View and print a copy of their brochure "Preparing Makes Sense. Get Ready Now."
Download PDF
or call 1-800-BE-READY
Visit their web site at www.Ready.gov |
Download the FEMA publication, Are Your Ready?
Both the US DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS) and Israel's HOME FRONT COMMAND tell you to find a shelter in case of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack. In Israel, every building has a safe room built to Israeli government standards. In the US, the DHS has recommended that US citizens create their own safe rooms using polyethylene sheeting and duct tape. The idea is to seal off a room in your home and/or office from the environment for up to 48 hours. FEMA also has a publication with guidelines on what emergency supplies to include in the shelter.
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SURVIVING A CHEMICAL OR BIOLOGICAL ATTACK REQUIRES THAT YOU HAVE CLEAN AIR TO BREATHE. Safe room, home survival, terrorism, chemical, biological attack, preparations, supplies, how-to make a safe room.
CITIZEN PREPAREDNESS FOR SURVIVAL
TECHNICAL REFERENCES BELOW |
When should the OnSiteAir™ Emergency Air-Safety Kit be used.
Table 1 below shows how long you can wait to deploy the first OnSiteAir™ kit for some typical room sizes and number of people. It is recommended that you allow 100 cubic feet per person in a sealed room. Larger rooms allow more time before the first deployment, two people in a 1500 cubic foot room can go 24 hours without reaching dangerous levels of CO2 and O2. However, larger rooms are more difficult to seal.
| Table 1. |
| NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN THE SEALED ROOM |
| ROOM SIZE | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
| 200 cubic ft. |
7 |
2.5 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 400 cubic ft. |
14.25 |
7 |
4.75 |
3.5 |
|
|
|
|
| 500 cubic ft. |
17.75 |
8.75 |
6 |
4.5 |
3.5 |
|
|
|
| 750 cubic ft. |
24 |
13.25 |
8.75 |
6.75 |
5.25 |
4.5 |
3.75 |
3.25 |
| 1000 cubic ft. |
36 |
17.75 |
11.75 |
8.75 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
4.5 |
| 1500 cubic ft. |
48 |
24 |
17.75 |
13.25 |
10.5 |
8.75 |
7.5 |
6.75 |
| HOURS BEFORE DEPLOYING OnSiteAir™ Kit |
Table 2 shows the frequency of deploying refill kits. This is based only on the number of people in the room. After the first deployment you are in the position of needing to account for the CO2 production and O2 depletion as a direct result of the human metabolism in the room.
The goal of the OnSiteAir kit is to keep the CO2 levels below 3% and the O2 levels above 15%.
| Table 2. |
| NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN THE SEALED ROOM | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
| HOURS TILL NEXT KIT DEPLOYMENT | 12 |
6 |
4 |
3 |
2.5 |
2 |
1.75 |
1.5 |
NASA SP-118
SPACE-CABIN ATMOSPHERES
Part IV - Engineering Tradeoffs of One-Versus Two-Gas Systems
A Literature review by
Emanuel M. Roth, M.D.
Prepared under contract for NASA by
Lovelace Foundation for Medical Education and Research
Alberquerque, New Mexico
"...and concentrations above 3.0 percent (zone c)
cause pathological changes in basic physiological functions."
A TIME TO DIE
The Untold Story of the Kursk Tragedy
by
Robert Moore
Copyright 2003 by Crown Publishers
ISBN 0-609-61000-7
"Many different factors determine how long a trapped man can survive. If he is taking relaxed and shallow breaths, his consumption of oxygen and production of carbon dioxide will be less. For example, if a sailor is sitting calmly, leaning against a bulkhead, or lying down on a bunk, he will consume about 0.4 quart of oxygen per minute and breathe out around a third of a quart of CO2. If he falls asleep, those figures are reduced by up to 50 percent. But if the survivor is panicking and hyperventilating, or if he's engaged in heavy physical activity such as moving debris, hammering an SOS against the hull, or dragging others to safety, he may well consume as much as two quarts of oxygen a minute."
page 65
"The human body can tolerate a far greater depletion of oxygen that it can an increase in carbon dioxide. A buildup of CO2 will kill long before a shortage of oxygen. The men would have known that carbon-dioxide poisoning is a terrible fate, one that would provide a harrowing and agonizing end to their ordeal. With oxygen deprivation, there is at least a merciful feature: The brain fades before the body collapses. But a buildup of carbon dioxide triggers a much more traumatic cycle of physiological reactions.
"As the CO2 reaches a level above 3 percent of the atmosphere, the human body begins to experience what doctors call "respiratory distress". "Distress" is a medical euphemism, however, and considerably understates what the body undergoes. The body craves fresh air, and breathing becomes deeper and faster. As the level of CO2 continues to build, the body loses the ability to get rid of the carbon dioxide it is producing. The mind cannot understand why inhaling more air is not providing relief, and breathing becomes more and more desperate. With every breath comes a more intense craving for oxygen."
page 66
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