GAS PROTECTIVE MEASURES

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23414, 22 August 1941, Page 6

GAS PROTECTIVE MEASURES

♦— TESTING STATIONS BEING ESTABLISHED

Testing stations for the identification °f tear gas and poison gas are being established by the Government in each of the four main centres as part of the emergency precautions schemes. In each centre there will be two main stations and two mobile stations. Should a city be subjected to gas attack the mobile units would be used to make quick tests “on the spot,” while more detailed examinations of samples oi gas would be made, at the central stations.

The scheme is stated to be well forward in Christchurch, the chemistry department of Canterbury University College having co-operated with the Government laboratories in the preparation and assembly of material. The secretary to- the Christchurch Emergency Precautions Scheme (Mr H, S. Feast) has received a letter from the Director of National Service (Mr J. S. Hunter) explaining that the testing stations were being established on the recommendation of the Chemical Panel of the National Scientific Advisory Committee. Messrs F. J. T, Grigg, Government Analyst, and J. Packer, of the Chemistry Department of Canterbury University College, were in charge of the Christchurch installation.

The personnel qf the stations, the letter continued, would require to be enrolled as members of the Emergency Precautions Scheme, and as soon as the equipment was received they would be supplied with protective clothing and respirators. “The stations will form an important section of your anti-gas protective measures, and I have no doubt that you will bring about 'the closest collaboration between the personnel and the sections of your organisation which are directly concerned,” said Mr Hunter. "The hospital authorities have received full particulars through the Director-General of Health.”