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Doctors try to solve gas mystery
MOSCOW, Russia -- U.S. officials believe the gas used by Russian forces to end the siege by Chechen rebels in a Moscow theatre may have contained a chemical building block also found in heroin or morphine-based agents, sources tell CNN. Officials base their conclusion on medical evidence seen so far. Doctors attempting to treat some of the victims first used atropine, a standard antidote treatment used in a variety of overdose poisonings. The substance was not very effective. Doctors then reported using a substance known generically as narcan and as a brand name naloxone, which is used for countering the effects of heroin and a variety of morphine-based pain medications. That treatment was successful in many of the cases, sources say. Alexei Arbatov, head of the Russian parliament's defence committee, told CNN the gas used was "incapacitating," and not a chemical agent. However, the Russian refusal to reveal the type of gas used gave rise to speculation that it may have been banned under international regulations. John Eldridge, Editor of Jane's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence, told the UK Press Association: "It might be the traditional Russian reluctance to comment on anything that they fear might jeopardise their security, going back to the Soviet era. "Or they may also be reluctant because the use of this gas is prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention, which prohibits the use of nerve gas." But Eldridge said he had sympathy for the Russian military who were in the difficult position of having to be seen to be acting to bring the hostage situation to an end and were now under the scrutiny of the rest of the world over the result. He said it was likely that the Russian military were forced to look at the option of using gas stocks which they could get hold of quickly. He added that it was crucial that whatever agent they used acted quickly and would not be detected by the hostage-takers, giving them time to set off explosives or kill captives. This would mean that something like tear gas or pepper gas would be useless because it can be seen. He added that the gas used was likely to be a "cocktail" of different agents rather than one. Eldridge also said valium would have been an unlikely option because it would not take effect quickly enough and very large amounts would be needed. He also said the suggestion that the gas was BZ was unlikely because it is also quite slow-acting, giving the terrorists time to react. British weapons expert Michael Yardley said it seemed that when deciding to use gas to end the siege, the Russians had not taken into account the weakened state of the hostages, their dehydration and how the agent would affect them. He said they may have expected some hostage deaths but certainly not to the extent of the final death toll, with many still in intensive care. "I suspect the reason the Russians do not wish to say what the agent was not because it was banned under the conventions of any chemical weapons treaty but because it might indicate that they were experimenting to create new agents," he told PA.
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