I prefer a solution that can give you protection from multiple threats and that requires you spend a little more money unfortunately. You can start with your basic N95 particulate masks but these have limited use and some say they are useless at protecting you from airborne viruses. In searching for a gas mask or respirator for my family I came across several options depending on what your personal threat assessment is. A few minutes outside of the building could very well kill you. Imagine if that had been nerve agent or some deadly virus. That was tear gas, and after a few minutes in the clean air, we were fine. Eyes watering, snot running down our face and coughing like mad, we were finally given the go ahead to walk out the door. This burned like fire and the coughing fits came next. My drill sergeant who must have loved me (and who still had his mask on) yelled at me to “stand still or I’ll make you all do this again!” About now, our eyes and noses were running like crazy and we had to take a breath in. Some guys started coughing and several were stamping their feet. I happened to the unlucky guy who was at the front of the line and everyone started pushing me from behind to get out the door. Then our drill sergeant told us to take our masks off.Įveryone held their breath for as long as they could, but your eyes started burning first. We did some jumping jacks as I recall to get our heart rate up and our breathing faster. You could see the smoke in the air but it wasn’t so intense that you couldn’t see everyone around you. All of the other young guys with me were standing around the edge of a big room. For this little trick, we all lined up, put on our masks and walked into a very smoky room. The first is to test your NBC mask and make you feel comfortable with how it will protect you. In the Army each soldier has to go through the “gas chamber” for a couple of reasons. Remember the riots in Egypt and Syria where police fired tear gas into the crowds as they protested against their government? Have you personally ever been exposed to tear gas? I have, and it isn’t fun at all. There are many valid reasons for having a gas mask as part of your preps that have nothing to do with a global pandemic or outbreak of some deadly virus, but they all revolve around protecting the air that you and your family are breathing. How long can you hold your breath? Threats Three minutes without clean, clear, safe air would be an eternity for some. What if the air you were breathing would kill you, not the act of not breathing at all? What if with each breath you were bringing some organism into your lungs that would poison you or make you sick to the point that you died or became incapacitated. Three minutes without air could just as easily mean three minutes without clean, breathable air. It struck me the other day that I had been looking at this all wrong. Other times I would imagine someone suffocating in a horrible paracord accident or other nonsense. I would envision someone who had been knocked out and people had stopped to stare at the person lying on the ground slowly turning blue. If you couldn’t breathe for three minutes you would die. You know the survival maxim about how you can live 3 minutes without air, right? I always looked at this as just basic life type of scenarios.
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