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Sat Jan 17 18:24:23 GMT 2009

(deliberately not including the text of the last exchange, without judging it as fair or unfair, on the political aspects)

There may well be direct clinical lessons to be learned, so let's not lose them by a ban on a politicized subject. For example, there are some reports of burns that may or may not be white phosphorus. Some of the descriptions don't seem fully consistent with the behavior of pure WP. While they don't quite fit here, there are incendiary munitions -- let me avoid country of manufacture, and there is more than one -- that are not just WP and a burster, but, for example, WP dissolved in a gel, of nonobvious composition, that is designed to reignite, and, while it should not burn if covered with air, needs different decontamination because the WP is in solution or suspension.

I'd like to hear confirmation or rejection of my current understanding of the role of copper sulfate in treating WP injuries; my impression was that the copper phosphide was more visible, but added so much more chemical toxicity that it could not be recommended.

Admittedly from press reports from various wars, I've heard descriptions of effects that don't seem consistent with any obvious munition, and it's appropriate to be able to know what is journalistic and what is real descriptions. I have seen detailed photographs of corpses allegedly affected by some "secret weapon", but the visible evidence seemed more consistent with decomposition. 

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