Nuclear suits offer doomsday protection

Press, 1 April 1980, Page 17

Nuclear suits offer doomsday protection

At least. one firm is cashing in on the dooms- - day-like fear of nuclear at- ' tack that' has -’ gripped many people in Britain. Civil Defence Supply, in the Lincolnshire village of Wellingore, near Grantham, has been inundated with inquiries. The firm’s most popular items are stylish suits in sunshine yellow and H-boriib blues, which.offer protection against nuclear, chemical, and biological elements in the event of nuclear attack. For the first time in Britain, they can be bought from a mail-order catalogue. The suits, costing between $270 and $440,. depending on the style, and accessories come packed in their own protective metal, carrying .cases.. " ’

The manager of the firm (Mr Eran Bauer) admits that demand has been boosted by the' Russian invasion of Afghanistan, as well as' by several tele-vision-documentaries on what to do-in the event, of an H-bomb attack. ■...■■ “One man was -panicking so much- he wanted to come up overnight from his home in Essex to see our equipment in Lincolnshire,” he said. The scare of an all-out nuclear war shows a

bright future — at least for a while — for Mr Bauer, aged 26, who runs the company with help from his mother and younger brother. ’ “The market is probably worth millions of pounds, It seems everyone wants a

From

KEN COATES

in London

nuclear suit these days,” said Mr Bauer. An important feature of his suits is • its ‘inner skin,” a carbon-backed material that provides double protection if the outer, poly ; vinyl-chlbride-coated layer was - ripped when nuclear survivors, crawl through the rubblestrewn streets. . But Mr Bauer is quick to point out the obvious — the suits will not give total protection against nuclear radiation, but only against the chemical and biological effects. ■ ' :' The suits are designed to be worn for limited periods of times only, for instance, to get out of a attack zone, or to move, about outside a shelter. “But they are as protective as the suits issued. to the military throughout the world,” he says.

Ironically, Mr Bauer's Ji firm is housed right below l! the flight path of Britain’s : V-bombers, at one.time in the front line of the coun-« l| try’s nuclear attack strate- ji gy. -l The suits come complete ; with face mask, respirator f

and Canister, boots, and I gloves. There are sizes to fit. toddlers as, well. as adults, and the firm : is already developing a nuclear cot for babies. - One prospective buyer ’ wrote to Mr Bauer, “Due to recent foreign events, I have taken a rather pessi* mistic'. view, like many others, that a major war is very probable in the next few years. “I try not to take the rather fatalistic view that if anyone does survive the war it would not be worth living, and that is why I am writing to you.” That customer, and any ■worried family, can purchase a. complete “nuclear home” — shelter, suits, enough special food to | last 14 days, and other! * equipment. The price? | About $6OOO. |