posted 04-06-2002 11:00 AM            

quote:

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Davenport recalled learning that lesson on July 13, 1984. It was a breezy day in a remote corner of the vast 800,000-acre proving ground in Utah's west desert.

The Army was testing a laser system that would detect nerve agents. Davenport was operating a sprayer, blowing a fog of nerve agent simulant called dimethyl methylphosphonate, or DMMP, into the path of the laser beam. Nearly a decade before, after an errant cloud of nerve gas killed a herd of sheep outside Dugway, Congress had banned open-air testing of actual agents, requiring the use of safer simulants, such as DMMP.

During the test, Davenport noticed a sudden shift in wind direction and quickly cut off the spray. But before he could don his protective mask, a cloud of the chemical enveloped him.

"I could feel it on my skin and taste it. It was oily," Davenport said. "I tried to wipe it off and put my mask on."

But Davenport wasn't too concerned about getting hit with a simulant. He and other workers trusted the Army's assurances that DMMP was "practically non-toxic," according to a brief description of DMMP available to Dugway employees at the time of the test.

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