Nerve WHAT??

I just returned from a seven day training with Homeland Security in Alabama. COBRA training, it stands for:

Chemical
or
Biological
Radiological
Agents

When they said after 5 days of training we would be doing an exercise with 3 different chemicals....phosgene, Nerve agent VX and Nerve agent GB....I thought they meant it would be an re-enactment of that type of exposure but NO it was the real thing. I knew from other public health trainings that an exposure to just a pin head of nerve agents causes almost instant death so I was a little concerned. They kept telling us that they had never had anyone die. But for some reason it wasn't too reassuring for me. They had us smell what nerve agent smells like "banana laughy taffy" just incase we had a hole in our suit or mask. All during the exercise I kept wondering....do I smell banana candy? Of course it was all in my mind.

I WAS SCARED TO DEATH...... is an understatement, as didn't think I would be able to make it for sure, but I did and glad I never have to do this emergency response for real. I really appreciate the people who respond to terrorist or accidental release of these agents in real life.


Being decontaminated...naked in front of others in our group brought back nightmares of seventh grade P.E. showers (how did we every survive!!)