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Interview With Author of Terrorism Survival Guide

Aired March 12, 2003 - 14:43   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.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, if the unimaginable ever strikes where you live, what do you need to know to get through it? Dr. Angelo Acquista has written a book to help. It is called "A Survival Guide: What to Do in a Biological, Chemical, or Nuclear Emergency."
Dr. Acquista joining us live from New York -- a pleasure to have you with us. Thank you, sir.

DR. ANGELO ACQUISTA, AUTHOR, "A SURVIVAL GUIDE": Thank you.

KAGAN: A lot of scared people out there, and I will tell you, this is what I like about the idea of your book. It is that information is the antidote to anxiety.

ACQUISTA: The reason I wrote the book is to attempt to take away from the terrorists the weapon of fear, and if people can get a basis of knowledge that they could refer to and use as a guide, I think they'll be less frightened.

KAGAN: Well, and one of the problems is there is no official protocol from the U.S. government exactly what you are to do in some of these situations. Tom Ridge did come out a couple weeks ago and talk about duct tape and all that kind of stuff, but it takes something like your book to get to some of the specifics, so let's go ahead and do that.

Biological -- if there is a biological attack, you write that, actually, time is on your side if, perhaps, you're exposed to some kind of biological agent.

ACQUISTA: That's right. And people should be assured of that fact because those are the limitations of some of the weapons that people term weapons of mass destruction. The limitations of a biological attack are that most of the biologic agents have an incubation period. Take an example like anthrax. There is an incubation of one to three days before people start developing symptoms. Within that period of time, then they start developing a flu-like illness. Again, another two to three days. And so that would be the period of time that if you institute therapy with the various antibiotics that will be available for such an organism, you then decrease the mortality from that type of infection.

KAGAN: Let's move on to chemical attack. Time is not really on your side as much in this case.

ACQUISTA: Well, with chemical attacks, time is of the essence. But, again, realizing that chemical weapons have limitations. For example, in cold weather, they're essentially useless because you can't vaporize them. In windy and hot days, they're too volatile, so they disperse very quickly, and so they cannot be delivered in high concentrations to cause massive injuries.

Understanding that fact, you now can walk down Park Avenue in New York City knowing that it's unlikely that you're going to be attacked with, say, with a nerve agent, because of those limitations.

KAGAN: But what about, let's say, in the subway?

ACQUISTA: Envision the most optimal of circumstances that occurred in Japan. In Japan in the 1990s, there was a release of sarin nerve gas.

KAGAN: Right, and people died in that attack, doctor.

ACQUISTA: Exactly. But if you remember, only 10 percent of all those people who were exposed to that agent in the most optimal of circumstances became ill, and out of those, only 1 percent actually died. What is on your side and what is against the chemical weapons is the fact time is on your side, soap and water is on your side, and fresh air is on your side.

KAGAN: But that's if two things happen -- if fear doesn't happen, and if a big crowd response doesn't happen. How do you fight against that?

ACQUISTA: Well, you fight against it by telling people what it is that they should watch for, and what are the things that are available that they can help themselves with? There are so many things that you could do. For example, in the event of a chemical attack, people always ask, Well, how do you know that something has occurred?

Simply by witnessing or observing the symptoms of people that are around you, symptoms such as blurry vision, or pinpoint pupils in the people that you're watching, acute onset severe headache.

A tightness of the chest or shortness of breath and drooling around the nose or profuse watery nose or profusely tearing eyes. Those are the kind of symptoms that once you see them, you just use those things that I said to you are on your side, which is fresh air, time, soap and water.

KAGAN: And it sounds like a lot of this is thinking ahead about what you would do in the event of such an attack. A lot of good information in this book. Once again, it is called "The Survival Guide," and more information on 911Guide.com. Dr. Acquista, thank you for your time today.

ACQUISTA: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired March 12, 2003 - 14:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, if the unimaginable ever strikes where you live, what do you need to know to get through it? Dr. Angelo Acquista has written a book to help. It is called "A Survival Guide: What to Do in a Biological, Chemical, or Nuclear Emergency."
Dr. Acquista joining us live from New York -- a pleasure to have you with us. Thank you, sir.

DR. ANGELO ACQUISTA, AUTHOR, "A SURVIVAL GUIDE": Thank you.

KAGAN: A lot of scared people out there, and I will tell you, this is what I like about the idea of your book. It is that information is the antidote to anxiety.

ACQUISTA: The reason I wrote the book is to attempt to take away from the terrorists the weapon of fear, and if people can get a basis of knowledge that they could refer to and use as a guide, I think they'll be less frightened.

KAGAN: Well, and one of the problems is there is no official protocol from the U.S. government exactly what you are to do in some of these situations. Tom Ridge did come out a couple weeks ago and talk about duct tape and all that kind of stuff, but it takes something like your book to get to some of the specifics, so let's go ahead and do that.

Biological -- if there is a biological attack, you write that, actually, time is on your side if, perhaps, you're exposed to some kind of biological agent.

ACQUISTA: That's right. And people should be assured of that fact because those are the limitations of some of the weapons that people term weapons of mass destruction. The limitations of a biological attack are that most of the biologic agents have an incubation period. Take an example like anthrax. There is an incubation of one to three days before people start developing symptoms. Within that period of time, then they start developing a flu-like illness. Again, another two to three days. And so that would be the period of time that if you institute therapy with the various antibiotics that will be available for such an organism, you then decrease the mortality from that type of infection.

KAGAN: Let's move on to chemical attack. Time is not really on your side as much in this case.

ACQUISTA: Well, with chemical attacks, time is of the essence. But, again, realizing that chemical weapons have limitations. For example, in cold weather, they're essentially useless because you can't vaporize them. In windy and hot days, they're too volatile, so they disperse very quickly, and so they cannot be delivered in high concentrations to cause massive injuries.

Understanding that fact, you now can walk down Park Avenue in New York City knowing that it's unlikely that you're going to be attacked with, say, with a nerve agent, because of those limitations.

KAGAN: But what about, let's say, in the subway?

ACQUISTA: Envision the most optimal of circumstances that occurred in Japan. In Japan in the 1990s, there was a release of sarin nerve gas.

KAGAN: Right, and people died in that attack, doctor.

ACQUISTA: Exactly. But if you remember, only 10 percent of all those people who were exposed to that agent in the most optimal of circumstances became ill, and out of those, only 1 percent actually died. What is on your side and what is against the chemical weapons is the fact time is on your side, soap and water is on your side, and fresh air is on your side.

KAGAN: But that's if two things happen -- if fear doesn't happen, and if a big crowd response doesn't happen. How do you fight against that?

ACQUISTA: Well, you fight against it by telling people what it is that they should watch for, and what are the things that are available that they can help themselves with? There are so many things that you could do. For example, in the event of a chemical attack, people always ask, Well, how do you know that something has occurred?

Simply by witnessing or observing the symptoms of people that are around you, symptoms such as blurry vision, or pinpoint pupils in the people that you're watching, acute onset severe headache.

A tightness of the chest or shortness of breath and drooling around the nose or profuse watery nose or profusely tearing eyes. Those are the kind of symptoms that once you see them, you just use those things that I said to you are on your side, which is fresh air, time, soap and water.

KAGAN: And it sounds like a lot of this is thinking ahead about what you would do in the event of such an attack. A lot of good information in this book. Once again, it is called "The Survival Guide," and more information on 911Guide.com. Dr. Acquista, thank you for your time today.

ACQUISTA: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com