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Berkeley’s Fire Department has purchased nerve gas antidotes for its paramedic teams, and emergency personnel will soon receive in-depth training on how to handle biological and chemical threats.  

Berkeley, like other cities around the country, has been receiving daily calls regarding suspicious white powders. They are all false alarms, including incidents where the powder has actually been laundry detergent spilled on a front porch, sheet rock dust or Q-tips sent to Alta Bates hospital in an envelope reading: “have anthrax.” 

“We’ve been getting five to seven suspicious envelopes brought to the department every day,” said Lt. Les Putnam, hazardous materials captain at the Berkeley Fire Department, who added that anthrax hype has put a strain on his department’s resources. 

Paramedic Supervisor Dion Williams attended a countywide training Friday to ensure Berkeley’s compliance with Alameda County standards for handling anthrax and other bio-terrorism threats. The county’s Health Department and Oakland Fire Department sponsored the seminar for supervisors of emergency medical workers. The supervisors are expected to train their departments by Dec. 1. 

At the training, Dr. Jim Pointer of the Health Department explained that anthrax bacteria actually has three strains: An inhaled form, a form that affects the skin and a gastrointestinal form. He said it may take days for those exposed to develop symptoms. People die from anthrax because their chest, including the heart, fills with blood.  

The training also covered other potential threats. Plagues, which killed millions of people in centuries past, still survives as a rare disease affecting a few Californians each year, Pointer said. 

Smallpox, which in 1980 was officially eradicated in the United States, still survives in some laboratories around the world and could be extremely contagious if re-released.  

Pointer emphasized he was sharing this information for training purposes only – not to alarm the public. There has been no news about these hazards actually manifesting themselves, Pointer said. 

“It’s simple preparedness,” he said. 

Pointer also presented some chilling facts about chemical weapons. Some are easily available to the public because they have a practical use. Cyanide, for example, is used in printing, photography and agriculture. There is an antidote to the poison, however, which Pointer said specialized medics on “hazmat” teams should carry. 

Other chemicals were specifically developed by military entities “to kill and maim others,” Pointer told trainees.  

These chemical agents are not available to the general public in the United States — only to authorized military personnel.  

Some chemicals, like Soman, bind to enzymes in the nervous system in a few minutes and patients cannot be treated afterwards. Victims exposed to other nerve gases can be treated more readily using antidotes injected into the blood stream. 

Using practice injection kits, Williams and others at the training pretended to shoot antidotes into their thighs, directly through their clothing.  

In the event of a real emergency, paramedics and emergency technicians would first inject themselves. 

“If we’re going to be effective in saving lives, we first have to save our own life,” said Bill Wittmer, special operations chief for the Oakland Fire Department. “If we become victims, we can’t serve the public.” 

Even prior to Sept. 11, Oakland had started developing a Metropolitan Medical Response system in the event of a terrorist attack. The city was one of 120 nationwide selected as grant recipients for such a program by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

This designation allowed Oakland to act as a conduit for Alameda County to accelerate training and ordering of emergency supplies after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. 

“We were able to cut through some red tape,” said Fanning.  

Oakland’s size and status allowed Berkeley and other cities to order supplies through the Oakland Fire Department. 

Berkeley has ordered kits, which include injectable antidotes for nerve gas agents — enough to cover all personnel on duty during any one shift, Putnam said.  

The Berkeley Fire Department does not plan to stock large numbers of antidote kits to inject civilians, however. The focus will be on ensuring that “rescuers can continue the job of rescuing people,” said Assistant Fire Chief David Orth. 

The antidote has limitations, Orth said, because it must be injected immediately after exposure. If nerve gas were released, there would probably be some casualties before rescuers could arrive on scene.  

“You can’t just stick anybody with it and be done with it,” Orth said of the antidote. “I don’t want to give people a false sense of security.” 

Berkeley will also add new protection devices to its rigs, including stronger suits and special respiration devices to use in case of anthrax exposure. 

The Oakland Fire Department serves a larger population and has ordered 2,100 antidote kits. About half of the kits are intended for treating the public in an emergency, said Dale Fanning, the terrorism preparedness coordinator for the Oakland Fire Department.  

Oakland has also ordered enough Cipro, the drug used to treat anthrax, to supply 10,000 people in the area for two days, Fanning said. After that, the city plans to rely on the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile to send more supplies by air. 

Orth said Berkeley has not ordered any stores of Cipro, but the city could request the drug or perhaps draw on Oakland’s supply if needed.  

“At this point, I haven’t heard Oakland say they’re not going to share it,” he said. 

American Medical Response, a private ambulance company serving most of Alameda County, also plans to train its 600 staff members on the emergency procedures. Jennifer Reed, field training coordinator, said to date, only supervisors carry nerve gas antidote kits.  

“It’s a problem if you’re exposed and your supervisor is five miles away,” she said. 

Reed said she wasn’t fazed by the in-depth information on potential biohazards, but by the easy access to such information. 

“You can get all this information off the (Centers for Disease Control) Web site,” she said. “The knowledge is out there if they want it.” 

“Just like burning buildings,” Williams said, “we don’t lie awake at night worried that a fire might break out. If we’re faced with it, we’ll handle it.”