Would you buy atropine in case of terrorist attack?

I just filled out one of those marketing survey things that I do every so often. This one was about a single use atropine injection, prescription required, that could be used in case of a central nervous sytem weapon (gas, liquid) etc. by terrorists.

I’m so oogied out right now, I can’t even comprehend why I’m so oogied. Is it because of the possibility of such an attack? The lack of probablilty of such an attack? The fact that someone’s thinking of marketing such a product to prey off our fears?

Would you buy one? Am I sticking my head in the sand and going lalala here? Their assumed price is $40 bucks each. The mock-up of the advertisement mentioned no side effects, but I can’t imagine there aren’t some.

For what it’s worth, I never considered getting a Cipro prescription when the anthrax thing was going around, either.

I know a soldier who was in Gulf War I and actually used atropine. He said there can be terrible side effects. It’s truly not something you want to fool around with unless you’re sure you’re being exposed to nerve gas.

And I have a friend who was exposed to anthrax (in the sense that she worked in the same building where one of the suspect letters was found). She did take Cipro as a precaution.

But those two were a little closer to the action than me and my mail order catalog would expect to be.

Yikes. Atropine for self-administration? Aside from the adverse effects it can have on one’s heart, it can also precipitate anaphalactic reactions and glaucoma, especially if you mis-calculate the dose.

Perhaps if they devise auto-injectors similar to Imitrex or Epi-Pens where you could adjust a knob to a weight range if might be OK.

Beyond all that, my luck would be to be 40 miles away from such a thing if ever needed. I have a hard enough time keeping a cell phone and house keys with me.

Atropine and 2-pam chloride are the dynamic duo issued to combat folks to assist them with completing the mission in the event of concurrent nerve agent exposure. They come in a little kit of autoinjectors–innocuous looking tubes, the business end of which you smack into your thigh. This action deploys a syringe needle into your meaty bits (and hopefully you don’t have skinny legs or you’ll hit your thighbone) which in turn delivers the gravy.

I’ve never heard definitive anedotal eidence of the efficacy of either compound, but the known effects of nerve agent would be enough to make be take a bite of dog crap if someone told it would stave off “The Kickin’ Chicken.”

Of course, since it was a pre-market survey, I don’t have all the details, only what was in the ad mock-up. But it was four pages long, and the administration section said you would remove the safety cap, hold the device to your outer upper thigh and press the spring-loaded button on the end. Nothing about dosing. It did indicate that it would work through clothing, however.

And if I have to somehow keep my 15 pound baby’s injector, my 100 pound kid’s injector and my 200 pound self’s injector straight in my purse, while in the midst of a terrorist panic with people dropping to the floor and foaming at the mouth all around me, that makes it even less likely that I’d go in for such a thing.

Who wants to live forever? If the bell tolls, I’m outta here and I ain’t gonna sweat a terror strike.

At. Last. A chance to tell this story. Gather round folks. Way back in 1986, I was a Buck Pvt Stu… make that new recruit Stuffy. My recruiter signed me up for a weekend pre-Basic Training course at Camp Parks*. Basically it was Basic Marching instructions, playing with tear gas and stuff like that. Well after the day (we were a mixed group btw) we’re sitting around in teh barracks shooting the breeze. Then a girl got sick and threw up. A little bit later someone else got sick, people started complaining of headaches and nausea.

The Power that Was, figured it might be a good idea to get out of the barracks.** Me and three other guys who felt fine volunteered to retrieve evrybodies luggage. I don’t remember getting sick at all, but I do remember the dual stick (see Inigo Montoya’s post) in the Ambulance. The most I remember about it was that my heart raced faster than it’s ever raced. I could hear my heart beatng in my ears. I slipped in and out of conciousness but the rapid heartbeat lasted at least a day that I remember. I was hospitalized for three days (so were thre other guys, one I think for more than a week), the Doctor’s didn’t know if it was from the effects of poisoning or in response to the Atropine/2-Pam. I also remember that for months afterwards, I would get every now and then I would get really flushed and break out in hives. On the bright side, I (and the other three guys) got inteviewed live by Ted Koppel from a hospital bed. We were all High School kids, so they turned it into some kind of debate.

*[sub]The Cops who beat the crap out of Rodney King served there time there.
**The day before our minicamp the barracks had been fumigated. Pesticides are basically low level nerve gas.[/sub]