SIKESTON - Disaster preparation is all in a day's work for Mark Winkler, the Region E coordinator for the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency.
The threat of terrorism in this dangerous time requires intensive preparation by emergency response personnel, according to Winkler.
"My job is to act as liaison between local and state government in all aspects of emergency," said Winkler. "Training, planning, preparedness, response and recovery are among my responsibilities.
Law enforcement, medical professionals and emergency response teams joined forces Thursday at the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo grounds to simulate a public exposure to a sarin type nerve gas.
Winkler's playbook includes assignments for each step in the response to a nerve-gas incident.
"In the event the public is exposed to a sarin-type nerve gas, a rapid response time by emergency personnel is critical to minimize effects of the exposure," said Winkler.
"Certain medications must be administered quickly to counter the effects of the nerve gas," explained Winkler, "We have to plan to have a cache of these medical assets (medicine) available at all times, and a plan to execute delivery of the medicine to the proper place."
Thursday's chempack exercise engaged all of the various agencies who would work together in such an emergency.
The Sikeston rodeo grounds is centrally located in Region E, so Winkler and the other participants chose it to practice a scenario from first notification of an exposure to nerve gas to the delivery of the asset, said Winkler, whose hometown of Perryville is near the northern boundary of Region E. The SEMA regions are organized along the same boundaries as Missouri State Highway Patrol Regions.
Sarin is a colorless, odorless gas developed in Germany in 1938 for use initially as a pesticide, not as a deadly chemical to kill humans, according to the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Sarin, along with certain pesticides and nerve agents belongs to a class of chemicals called organophosphates.
Sarin can cause symptoms within seconds to minutes depending on the type of exposure and the amount of the exposure, according to the CDC. A small exposure causes the body to secrete an excess amount of fluids from the eyes or mouth. A toxic amount can cause paralysis of the muscles including paralyzing the ability to breathe.
A deadly attack on a Tokyo subway in 1995 made sarin one of the most dreaded nerve agents in the world according to online sources. The death toll from the Tokyo incident was 13, but 5,500 people were injured.
More recently, sarin was the suspected nerve agent, in bomb attacks in Syria on April 4 which killed 89 people, and an attack near Damascus in 2013 in which nearly 1,400 people perished.
Sarin is considered a weapon of mass destruction according to online sources, and as such, the production and stockpiling of sarin was outlawed in 1997 by the Chemical Weapons Convention. The CWC is a worldwide treaty to ban chemical weapons which has been signed and accepted by all members of the United Nations except three countries. Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan have neither signed nor accepted the treaty as of April 2016.
Rapid response is the key to minimizing the loss of life according to Winkler. "We have a game plan and we have to practice.
"The exercise was a success," said Winkler. "Practicing gives us a chance to test our plans, and to consider alternatives to getting the medical assets to the victims as fast as possible."