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CNN Live At Daybreak

America's New War: Protecting Against Terrorism

Aired October 01, 2001 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's move along to yet another area of concern and that is biological or chemical warfare.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen is in Stockbridge, Georgia where gas masks are going off the shelves there at an Army surplus store.

Elizabeth, I think that a lot of buyer beware in this one. You've got to be very careful what gas mask you might want to purchase, correct?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well not only what gas mask you might want to purchase but you have to think will this really help me? People seem to have some sort of false security feelings about gas masks that they're the answer.

And let's talk to Russell Smith who's the manager here at this Army-Navy surplus store.

RUSSELL SMITH, STORE MANAGER: How you doing?

COHEN: Let's talk first about what you've got available. Tell me about these masks.

SMITH: Well, what we've got available is really all that's left. There's some Canadian stuff and some U.S. M-9 masks that are -- just became available that are brand new and this is probably the most usable friendly of any of them with the screw-on canisters and such.

COHEN: And there's one with a hood over there.

SMITH: That's a chemical hood. In case of a chemical attack, you would, of course, have a whole suit of this on, gloves, shoes, everything, and that makes it part of the system.

COHEN: Now you were telling me you were getting 200 to 300 calls a day,...

SMITH: That's at least.

COHEN: ... at least for gas masks,...

SMITH: At least.

COHEN: ... and your own mother called and said, Russell, save me one. You saved one for her and one for you, but you were saying you think the chances that they'd help are actually pretty small.

SMITH: Well, the problem is you'd have to actually be wearing it on the -- when it hits and you wouldn't get that kind of warning.

COHEN: Right, terrorists don't sent warnings.

SMITH: That's right, you know.

COHEN: Right. Thank you, Russell.

Terrorists don't send warnings, of course, Miles, that they're sending an attack. They also, of course, don't say what they're sending. Different kinds of chemical and biological agents require different filters so experts are telling us unless you know what's coming at you and what kind of filter to wear, your mask would probably be useless -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, all important points from all three of our correspondents. Bill Delaney, Elizabeth Cohen, Jason Carroll, thank you very much. We hope we didn't instill undue concern in our audience this morning, but we feel it's worth talking about in the wake of the attacks of September 11.

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