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Mon Jan 19 06:22:08 GMT 2009

> This is only one pic of the docens that are traveling in the internet and the list disturbing, perhaps. It looks like a burn cause by white P
> Regards
> Manuel Sotelo
> Caracas D.C.

It's not too well known, but there is an international agreement, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which addresses such things as incendiaries  used against civilians, blinding radiation, weapons that deliberately produce fragments that are not radio-opaque, etc.   If one's nation has not ratified it, or had some very specific justifications for certain narrow and truly military exceptions, that is something to which one can deal with one's own government

Respectfully, I suggest that this list  would be of greater benefit to people caught in wars not to complain about the abstract inhumanity, but to deal with the techniques needed to deal with the identification and treatment of specific weapons effects.  For example, there has to be a difference in the technique of decontaminating unburned solid elemental white phosphorus, as opposed to phosphorus in gel or solution, from tissue. 

Rather than often-journalistic photographs that "circulate around the net", clinicians may be able to benefit from accurate, verified images useful in diagnosis. When the removed material presents a hazard to the staff, procedures and possibly images of the decontamination and treatment procedures may be literally lifesaving. 

White phosphorus is not the only problematic weapon of war. Some explosives produce unusually toxic products. There are many specifics that can help trauma teams. I'll see if I can find a link unless someone has it; there is a Swedish, if I remember it, website that provides an interactive recognition tool for various unexploded munitions. The extreme case is when they are embedded in a living body but have not detonated, and there are others where recognition may be essential for extrication or even approaching casualties. In some cases, if expertise and equipment is available, they can be rendered safe; in other cases, there may have to be a difficult triage decision that something cannot be approached without jeopardizing critical medical resources. 

Wars and terrorism are realities. Using this list to share medical management techniques is far more likely to do good than political indignation whatever ideology is offended.

Howard

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