Weapon of mass destruction

Background

• According to Crimes and Criminal Procedure, Title 18 United States Code (USC) § 2332a, a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) is “any destructive device defined in § 921” (2006). These weapons include any explosive, incendiary, poison gas, bomb, grenade, rocket having a propellant charge of more than four ounces, missile having an explosive or incendiary charge of more than one-quarter ounce, mine, or device similar to the above.

Classification of Agents

• Chemical
  • Nerve agents
    • Sarin
    • Soman
    • Tabun
    • VX
• Biologic
  • Anthrax
  • Plague
  • Smallpox
  • Botulism
  • Viral hemorrhagic fever (e.g. Marburg, Ebola)
  • Tularemia
• Radiologic
  • Simple device
  • Dispersal device

Differential Diagnosis

Mass casualty incident

• Radiation exposure (disaster)
• Dirty bomb
• Bioterrorism
• Chemical weapons
• Mass shooting
• Natural Disaster (e.g. Hurricane, Earthquake, Tornado, Tsunami, etc)
• Unintentional large-scale incident (e.g. building collapse, train derailment, etc)
• Major pandemic
• Explosions

See Also

• GEMC:Prehospital / Disaster / Mass Casualty Medicine