Cold as a Fish on Ice

Abstract

After the February 1993 bombing of New York’s World Trade Center, both law enforcement and the medical community began preparing for further potential terrorist attacks. National programs were developed to prepare healthcare facilities to respond to victims of biological and chemical terrorist activities. Although this particular event occurred a few years before the World Trade Center attack of 2001, it was several years after the Aum Shinrikyo sarin attack in Tokyo. The belief that there might someday be a biological or chemical terrorist attack in the United States led to the development of training programs for emergency responders and healthcare workers in dealing with such terrorist attacks and with substances which might be used. At the time of this incident, training had already been completed for all emergency medical service providers about the potential use of nerve agents as terrorist weapons. First responders and emergency department providers all were required to attend educational programs and to develop protocols to both respond to the victims and to protect themselves and their facilities from the effects of such agents of mass destruction.