On the radio yesterday someone said that if you’re caught in a poison gas attack, a useful thing to do would be to urinate on a clothe and draw air to breathe through that. Apparently the ammonia would help in some way. Would my own pee save the day, or would I get lots of strange looks and a smelly face in vain? Would using bottled water be just as/more effective?
As a point of interest, it was made clear that even with lots of money and good resources, it would be extremely difficult to pull off a poison gas attack that might endanger a great deal of lives. I hope that’s true.
Don’t know if this is true or not, but I remember reading pretty much the same story years ago but it claimed that this was the oficial advice to troops in WW1. The odd thing is it was supposedly to protect against mustard gas which I think is ammonia.
Mustard gas is 1,1-thiobis(2-chloroethane). The ammonia in urine will neutralize some war gases like chlorine, it is ineffective on others, such as Mustard gas. Highly toxic gases are usually also highly reactive, so there is usually a fairly simple way to neutralize them, you just have to guess what it is. :eek: Here’s a brief description of the methods used to neutralize some of the older gases.
Ah well. I always think of ammonia when I think of nasty gasses because my father kept some in a Lucozade bottle of all things in his shed. After he died my brothers and I were clearing out his stuff and one of them found it, opened it up and took a big 'ol sniff. :rolleyes:
It was quite funny, once he started breathing again.
If there’s enough poison gas in the air to kill you, the amount of ammonia in a urine-soaked cloth won’t be anywhere near enough to react with all the gas you’ll be breathing in. And even if you had pure oxygen to breathe, most chemical warfare agents can kill or severely injure you just by coming in contact with your skin.
No. The legend probably arises because after the first Chlorine gas attacks by the Germans against the Brits in WW I, they were frantic for something that would offer any degree of protection and in so doing keep their troops from cutting and running at the first hint of gas. They passed out cloth masks similar to the old “Doctor” masks or the ones worn in the Orient sometimes today. Supposedly, if they were soaked in “moisture”, they would be effective. Somehow the urine thing got started, maybe from someone thinking of the chemical properties of urine like Squink mentions. But enough urine would preclude the passage of a substance called “air” through the filter. It made the Tommies feel better, anyway, until real masks reached the front.