Frequently Asked Questions about Dirty Bombs, Atomic Bombs,
Chemical Weapons, and Biological Weapon Filtration for Your Safe Room
Your Safe Room and NBC Filtration
What size safe room will each of your NBC filtration units handle?
Each individual safe room will be unique. The size of the room handled by each of our
NBC filtration units will depend on the construction of the room and whether you will be
taking extra precautions to “seal” that room.
Concrete block construction, wood and drywall construction, stucco construction, brick construction,
insulation type, siding type and wind speed will all effect air leakage
rates.
Further, if you utilize plastic
to seal off all windows, doors, ceiling exhaust fans, and plumbing cut outs under
your sink, your safe room leakage rate will change.
This is why we place our NBC filter output in very easy to understand cubic
feet per minute, or CFM. Our NBC 450
Whole Room Gas Mask™ filters 100 cubic feet per minute and our NBC 300 Whole Room Gas Mask™ filters 60 cubic feet per
minute. It stands to reason, if you are pushing 100
cubic feet of oxygen rich air into a room, you would need your leakage in that
room to be less than 100 cubic feet per minute to build up an “overpressure” in
that room. This overpressure will make
sure all air is leaking outward to prevent any nuclear weapons dust, biological weapons or chemcial weapons agent from entering the room.
As a very general rule of thumb, our NBC 450 will handle an average
bedroom with attached bath and our NBC 300 will handle a small bedroom with
attached bath. If you are a local first
responder, our NBC 450 will handle a 10 by 40 foot Haz-Mat trailer and our NBC
300 will handle a 10 by 20 foot Haz-Mat trailer.
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Will I ever have to replace my safe room filters?
Every
Filter Science unit contains 7 filters: 4 pre-filters, the 99.999% Nuclear Grade, High Density, High Efficiency, Particulate Air Filter, the U.S. military
approved ASZM-TEDA, silver, zinc, molybdenum, and triethylenediamine
impregnated 99.999% efficiency carbon filter, and final carbon dust filter.
The
85% efficiency pre-filters will always capture the majority of
contaminates.
Because they are first in
line, they are specifically designed to protect the High Efficiency filter from loading
with larger particles, so the Nuclear Grade Filter is available for very, very small particles and
pathogens.
These pre-filters are
inexpensive and will always be the first filters you will need to change.
The
next filter in line is the 99.999% Nuclear Grade, High Density, High Efficiency, Particulate Air Filter. Your unit has been designed to absorb a large
amount of contaminated particulate matter and nuclear weapons dust. (The stuff you don’t want to breathe in). The tremendous size and depth of this filter
makes it the finest on the market. It
also however, will eventually load and need to be replaced. The time it takes to load will depend on the
type of attack it is protecting against.
If you are in the proximity of an explosive attack such as a dirty bomb,
this filter will load in a shorter period of time because of the large amount
of dust and smoke.
If
you were using this filter in a non-emergency mode it would last from 3 to 5 years. In an explosive emergency
it could load in a much, much shorter period of time. Remember, your pre-filters are protecting
your Nuclear Grade, Particulate air filter, so you will want to
change them first.
The U.S. military approved ASZM Teda,
silver, zinc, molybdenum, and triethylenediamine impregnated carbon filter is
next.
It has been specifically designed
to absorb, capture or neutralize deadly chemical gases and chemical weapons agent. As mentioned earlier, this filter will physically
adsorb about 20% of its weight in deadly agent or remove about 5 to 10% of its weight
in reactive gas and it weights a whopping 21.265 lbs.
The service life of an impregnated
carbon filter is defined by both its reactive gas life and physical adsorption life. Chemical weapon filter life is site specific, as both
capacities are affected by the environment and air quality. Physical adsorption life is reduced by
adsorption of air pollutants. Capacity
for chemical weapon gases diminishes gradually over time and is typically lost within
about three or four years of exposure to humidity. The rate at which the reactive life degrades
varies with the temperature and amount of water adsorbed by the carbon bed. Degradation
begins once a filter is opened to the atmosphere. Kept open to the atmosphere, the average life
of an ASZM-Teda carbon filter is three years.
For this reason, every Filter Science carbon filter is packaged in an
atmosphere and humidity controlled environment and shipped in a special
moisture and air proof bag. If you keep
your carbon filter in its original moisture and air proof packaging, it will be
ready to protect you from chemical weapons, when and if you need it – even if that is 10 years from now. Your carbon filter will always be fresh and
it can be opened and placed in your unit in under 10 seconds, should the need
arise.
The
final filter is contained within the activated and impregnated carbon filter housing. It has been specifically designed to catch
any small particle “fines” which may come off the carbon over an extended
period of time. It will never need to
be replaced.
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Why is everything on your Nuclear Warfare, Biological Warfare and Chemical Warfare
filter either aluminum, steel or stainless
steel?
Doesn’t that make the unit heavy?
Yes,
our safe room unit is heavy, about 100 pounds. It
is built this way for two very important reasons.
It is built to take the abuse
of a real life conflict. You would
not be thinking of purchasing nuclear, biological and chemical protection
from nuclear warfare, biological warfare and chemical warfare, if you didn’t realize we are living in a changing world. The Filter Science filter is built to
absorb those changes and still keep working. The U.S. Secretary of Defense
said: “The question is no longer if this will happen again, but
when”. Nobody can tell you when
another terrorist attack will come, but when it does, Filter Science
wants your safe room unit to be ready – even if it is years from now. Our Stainless Steel, Steel and Aluminum construction means your safe room unit will be there for you, when you need it.
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How many people will your NBC filtration unit support and protect?
This depends on a variety of factors such as age, weight and activity level. The
average adult will utilize 2 Cubic Feet Per Minute (CFM) of air in a resting
position and 5 CFM with moderate physical activity. Just to stay on the safe side, you should
calculate using 5 CFM per person. Our NBC 450 will provide 100 CFM of
pure, clean air so it would support a minimum of 20 people in a safe room or emergency
shelter. Our NBC 300 will provide 60 CFM
of pure, clean air so it would support a minimum of 12 people in a safe room or
emergency shelter.
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What if my safe room, or safe rooms, are bigger than your unit capacity?
Each of our units can be “daisy
changed” where multiple units become part of a modular design to increase capacity. Example: Four of our NBC 100 units would
provide 400 CFM of pure, clean air if
integrated to handle a much larger area.
To estimate square footage, a rough guide would be 300 square feet of
floor space for our NBC 300, and 450 square feet of floor space for our NBC
450. If you utilized 4 NBC 450 units,
you could comfortably create an overpressure in a safe room area of 1,800 square feet. This integration would support 80 people.
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Specifically - What
chemical agents will your filter protect against?
Chemical Warfare agents are
classified into four primary categories and our unit will handle all of
them. International terrorists can acquire
these deadly weapons from dozens of countries or manufacture the agent
themselves. They are:
Chemical Warfare Blister Agents are chemicals that burn
or blister the skin. These vesicants can
also affect other parts of the body including internal air passages and
organs. Mustard Gas and Lewsite are two
common Blister Agents.
Chemical Warfare Choking Agents are chemicals that affect
the lungs and cause pulmonary edema which results in asphyxiation. Chlorine, Phosgene, and Diphosgene are common
examples.
Chemical Warfare Blood Agents are chemicals that will
interfere with the ability of the blood to carry oxygen, resulting in
asphyxiation. Cyanogen Chloride and
Hydrogen Cyanide are two common examples.
Chemical Warfare Nerve Agents are chemicals that effect
the transmission of nerve impulses in the nervous system. These are some of the most toxic chemical
agents. You have heard of them as Sarin
Nerve Gas, Soman, Tabun and VX-Nerve gas.
If you wish to know more about these
chemical weapons, thousands of web pages have sprung up in the last few years dedicated
to these chemical warfare agents. Now
that makes you wonder – doesn’t it?
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If you have extra power built into your blower – why can’t
I just crank it up and get 125 CFM out of your 100 CFM filter?
This is an excellent question and
one which you will need to understand.
Remember how the carbon in your filter works by either trapping the
chemical molecules or chemically reacting with these molecules. If your impregnated and activated carbon filter needs to chemically
react with a molecule in order to neutralize it – it takes time for that
reaction to take place. This time has been determined by the U.S.
Army’s Chemical, Biological Command (SBCCOM) as .25 or ¼ of a second. All Filter Science units keep the air in
contact with the carbon for at least ¼ of a second and this tested setting is
noted on your blower speed control.
You should always remember that the
extra power built into our blower is only to be used as your filter becomes
loaded and you need to increase power to maintain the factory settings of
either 60 CFM or 100 CFM.
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Question:
An Arab country and an Asian country just went to war and launched
17 nuclear missiles. A huge nuclear dust
cloud is working its way around the globe and will be here in two days. I know if we breath the nuclear dust, it's a very bad thing. How do I get a safe room filter unit by tomorrow?
Answer:
Preparation is always better than panic.
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