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CNN Saturday Morning News

Weekend House Call: Threats To Your Health From Terrorism

Aired February 15, 2003 - 08:29   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 CORRESPONDENT: It's Weekend House Call time, preparing for a potential war, terrorism and attacks that could involve weapons of mass destruction. How ready are U.S. troops overseas and how prepared do you need to be on the home front?
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us from Kuwait. Sanjay is spending a little time with folks in the desert, making sort of like a hotel call this morning, really, I guess you would call it -- good morning, Sanjay.

Or good afternoon there, anyhow.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles, good afternoon.

Well, the troops have been preparing quite a bit. We've certainly seen a lot of pictures. They've been putting on gas masks, wearing decontamination suits, attending biowarfare classes. One thing they all agree on, Miles, is that this is going to be a different sort of war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): In the middle of the desert of Northern Kuwait, the U.S. military is going over their ABCs -- airway, breathing and circulation, a basic tent of any medical training. But here in the desert, soldiers are also learning another abbreviation, NBC -- nuclear, biological and chemical.

CAPT. ANDY SCHOBITZ, U.S. ARMY: The things that worry me the most over the next several weeks would be if our soldiers are to be hit with a nuclear, biological and chemical attack.

GUPTA: Unlike wars of past, where bullets or bombs were the biggest threat, transparent gases, microscopic viruses and gamma radiation are a bigger concern today.

SCHOBITZ: So each soldier is issued the antidotes for most chemical attacks, specifically for nerve agents.

GUPTA: It's a different sort of war, requiring new and difficult preparations and in the United States, there is also a threat of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack, which is why officials are keeping the terrorism threat warning high.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR: This is probably the most significant, the most serious threat we've seen to American interests.

GUPTA: Americans, like David Ferrer (ph) of Brooklyn, are preparing.

DAVID FERRER: I know things are getting worse and I want to have something, some kind of protection.

GUPTA: Heeding advice from the Department of Homeland Security, which recommends each household have a three day supply of food and water, an emergency kit containing batteries and radios, a supply of plastic sheeting and duct tape to seal doors and windows and develop an emergency communication plan and family meeting place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: And, Miles, we've certainly been hearing a lot about the training and preparation for those sorts of threats here in Kuwait, but certainly also hearing about the increased concerns at home.

We want to address some of those threats. The threats that we've been hearing the most about back at home are things like smallpox, anthrax, botulism, sarin, dirty bombs. Those are some of the threats that a lot of people are talking about. We want to talk about those threats, specifically, what are they and how do you prepare for them.

And we have a guest joining us today, as well.

Ian Day is with us. Very pleased to say that. He has actually had 12 years of experience actually talking about and training people in nuclear, biological and chemical threats.

Now, he has trained people in the U.S. military, the British military and thankfully all of us here at CNN, as well.

So thank you very much for joining us.

IAN DAY, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION EXPERT: My pleasure.

GUPTA: All right, a lot of questions out there, a lot of concerns, e-mail questions. We gave you a phone number earlier.

Let's go right to our first e-mail question and see if we can put that up on the screen and see if we can address this. This comes from New York. "What must we have in our apartments?," a question we're getting over and over again. "What must we have in our car? If an explosion happens, at what point should we leave our apartment or, if in a car, should we get out?"

Well, we've been hearing a lot about the specific things that you should have, things like batteries, radio, food and water. Those are common sense sort of things. We've also been hearing a lot about duct tape and plastic.

What do you make of it? Is that silly or is that something people should really keep around, Ian?

DAY: It will help. Any apartment has a window open or a door open will let in this houses straight in. By putting plastic and duct tape around, you're not going to get 100 percent protection, but what you are doing is reducing the amount of contamination coming into your room.

GUPTA: And this is something that people have been doing in other countries for years, right?

DAY: For years. You can even go back further. If you go back to the Second World War, one of the drills we learnt in England was to put sheets over our doors to stop the mustard agent from coming in in the case of the Second World War type scenario.

GUPTA: All right. All right. Lots of questions like that. And we're taking your phone calls, as well, isn't that right, Miles?

O'BRIEN: Yes. We have a call for you Sanjay.

Trudy is on the line from Maryland.

Go ahead, Trudy.

TRUDY: Yes, good morning.

It has been recommended that people have a safe room and I have been hearing specifically where I bought some plastic that if people, say, four to six go into a room that is totally sealed off that after a certain number of hours, not days, that they can suffocate. Is that true?

GUPTA: Well, it certainly depends in part on the size of the room. There's, that's sort of obvious. And it depends, in part, on the number of people, as well. But Ian and I were actually talking about this, as well.

Your comments on that?

DAY: Yes. One of the most important things to realize is that the hazard isn't going to be around for days. If you take a nerve agent like in the city in the open, the chemical cloud will travel down the wind line. It will only last about 30 minutes in your area then move on. So you only have to survive that initial event, then you can get out of the area.

GUPTA: All right, so the answer yes, I guess that is a concern. But the overall chemical threat or biological threat should pass quickly enough where people should be able to get out of the room within a reasonable amount of time.

There are a lot of tips out there. We've been trying to find some tips for you. We have some personal safety tips that we'd like to share, if we can put those up on the screen, as well.

If you're outside during a potential attack, approach the suspected area from up wind. Again, a lot of these are just common sense sort of things. Cover all exposed skin areas, especially your nose, your throat and your lungs. If inside and if you're putting this duct tape and plastic up, turn off your air conditioning. It won't help if you have your air conditioning on but your windows are sealed. Once clear, remove all your clothes, shoes, gloves, leave them outside thoroughly washed with soap and bleach. Some people recommend one part bleach and 10 parts water.

We're going to have all sorts of tips like this for you throughout the show. It's a half an hour show. We're going to talk about chemical, biological and nuclear threats, what you can do. I think it's going to be very informative and hopefully very reassuring, as well -- back to you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's hope so.

Sanjay, the question a lot of people might ask is do you need a gas mask and just what sort of protection can it provide for you or for U.S. troops?

We'll be answering those questions when our Weekend House Call continues.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Stocking up, we're discussing possible war, possible terrorist attacks, your safety and health, general feelings of anxiety, how to be prepared. Call in your questions. The number is 800-807-2620. Don't worry about that. That's toll-free. And you can e-mail us at housecall@cnn.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR: A lot of folks out around the country that have taken our suggestion to build up that supply kit, we're grateful that they've taken our recommendation. But we want to emphasize, again, that's part of an emergency supply kit. There may, god forbid, there may come a time when the local authorities or national authorities or someone will tell you that you've got to use them, but for the time being, we just don't want folks sealing up their doors or sealing up their windows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back to CNN's Weekend House Call.

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Kuwait as U.S. troops prepare for a possible war with Iraq. And we are taking your e-mail and phone call questions about how troops are preparing for possible chemical, biological or nuclear attack. And with the raised terror alert here, we're also trying to help you understand what you can do.

Sanjay's got our next e-mail and then we'll get back to the phones.

Sanjay, I want to ask you, just quickly, are the windows sealed in your hotel room there?

GUPTA: Actually, they're not. No, they're not sealed over here. We actually can crack them open and we've got a view of the Gulf here. We're not doing that as of yet here, Miles.

But let me, we are getting questions, though, from all over the country, really, all over the world. There's another question coming in now, an e-mail question about gas masks. This coming to use from Kansas City, Missouri.

The question, "Are the gas masks that are available for the American public to purchase online or in an Army surplus store, are they safe and effective for an average citizen to use? What kind of masks are the safest and do you think their purchase would be warranted under the existing circumstances?"

A huge issue. Obviously the soldiers here in Kuwait do have gas masks. They're learning how to use them. They're learning how to use them effectively. But for the average citizen, that's what a lot of people at home are thinking. There's 300 million people living in the United States. Should they all have gas masks now?

DAY: No, not all of them. It's a big country, a lot of open space. There's going to be certain areas that are high risk and perhaps they need them. But you have to be careful when purchasing a gas mask. They come in different sizes, so you must have the right size to fit the right person. A lot of them may be out of date second hand ones. You don't know the history of the canister, how long it's been used for. You don't know the serviceability of the respirator itself.

It's one of those things you have to spend money and time looking at to purchase right for your family.

GUPTA: You brought up an interesting point earlier when we were chatting, that the response to this threat in terms of putting a gas mask on and possibly injuring yourself may, in fact, be more harmful than the threat itself.

Has that been your experience?

DAY: That is true. You take all age groups, from children to old people. If you put my respirator on and you put them in the room, how long before they may have heart problems, it may cause more problems than the actual chemical outside.

GUPTA: Yes. The reaction to this threat, Miles, may be as big a concern as the threat itself.

I understand we have some phone calls, right?

O'BRIEN: Todd is on the line from Florida.

Go ahead, Todd.

TODD: Yes, how will the well water be affected in cases of a biological or a chemical attack?

GUPTA: We're talking about the well water here. Well, certainly in the United States there are a lot of systems in place to try and test well water even if it is contaminated.

What are your thoughts on that, Ian?

DAY: It's very, very hard to contaminate water. You need a lot of chemical to put in a lot of reservoir to contaminate. Also, your system in America is very good. The water is tested for biological and chemical contaminations every day and they will know if something's gone wrong very quickly.

GUPTA: All right, so very hard to contaminate the water.

Another phone call, Miles?

O'BRIEN: Yes, back to Florida we go, where we find Dean.

Good morning, Dean.

DAY: Yes, good morning.

My question is regarding the subject of smallpox inoculations. The health care industry here in the United States and countries such as Israel, you would think, is at the greatest risk of a biotech have decided not to get the shot.

Your thoughts on this as far as the average citizenry and also health care workers getting the shot, whether or not they should or should not?

GUPTA: Well, I'll tell you, this has been -- Dean, this has been one of the biggest debates in health care, no question, whether or not, who should get immunized and whether people should get immunized at all.

The basic plan, really, to vaccinate health care workers so that they may provide a ring of protection against a possible smallpox attack has been the plan that's in place now. Certainly that is based, in part, on previous inoculations back in the '60s and early '70s, and also what's taken place around the world.

Right now, you know, all the soldiers are getting inoculated. I've talked to some of the soldiers that are getting inoculated. Out of the thousands that are getting inoculated, two have become ill that we know about so far. So there is obviously that risk. And that is the balance that the folks are continuously playing, balancing the risk of the inoculation versus the risk of the threat. And a very tough thing to do with all the unknowns out there, Dean -- Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Sanjay.

We're going to take a little break.

We keep hearing about dirty bombs. What are they? What dangers do they pose? We'll have some answers on that, when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) GUPTA: Well, we promised you tips throughout the show. We gave you some personal safety tips. Let's give you some tips, as well, as what to do in the case of a chemical or biological attack.

With chemical incident indicators, some things that might give you a clue ahead of time, numerous dead animals, birds or fish in the area. Small animals actually tend to react to chemicals quicker than humans, so if you see a lot of dead animals around, that may be a clue that a chemical has been released. The same with normal insect life. People with choking symptoms and rashes, if there are illnesses confined to a geographic area, that may be a tip. Large patches of dead trees, grass and the like, unexplained smells. Some of these chemicals have some characteristic smells, fruity or flowery, garlic or horseradish like, bitter almond or newly mowed hay. If you suddenly smell something like that, that could be a clue.

Low lying clouds or fog that are not explained by the other surroundings. And also a biological incident indicator is a little different, although a lot of similarities with chemical incident indicators. Unscheduled or unusual spray dissemination. And then with biological symptoms, flu like symptoms that spread out in a bunch of people all at once, including fever and rashes that suddenly come on in an unexplained way. They may be some clues that the chemical or biological attack has occurred.

Now, there have been a lot of questions about this. I'd like to get straight to some of our e-mails. I'm joined here by Ian Day, who has had 12 years of experience in training people in this. Let's go to our next e-mail, which actually comes from Paula. And it is about duct tape. This is a call that we've gotten, a question we've gotten a lot about. "It seems that it would be impossible to actually make a house airtight. Should we really bother with plastic sheeting and duct tape?"

Ian, you and I have been talking a lot about that.

DAY: We have been.

GUPTA: What are your thoughts? You tell people, you train people in this.

DAY: You can't make the building airtight, old buildings especially. But what you can do is reduce the amount of contamination coming in. But that might make a big difference for your families.

GUPTA: Is it really effective? I mean is this plastic going to work?

DAY: It's going to reduce the amount coming in by about maybe 50 percent. It's very hard to tell. It depends on what you do.

GUPTA: We're talking about nuclear, we're talking about biological, chemical, all these things it will be of some use?

DAY: In actual fact, the radiation it would be a lot better, because it's a lot larger particle size. Biological is a lot smaller. So it will affect each one differently and it will help.

GUPTA: OK, so for all those sorts of things.

All right, well, lots of questions. Miles, I think we've got a phone call. Is that right?

O'BRIEN: Yes. Cinda's (ph) on the line from Tennessee.

Hello, Cinda.

CINDA: Hello, Miles.

I was wondering, I live about 30 miles west of the Oak Ridge Nuclear Plant. What would it do if it attacked, if they, if it were attacked? What kind of effects would it have on our area and what should I do?

GUPTA: Yes, that is a question that we've been hearing a lot about that, specific attacks on nuclear power plants.

What do you tell people about that, Ian?

DAY: OK, first of all, it's very hard to attack a nuclear power plant. They're well protected. However, if we do get a major incident like the Chernobyl incident, I'm afraid evacuation is the only way forward in an area, for the emergency services can get really on top of it.

GUPTA: And there's a lot of alarms and things. People have a lot of warning in this sort of situation, right?

DAY: The nuclear authorities are well drilled, well rehearsed, have lots of plans and a lot of alarm systems. So everybody will know immediately that something's going on.

GUPTA: All right, and let me just mention, as well, about potassium iodide. That's something that people that live around nuclear power plants have probably heard about. This is a pill that people can take to try and prevent against thyroid cancer, one of the few cancers you can actually protect yourself against in the case of exposure to nuclear radiation. That is where the potassium iodide situation comes in.

Another phone call, Miles, is that right?

O'BRIEN: Yes, let's go to Pennsylvania, where we find Dan.

Good morning to you, Dan.

DAN: Hi. How you guys doing?

O'BRIEN: Your question, sir?

DAN: Well, how serious is this and should we really go out and buy all this duct tape and everything else or is this just going to wipe us all out? GUPTA: How serious is this? That is a question that we've all been certainly asking ourselves, certainly asking ourselves here in Kuwait, as well as back home.

How do you gauge that sort of thing?

DAY: You have to look where you live. I say America's a big place. You can live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, you're going to be pretty safe. Take my example. I live in Salisbury in England. I don't duct tape my windows. I don't take my respirator home because I live in that type of area.

GUPTA: What about people in New York, Washington, D.C.? what are you telling them?

DAY: Those people who live close to a known target -- the White House, the Pentagon -- maybe need to look at it. Also, if you live in a tall building, you're more safer, as well. Most chemicals usually stay on the ground and they'll move along the ground. So the higher up you are, the better you are.

GUPTA: All right.

We've been promising you tips throughout. We've got some tips about radiation attacks, as well. We've talked about nuclear -- we've talked about biological and chemical. When it comes to radiological incident indicators, some things that might give you a clue, unusual metal debris lying around, containers displaying radiation symbols, a very common sensical one there, materials emitting heat with no obvious signs of a heating source and then strongly radioactive materials may glow.

These are some clues that may give you a clue as to whether or not a radiological threat is in your area -- Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Sanjay.

And I believe that's all the time we have for this edition of House Call. We actually might have a little more time in just a minute.

Let's take a break. We'll be back with more in just a moment.

COMMERCIAL

GUPTA: Well, I'd like to thank Ian Day for joining us.

DAY: Thank you.

GUPTA: He's had 12 years experience in nuclear, biological and chemical.

A final thought?

DAY: People are using this who are trying to cause terrorism. Don't let them win. GUPTA: Don't panic.

DAY: Don't panic.

GUPTA: Final words.

The response to the threat itself may be more dangerous than the threat itself, and that's something that we've learned over and over again, people inappropriately using gas masks could cause themselves more harm than any possible attack. Also, there are very controllable and preventable threats out there. Remember, the Spanish flu killed more people than all of WWI. We can control the flu. It still kills 36,000 people a year. We need to keep those things in mind.

Tomorrow, we're going to keep on topic. We're going to talk more about the psychological effects of this threat, terrorism, and talk about that and what kind of effects it has on you and what you can do about it. We're going to talk about that tomorrow 8:30, Weekend House Call.

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 February 15, 2003 - 08:29   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's Weekend House Call time, preparing for a potential war, terrorism and attacks that could involve weapons of mass destruction. How ready are U.S. troops overseas and how prepared do you need to be on the home front?
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us from Kuwait. Sanjay is spending a little time with folks in the desert, making sort of like a hotel call this morning, really, I guess you would call it -- good morning, Sanjay.

Or good afternoon there, anyhow.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles, good afternoon.

Well, the troops have been preparing quite a bit. We've certainly seen a lot of pictures. They've been putting on gas masks, wearing decontamination suits, attending biowarfare classes. One thing they all agree on, Miles, is that this is going to be a different sort of war.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): In the middle of the desert of Northern Kuwait, the U.S. military is going over their ABCs -- airway, breathing and circulation, a basic tent of any medical training. But here in the desert, soldiers are also learning another abbreviation, NBC -- nuclear, biological and chemical.

CAPT. ANDY SCHOBITZ, U.S. ARMY: The things that worry me the most over the next several weeks would be if our soldiers are to be hit with a nuclear, biological and chemical attack.

GUPTA: Unlike wars of past, where bullets or bombs were the biggest threat, transparent gases, microscopic viruses and gamma radiation are a bigger concern today.

SCHOBITZ: So each soldier is issued the antidotes for most chemical attacks, specifically for nerve agents.

GUPTA: It's a different sort of war, requiring new and difficult preparations and in the United States, there is also a threat of a nuclear, biological or chemical attack, which is why officials are keeping the terrorism threat warning high.

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR: This is probably the most significant, the most serious threat we've seen to American interests.

GUPTA: Americans, like David Ferrer (ph) of Brooklyn, are preparing.

DAVID FERRER: I know things are getting worse and I want to have something, some kind of protection.

GUPTA: Heeding advice from the Department of Homeland Security, which recommends each household have a three day supply of food and water, an emergency kit containing batteries and radios, a supply of plastic sheeting and duct tape to seal doors and windows and develop an emergency communication plan and family meeting place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: And, Miles, we've certainly been hearing a lot about the training and preparation for those sorts of threats here in Kuwait, but certainly also hearing about the increased concerns at home.

We want to address some of those threats. The threats that we've been hearing the most about back at home are things like smallpox, anthrax, botulism, sarin, dirty bombs. Those are some of the threats that a lot of people are talking about. We want to talk about those threats, specifically, what are they and how do you prepare for them.

And we have a guest joining us today, as well.

Ian Day is with us. Very pleased to say that. He has actually had 12 years of experience actually talking about and training people in nuclear, biological and chemical threats.

Now, he has trained people in the U.S. military, the British military and thankfully all of us here at CNN, as well.

So thank you very much for joining us.

IAN DAY, WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION EXPERT: My pleasure.

GUPTA: All right, a lot of questions out there, a lot of concerns, e-mail questions. We gave you a phone number earlier.

Let's go right to our first e-mail question and see if we can put that up on the screen and see if we can address this. This comes from New York. "What must we have in our apartments?," a question we're getting over and over again. "What must we have in our car? If an explosion happens, at what point should we leave our apartment or, if in a car, should we get out?"

Well, we've been hearing a lot about the specific things that you should have, things like batteries, radio, food and water. Those are common sense sort of things. We've also been hearing a lot about duct tape and plastic.

What do you make of it? Is that silly or is that something people should really keep around, Ian?

DAY: It will help. Any apartment has a window open or a door open will let in this houses straight in. By putting plastic and duct tape around, you're not going to get 100 percent protection, but what you are doing is reducing the amount of contamination coming into your room.

GUPTA: And this is something that people have been doing in other countries for years, right?

DAY: For years. You can even go back further. If you go back to the Second World War, one of the drills we learnt in England was to put sheets over our doors to stop the mustard agent from coming in in the case of the Second World War type scenario.

GUPTA: All right. All right. Lots of questions like that. And we're taking your phone calls, as well, isn't that right, Miles?

O'BRIEN: Yes. We have a call for you Sanjay.

Trudy is on the line from Maryland.

Go ahead, Trudy.

TRUDY: Yes, good morning.

It has been recommended that people have a safe room and I have been hearing specifically where I bought some plastic that if people, say, four to six go into a room that is totally sealed off that after a certain number of hours, not days, that they can suffocate. Is that true?

GUPTA: Well, it certainly depends in part on the size of the room. There's, that's sort of obvious. And it depends, in part, on the number of people, as well. But Ian and I were actually talking about this, as well.

Your comments on that?

DAY: Yes. One of the most important things to realize is that the hazard isn't going to be around for days. If you take a nerve agent like in the city in the open, the chemical cloud will travel down the wind line. It will only last about 30 minutes in your area then move on. So you only have to survive that initial event, then you can get out of the area.

GUPTA: All right, so the answer yes, I guess that is a concern. But the overall chemical threat or biological threat should pass quickly enough where people should be able to get out of the room within a reasonable amount of time.

There are a lot of tips out there. We've been trying to find some tips for you. We have some personal safety tips that we'd like to share, if we can put those up on the screen, as well.

If you're outside during a potential attack, approach the suspected area from up wind. Again, a lot of these are just common sense sort of things. Cover all exposed skin areas, especially your nose, your throat and your lungs. If inside and if you're putting this duct tape and plastic up, turn off your air conditioning. It won't help if you have your air conditioning on but your windows are sealed. Once clear, remove all your clothes, shoes, gloves, leave them outside thoroughly washed with soap and bleach. Some people recommend one part bleach and 10 parts water.

We're going to have all sorts of tips like this for you throughout the show. It's a half an hour show. We're going to talk about chemical, biological and nuclear threats, what you can do. I think it's going to be very informative and hopefully very reassuring, as well -- back to you, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, let's hope so.

Sanjay, the question a lot of people might ask is do you need a gas mask and just what sort of protection can it provide for you or for U.S. troops?

We'll be answering those questions when our Weekend House Call continues.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Stocking up, we're discussing possible war, possible terrorist attacks, your safety and health, general feelings of anxiety, how to be prepared. Call in your questions. The number is 800-807-2620. Don't worry about that. That's toll-free. And you can e-mail us at housecall@cnn.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM RIDGE, HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR: A lot of folks out around the country that have taken our suggestion to build up that supply kit, we're grateful that they've taken our recommendation. But we want to emphasize, again, that's part of an emergency supply kit. There may, god forbid, there may come a time when the local authorities or national authorities or someone will tell you that you've got to use them, but for the time being, we just don't want folks sealing up their doors or sealing up their windows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back to CNN's Weekend House Call.

Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Kuwait as U.S. troops prepare for a possible war with Iraq. And we are taking your e-mail and phone call questions about how troops are preparing for possible chemical, biological or nuclear attack. And with the raised terror alert here, we're also trying to help you understand what you can do.

Sanjay's got our next e-mail and then we'll get back to the phones.

Sanjay, I want to ask you, just quickly, are the windows sealed in your hotel room there?

GUPTA: Actually, they're not. No, they're not sealed over here. We actually can crack them open and we've got a view of the Gulf here. We're not doing that as of yet here, Miles.

But let me, we are getting questions, though, from all over the country, really, all over the world. There's another question coming in now, an e-mail question about gas masks. This coming to use from Kansas City, Missouri.

The question, "Are the gas masks that are available for the American public to purchase online or in an Army surplus store, are they safe and effective for an average citizen to use? What kind of masks are the safest and do you think their purchase would be warranted under the existing circumstances?"

A huge issue. Obviously the soldiers here in Kuwait do have gas masks. They're learning how to use them. They're learning how to use them effectively. But for the average citizen, that's what a lot of people at home are thinking. There's 300 million people living in the United States. Should they all have gas masks now?

DAY: No, not all of them. It's a big country, a lot of open space. There's going to be certain areas that are high risk and perhaps they need them. But you have to be careful when purchasing a gas mask. They come in different sizes, so you must have the right size to fit the right person. A lot of them may be out of date second hand ones. You don't know the history of the canister, how long it's been used for. You don't know the serviceability of the respirator itself.

It's one of those things you have to spend money and time looking at to purchase right for your family.

GUPTA: You brought up an interesting point earlier when we were chatting, that the response to this threat in terms of putting a gas mask on and possibly injuring yourself may, in fact, be more harmful than the threat itself.

Has that been your experience?

DAY: That is true. You take all age groups, from children to old people. If you put my respirator on and you put them in the room, how long before they may have heart problems, it may cause more problems than the actual chemical outside.

GUPTA: Yes. The reaction to this threat, Miles, may be as big a concern as the threat itself.

I understand we have some phone calls, right?

O'BRIEN: Todd is on the line from Florida.

Go ahead, Todd.

TODD: Yes, how will the well water be affected in cases of a biological or a chemical attack?

GUPTA: We're talking about the well water here. Well, certainly in the United States there are a lot of systems in place to try and test well water even if it is contaminated.

What are your thoughts on that, Ian?

DAY: It's very, very hard to contaminate water. You need a lot of chemical to put in a lot of reservoir to contaminate. Also, your system in America is very good. The water is tested for biological and chemical contaminations every day and they will know if something's gone wrong very quickly.

GUPTA: All right, so very hard to contaminate the water.

Another phone call, Miles?

O'BRIEN: Yes, back to Florida we go, where we find Dean.

Good morning, Dean.

DAY: Yes, good morning.

My question is regarding the subject of smallpox inoculations. The health care industry here in the United States and countries such as Israel, you would think, is at the greatest risk of a biotech have decided not to get the shot.

Your thoughts on this as far as the average citizenry and also health care workers getting the shot, whether or not they should or should not?

GUPTA: Well, I'll tell you, this has been -- Dean, this has been one of the biggest debates in health care, no question, whether or not, who should get immunized and whether people should get immunized at all.

The basic plan, really, to vaccinate health care workers so that they may provide a ring of protection against a possible smallpox attack has been the plan that's in place now. Certainly that is based, in part, on previous inoculations back in the '60s and early '70s, and also what's taken place around the world.

Right now, you know, all the soldiers are getting inoculated. I've talked to some of the soldiers that are getting inoculated. Out of the thousands that are getting inoculated, two have become ill that we know about so far. So there is obviously that risk. And that is the balance that the folks are continuously playing, balancing the risk of the inoculation versus the risk of the threat. And a very tough thing to do with all the unknowns out there, Dean -- Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Sanjay.

We're going to take a little break.

We keep hearing about dirty bombs. What are they? What dangers do they pose? We'll have some answers on that, when we return.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) GUPTA: Well, we promised you tips throughout the show. We gave you some personal safety tips. Let's give you some tips, as well, as what to do in the case of a chemical or biological attack.

With chemical incident indicators, some things that might give you a clue ahead of time, numerous dead animals, birds or fish in the area. Small animals actually tend to react to chemicals quicker than humans, so if you see a lot of dead animals around, that may be a clue that a chemical has been released. The same with normal insect life. People with choking symptoms and rashes, if there are illnesses confined to a geographic area, that may be a tip. Large patches of dead trees, grass and the like, unexplained smells. Some of these chemicals have some characteristic smells, fruity or flowery, garlic or horseradish like, bitter almond or newly mowed hay. If you suddenly smell something like that, that could be a clue.

Low lying clouds or fog that are not explained by the other surroundings. And also a biological incident indicator is a little different, although a lot of similarities with chemical incident indicators. Unscheduled or unusual spray dissemination. And then with biological symptoms, flu like symptoms that spread out in a bunch of people all at once, including fever and rashes that suddenly come on in an unexplained way. They may be some clues that the chemical or biological attack has occurred.

Now, there have been a lot of questions about this. I'd like to get straight to some of our e-mails. I'm joined here by Ian Day, who has had 12 years of experience in training people in this. Let's go to our next e-mail, which actually comes from Paula. And it is about duct tape. This is a call that we've gotten, a question we've gotten a lot about. "It seems that it would be impossible to actually make a house airtight. Should we really bother with plastic sheeting and duct tape?"

Ian, you and I have been talking a lot about that.

DAY: We have been.

GUPTA: What are your thoughts? You tell people, you train people in this.

DAY: You can't make the building airtight, old buildings especially. But what you can do is reduce the amount of contamination coming in. But that might make a big difference for your families.

GUPTA: Is it really effective? I mean is this plastic going to work?

DAY: It's going to reduce the amount coming in by about maybe 50 percent. It's very hard to tell. It depends on what you do.

GUPTA: We're talking about nuclear, we're talking about biological, chemical, all these things it will be of some use?

DAY: In actual fact, the radiation it would be a lot better, because it's a lot larger particle size. Biological is a lot smaller. So it will affect each one differently and it will help.

GUPTA: OK, so for all those sorts of things.

All right, well, lots of questions. Miles, I think we've got a phone call. Is that right?

O'BRIEN: Yes. Cinda's (ph) on the line from Tennessee.

Hello, Cinda.

CINDA: Hello, Miles.

I was wondering, I live about 30 miles west of the Oak Ridge Nuclear Plant. What would it do if it attacked, if they, if it were attacked? What kind of effects would it have on our area and what should I do?

GUPTA: Yes, that is a question that we've been hearing a lot about that, specific attacks on nuclear power plants.

What do you tell people about that, Ian?

DAY: OK, first of all, it's very hard to attack a nuclear power plant. They're well protected. However, if we do get a major incident like the Chernobyl incident, I'm afraid evacuation is the only way forward in an area, for the emergency services can get really on top of it.

GUPTA: And there's a lot of alarms and things. People have a lot of warning in this sort of situation, right?

DAY: The nuclear authorities are well drilled, well rehearsed, have lots of plans and a lot of alarm systems. So everybody will know immediately that something's going on.

GUPTA: All right, and let me just mention, as well, about potassium iodide. That's something that people that live around nuclear power plants have probably heard about. This is a pill that people can take to try and prevent against thyroid cancer, one of the few cancers you can actually protect yourself against in the case of exposure to nuclear radiation. That is where the potassium iodide situation comes in.

Another phone call, Miles, is that right?

O'BRIEN: Yes, let's go to Pennsylvania, where we find Dan.

Good morning to you, Dan.

DAN: Hi. How you guys doing?

O'BRIEN: Your question, sir?

DAN: Well, how serious is this and should we really go out and buy all this duct tape and everything else or is this just going to wipe us all out? GUPTA: How serious is this? That is a question that we've all been certainly asking ourselves, certainly asking ourselves here in Kuwait, as well as back home.

How do you gauge that sort of thing?

DAY: You have to look where you live. I say America's a big place. You can live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, you're going to be pretty safe. Take my example. I live in Salisbury in England. I don't duct tape my windows. I don't take my respirator home because I live in that type of area.

GUPTA: What about people in New York, Washington, D.C.? what are you telling them?

DAY: Those people who live close to a known target -- the White House, the Pentagon -- maybe need to look at it. Also, if you live in a tall building, you're more safer, as well. Most chemicals usually stay on the ground and they'll move along the ground. So the higher up you are, the better you are.

GUPTA: All right.

We've been promising you tips throughout. We've got some tips about radiation attacks, as well. We've talked about nuclear -- we've talked about biological and chemical. When it comes to radiological incident indicators, some things that might give you a clue, unusual metal debris lying around, containers displaying radiation symbols, a very common sensical one there, materials emitting heat with no obvious signs of a heating source and then strongly radioactive materials may glow.

These are some clues that may give you a clue as to whether or not a radiological threat is in your area -- Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Sanjay.

And I believe that's all the time we have for this edition of House Call. We actually might have a little more time in just a minute.

Let's take a break. We'll be back with more in just a moment.

COMMERCIAL

GUPTA: Well, I'd like to thank Ian Day for joining us.

DAY: Thank you.

GUPTA: He's had 12 years experience in nuclear, biological and chemical.

A final thought?

DAY: People are using this who are trying to cause terrorism. Don't let them win. GUPTA: Don't panic.

DAY: Don't panic.

GUPTA: Final words.

The response to the threat itself may be more dangerous than the threat itself, and that's something that we've learned over and over again, people inappropriately using gas masks could cause themselves more harm than any possible attack. Also, there are very controllable and preventable threats out there. Remember, the Spanish flu killed more people than all of WWI. We can control the flu. It still kills 36,000 people a year. We need to keep those things in mind.

Tomorrow, we're going to keep on topic. We're going to talk more about the psychological effects of this threat, terrorism, and talk about that and what kind of effects it has on you and what you can do about it. We're going to talk about that tomorrow 8:30, Weekend House Call.

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