Gas Masks

OFAKIM, Israel -- The Israeli military began yesterday handing out the first gas masks and chemical-warfare defense kits that it plans to distribute to each of Israel's 4.5 million citizens in the next two months.In Ofakim, a town of 14,000 people, the army turned two elementary schools into gas-mask distribution centers.In one classroom where families had gathered, a 3-year-old boy with blond curls burst into terrified tears while two female soldiers gently tried to fit a gas mask over his head.

Three people rushed to Sinai Hospital Thursday after inhaling gas fumes at the Howard County Distrtict Court in Ellicott City were later treated and released, county fire officials said. The gas came from a cleaning product in use for maintenance, and forced the evacuation of 200 people from the building, which reopened Friday morning. Investigators believe the gas was from chlorine powder being used by a contract maintenance crew working on the ventilation system. A fourth visitor to the building was treated at the scene and a county police officer was treated and released.

Gas masks are a rare commodity in Baltimore-area outdoor and military surplus stores in the days since the terrorist attacks Sept. 11 on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. Store owners say they have been deluged with telephone calls and order requests from people fearful that the next wave of terrorism could include chemical and biological warfare. "These are everyday family people buying these," Anita Sturzinski, a cashier at the Sunny's Great Outdoors store on York Road in Timonium, said yesterday.

Dr. Frank Shanty, former associate technical director of research and development at the Army's Chemical Systems at Aberdeen Proving Ground and inventor of a canisterless gas mask, died Sunday of prostate cancer at his daughter's home in Stewartstown, Pa. The former Forest Hill resident was 85. Dr. Shanty was born in Baltimore, the son of a laborer, and raised in Pigtown. "They were dirt poor, and when he was a child, his family must've moved 10 times because they couldn't pay the rent," said his daughter, Kathleen R. Amrein.

TEL AVIV, Israel - All appeared to be normal here yesterday. Office workers took lunchtime strolls along the seaside promenade, and shoppers casually explored the sidewalks and stores of the business district. Hardly anybody carried a gas mask. Despite warnings from the Israeli army that the threat of a missile attack from Iraq has not ended and that every Israeli needs to remain vigilant, many residents seem to have concluded for themselves that the danger has passed. On a blustery, overcast day, more people walked around with umbrellas to protect themselves against the threat of rain than with the bulky brown boxes packed with gas masks that the government issued to every citizen.

JERUSALEM - The small, airless room in the basement of the mall grew thick with people, each one carrying nearly identical rectangular brown boxes. The larger the family, the more boxes each person carried. The scene resembled the return counter at an American department store on the day after Christmas. Only the people here weren't exchanging ill-fitting cardigans or unsightly ties. They were exchanging gas masks. It is a civic duty that is routine throughout Israel, part of the security consciousness built into the everyday psyche: Go to the mall.

NETANYA, Israel - In a country where preparedness is a preoccupation, Israelis are gearing up for a possible war in Iraq with a vigilance that goes far beyond making quick trips to the hardware store for duct tape and plastic sheeting. Residents in the Tel Aviv region recall the nightly air raid sirens during the first gulf war 12 years ago, and remember putting on gas masks and racing to bomb shelters as Iraqi missiles crashed nearby. Now, there are new strategies for staying alive, and hardware stores devote entire departments to survival supplies.

In a cramped office piled high with papers, her ear to the phone, Rebecca Vaughan is describing two versions of the NBC14, an adult gas mask suitable against nuclear, biological or chemical attack. The $105 version has a traditional look, she tells a caller to her company's tiny Woodsboro firm, and the $169 model has more vision clearance and anti-fog features. Plus, $46 for the canister. She pauses while the caller asks a question. "The canister? That's a filter. You need one with a gas mask."

CAMP PENNSYLVANIA, Kuwait - It was 12:25 p.m. yesterday when the first alarm sounded - a long tone, the warning that an incoming missile had been detected. Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division reached for the gas masks fastened to their hips, then went into concrete bunkers surrounded by sandbags. The second alarm sounded scarcely 30 minutes after the first ended. The third came around 3:30 p.m. the next at dinner time. Then three more early this morning. Each time, soldiers packed into the bunkers in an orderly procession.

JERUSALEM -- Abdullah Said yesterday went to a community center, signed a few forms, listened briefly to an instructor and left with five gas masks, one for each member of his family.People from almost every household in Israel are scheduled to do the same within the next two months. But Mr. Said's errand was profoundly disorienting because Mr. Said is a Palestinian counting on Israel to protect him in case of war with Arab Iraq."I never thought things would come to this," Mr. Said, a building contractor, said before he walked past a dozen soldiers into the community center in the Beit Safafa neighborhood.

TEL AVIV, Israel - All appeared to be normal here yesterday. Office workers took lunchtime strolls along the seaside promenade, and shoppers casually explored the sidewalks and stores of the business district. Hardly anybody carried a gas mask. Despite warnings from the Israeli army that the threat of a missile attack from Iraq has not ended and that every Israeli needs to remain vigilant, many residents seem to have concluded for themselves that the danger has passed. On a blustery, overcast day, more people walked around with umbrellas to protect themselves against the threat of rain than with the bulky brown boxes packed with gas masks that the government issued to every citizen.

IT WAS IN the studios of WYPR, watching the Marc Steiner Show from the other side of a glass partition, that the awful reality of war hit home the other day. A man named Herb Keinon, who is the lead political reporter for the Jerusalem Post, was on the line with Steiner from Israel. Casually, Keinon mentioned that he'd just sent his four young kids off to school with their gas masks. Steiner, who is very good at this sort of thing, asked Keinon how that made him feel as a parent. Keinon paused for a moment.

CAMP PENNSYLVANIA, Kuwait - It was 12:25 p.m. yesterday when the first alarm sounded - a long tone, the warning that an incoming missile had been detected. Soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division reached for the gas masks fastened to their hips, then went into concrete bunkers surrounded by sandbags. The second alarm sounded scarcely 30 minutes after the first ended. The third came around 3:30 p.m. the next at dinner time. Then three more early this morning. Each time, soldiers packed into the bunkers in an orderly procession.

SEPT. 11. Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and war in Afghanistan. Dow plummets. Enron, WorldCom and so on. Rising unemployment and crashing 401(k)s. Orange alerts. Saddam, again. Plus, North Korean nukes. Dow plunges. Gas masks - and duct tape. Way too much snow. Gas hits $2 a gallon in California, $3 in some spots. And now a likely war in Iraq. Yet through all these ugly months, American consumers have held their heads high and kept doing what we do best: We shopped - we bought more shoes, new kitchens and big SUVs - even if we had to burn up gains in our homes' values by spending the proceeds from a tidal wave of refinancings.

THE ADVERTISEMENT was nestled on the back page of this newspaper's Maryland section the other day, alongside gift certificates for The Prime Rib Restaurant and openings at elegant Harborview condominiums: a photograph of a gas mask, and the headline "Protect Your Family From Bio-terrorism." As America seems to edge its way toward war in the Persian Gulf, the positioning seemed a reflection of national ambivalence. We're not certain if our war anxieties should get in the way of a really great meal, followed by a blissful night's rest by the Inner Harbor.

NETANYA, Israel - In a country where preparedness is a preoccupation, Israelis are gearing up for a possible war in Iraq with a vigilance that goes far beyond making quick trips to the hardware store for duct tape and plastic sheeting. Residents in the Tel Aviv region recall the nightly air raid sirens during the first gulf war 12 years ago, and remember putting on gas masks and racing to bomb shelters as Iraqi missiles crashed nearby. Now, there are new strategies for staying alive, and hardware stores devote entire departments to survival supplies.

THE ADVERTISEMENT was nestled on the back page of this newspaper's Maryland section the other day, alongside gift certificates for The Prime Rib Restaurant and openings at elegant Harborview condominiums: a photograph of a gas mask, and the headline "Protect Your Family From Bio-terrorism." As America seems to edge its way toward war in the Persian Gulf, the positioning seemed a reflection of national ambivalence. We're not certain if our war anxieties should get in the way of a really great meal, followed by a blissful night's rest by the Inner Harbor.

WASHINGTON - It was always a delusional vanity, this fixation boomers had about controlling their environment. They thought they could make life safe and healthy and fend off death and aging. They would banish germs with anti-fungal toothbrushes, hand-sanitizing lotions, organic food, bottled water and Echinacea. They would overcome flab with diet and exercise, wrinkles with collagen and Botox, sagging skin with surgery, impotence with Viagra, mood swings with antidepressants, myopia with laser surgery, decay with human growth hormone, disease with stem cell research and bioengineering.

On Nov. 12, the Dow Jones Industrials were having a good day, up over 130 points at 2:30 p.m. Then it was announced that a tape recording had been released apparently containing the voice of Osama bin Laden threatening the United States. The stock market immediately lost 100 points. For a nation that loves to advertise itself as the home of the brave, America regularly reacts to events with all the fortitude of a patient in an anxiety disorders clinic. Our collective response to the Sept.

KFAR SHMARYAHU, Israel -- By law, all new houses built in Israel must contain a "protected space" -- in simple language, a bomb shelter. But there is no requirement to add shelters to already-existing structures. Our house falls into the second category. It had no shelter when our family bought it used in 1988, and we never added one until after 9/11. That cataclysm prompted us to have our storage room renovated to conform to official specifications. The new steel door looks glaringly anomalous, leading as it does to our flowery pink guest bathroom.