from large fires that might occur in your area.

3. You _can_ protect yourself against fallout radiation by getting inside a fallout shelter--if possible, before fallout particles begin drifting down--and by staying there until you are told to come out by authorities who have the equipment to measure radiation levels.

4. After a nuclear attack, food and water would be available to most people, and it would be usable. If any fallout particles have collected, they could be removed before the food is eaten or the water is drunk. People suffering from extreme hunger or thirst should not be denied food or water, even if the available supplies are not known to be free of fallout particles or other radioactive substances.

5. Infants and small children should be fed canned or powdered milk (if available) for awhile after the attack, unless the regular milk supply is uncontaminated. They should not be given water that may contain radioactive substances, if other water known to be pure is available.

6. A person cannot "catch" radiation sickness from another person.

UNDERSTAND THE HAZARDS OF NUCLEAR ATTACK

When a nuclear bomb or missile explodes, the main effects produced are intense light (flash), heat, blast, and radiation. How strong these effects are depends on the size and type of the weapon; how far away the explosion is; the weather conditions (sunny or rainy, windy or still); the terrain (whether the ground is flat or hilly); and the height of the explosion (high in the air, or near the ground).

All nuclear explosions cause light, heat and blast, which occur immediately. In addition, explosions that are on or close to the ground would create large quantities of dangerous radioactive fallout particles, most of which would fall to earth during the first 24 hours. Explosions high in the air would create smaller radioactive particles, which would not have any real effect on humans until many months or years later, if at all.[2]

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IN AN ENEMY ATTACK

If the U.S. should be attacked, the people who happened to be close to a nuclear, explosion--in the area of heavy destruction--probably would be killed or seriously injured by the blast, or by the heat of the nuclear fireball.

People a few miles away--in the "fringe area" of the explosion--would be endangered by the blast and heat, and by fires that the explosion might start. However, it is likely that most of the people in the fringe area would survive these hazards.

People who were _outside_ the fringe area would not be affected by the blast, heat or fire. Department of Defense studies show that in any nuclear attack an enemy might launch against us, tens of millions of Americans would be outside the fringe areas. To them--and to people in the fringe areas who survived the blast, heat and fire--radioactive fallout would be the main danger. Protective measures against this danger can be taken.

WHAT IS FALLOUT?

When a nuclear weapon explodes near the ground, great quantities of pulverized earth and other debris are sucked up into the nuclear cloud. There the radioactive gases produced by the explosion condense on and into this debris, producing radioactive fallout particles. Within a short time, these particles fall back to earth--the larger ones first, the smaller ones later. On the way down, and after they reach the ground, the radioactive particles give off invisible gamma rays--like X-rays--too much of which can kill or injure people. These particles give off most of their radiation quickly; therefore the first few hours or days after an attack would be the most dangerous period.

In dangerously affected areas the particles themselves would look like grains of salt or sand; but the _rays_ they would give off could not be seen, tasted, smelled or felt. Special instruments would be required to detect the rays and measure their intensity.

FALLOUT WOULD BE WIDESPREAD

The distribution of fallout particles after a nuclear attack would depend on wind currents, weather conditions and other factors. There is no way of predicting in advance what areas of the country would be affected by fallout, or how soon the particles would fall back to earth at a particular location.

Some communities might get a heavy accumulation of fallout, while others--even in the same general area--might get little or none. No area in the U.S. could be sure of _not_ getting fallout, and it is probable that some fallout particles would be deposited on most of the country.

Areas close to a nuclear explosion might receive fallout within 15-30 minutes. It might take 5-10 hours or more for the particles to drift down on a community 100 or 200 miles away.

Generally, the first 24 hours after fallout began to settle would be the most dangerous period to a community's residents. The heavier particles falling during that time would still be highly radioactive and give off strong rays. The lighter particles falling later would have lost much of their radiation high in the atmosphere.

FALLOUT CAUSES RADIATION SICKNESS

The invisible gamma rays given off by fallout particles can cause radiation sickness--that is, illness caused by physical and chemical changes in the cells of the body. If a person receives a large dose of radiation, he will die. But if he receives only a small or medium dose, his body will repair itself and he will get well. The same dose received over a short period of time is more damaging than if it is received over a longer period. Usually, the effects of a given dose of radiation are more severe in very young and very old persons, and those not in good health.

No special clothing can protect people against gamma radiation, and no special drugs or chemicals can prevent large doses of radiation from causing damage to the cells of the body. However, antibiotics and other medicines are helpful in treating infections that sometimes follow excessive exposure to radiation (which weakens the body's ability to fight infections).

Almost all of the radiation that people would absorb from fallout particles would come from particles _outside_ their own bodies. Only simple precautions would be necessary to avoid swallowing the particles, and because of their size (like grains of sand) it would be practically impossible to inhale them.

People exposed to fallout radiation do _not_ become radioactive and thereby dangerous to other people. Radiation sickness is not contagious or infectious, and one person cannot "catch it" from another person.

PROTECTION IS POSSIBLE

People can protect themselves against fallout radiation, and have a good chance of surviving it, by staying inside a fallout shelter. In most cases, the fallout radiation level outside the shelter would decrease rapidly enough to permit people to leave the shelter within a few days.

Even in communities that received heavy accumulations of fallout particles, people soon might be able to leave shelter for a few minutes or a few hours at a time in order to perform emergency tasks. In most places, it is unlikely that full-time shelter occupancy would be required for more than a week or two.

MANY KINDS OF FALLOUT SHELTERS

The farther away you are from the fallout particles outside, the less radiation you will receive. Also, the building materials (concrete, brick, lumber, etc.) that are between you and the fallout particles serve to absorb many of the gamma rays and keep them from reaching you.

A fallout shelter, therefore, does not need to be a special type of building or an underground bunker. It can be _any space_, provided the walls and roof are thick or heavy enough to absorb many of the rays given off by the fallout particles outside, and thus keep dangerous amounts of radiation from reaching the people inside the structure.

A shelter can be the basement or inner corridor of any large building; the basement of a private home; a subway or tunnel; or even a backyard trench with some kind of shielding material (heavy lumber, earth, bricks, etc.) serving as a roof.

In addition to protecting people from fallout radiation, most fallout shelters also would provide some limited protection against the blast and heat effects of nuclear explosions that were not close by.