State won't distribute anti-nerve gas drug with gas mask kits

Authorities will no longer include an anti-nerve gas drug in safety kits distributed in the event of a nuclear or chemical emergency, the state announced Thursday.

The Defense Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command will remove injections of atropine from home safety kits that will be distributed to the public beginning in early 2009. The move is designed to cut costs of replenishing stockpiles of the kits.

"This is a move that is similar to that done if many other countries in the world who distribute protective kits," a defense official said Thursday.

The drug injections have a relatively short shelf life of five years, thus the frequent need to replenish stockpiles comes at a high cost. Gas masks can be used for up to 25 years after they are first manufactured.

The decision to distribute gas masks and safety kits to the public was first made in 1991 due to threats by then-Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to strike Israel with chemical weapons. Since the first Gulf War, the Home Front Command has continued to maintain the kits, citing Syria's cache of chemical warheads as a possible threat.

Every five years, Israeli citizens are summoned to bring their kits for maintenance care, which includes replacing old atropine injections with new supplies. Adults receive white needles containing two milligrams of atropine; children receive green needles holding one milligram; and children under the age of three receive orange needles of 0.5 miligrams.

The defense ministry said that should Israel be threatened with a chemical weapons attack, the drug would be distributed to the general public via health maintenance organizations and at hand-out points throughout the country. "Logistically, it would be very easy," said a defense official. "We could distribute everything within two days and it would prevent the need to trouble the public by dragging it to refresher stations that also cost a lot of money."