Evening star., 1950-08-14
Pathological Warfare
Discounted in Report
Evidence Indicates 1t Is
More Feared Than Fearful
By Thomos R. Henry

Pathological warfare - the mysterious
"RW" which armchair tacticians mem
ton only in whisperS-hardly need be
considered as q serious threat from q
potential enemy or weapon Of offense for
any war in the near future.
The possibilities are discussed openly
for the first time in q report on the
effects Of atomic weapons just issued by
the Atomic Energy Commission.
There are two possibilities-spraying
an enemy area with deadly radioactive
atoms which are the waste products Of
the Governments great atomic piles, or
with the same type Of atoms manufac-
tured deliberately for the purpose. The
latter procedure, it is pointed out, would
be absurdly expensive even II the tacti-
cal results were far greater than can
be expected.
Only a relative few Of the radioac-
tive isotopes would be of any value
those which emit gamma radiation that
penetrates the body, and which could
be expected to be dangerous for q week
or so at the most. Those with longer
periods of activity would be too weak
to do any real damage.
Even for q mixture of the most po-
tent ones, the Atomic Energy Commis-
sion experts calculate. the activity would
decrease 10.000-fold In the first "A hours.
Not Necessarily LethaI.
"RW" would not necessarily kill any
body. Presumably 1t might render an
area, such as manufacturing city, too
dangerous to occupy for a week or more,
thus seriously cutting down enemy pro-
duction of vital war materials. It Is
doubtful. however. that this would ever
be completely effective, the report states.
True enough, people who worked In an
iSotope-Sprayed area continuously for
several days without taking any precau-
tionS-presumably in ignorance that
they were being bombarded by killing
radiation-would be killed or seriously
disabled. But under modern conditions
it would be impossible to keep such
busting secret. 1t would be entirely pos
sible for workers to remain in q plant
for day or so at time and preSun-
ably rotation system would be eStab-
lished.
Other types of radiation such as that
from alpha and beta rays. hardly would
be Of any value. These rays do not pene-
trate the skin. Unless the isotopes which
emit them are breathed into the lungs,
they never are fatal. Face masks would
be a fairly good protection against any
thing more serious than something like
bad sunburn.
Gamma Rays Required.
Also, the report stresses, it would be
necessary to use the gamma emitting
isotopes about as fast as they were pro-
duced. The active lifetime of the really
dangerous ones is only from few min
utes to few days. 1t would be impoSsi-
BILE to build up any stockpiles.
Unless heavy shields were used, the
danger to the air crews delivering the
deadly isotopes would be about as great
as that to the people Of the sprayed
area. Provision Of adequate shields
would add enormously to the weight Of
the load
Some gamma emitting iSotopes, it Is
pointed out, have lifetimes of hundreds
and even thousands Of years, but their
activity is so weak that they would be
of no value whatever.
On the whole, the report indicates, the
dreaded "RW" is something to keep in
mind but not worry about. Presumably
any potential enemy which has studied
the problem feels the same way.
Perhaps the most important appn-
cation Of Pathological warfare" the re-
port says, would be It's psychological ef-
feet as a mystery weapon, analogous to
the initial use Of poison gas and of
tanks in World War T. The obvious
method to combat Pathological warfare
in this case is to understand and be pre-.
pared for it,