The effects of an explosive device on humans

 

An improvised explosive device (IED) is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery round, attached to a detonating mechanism or even in a bottle.  Roadside bombs are a common use of IEDs in Afghanistan. They were what were used in the Boston Marathon event on April 15, 2013 by two terrorists, Tamerian Tsarnaev, 26 and his brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. Three people died in that bombing. They were Krystle Campbell, 29; Martin Richard, 8 and Lu Lingzi, early twenties. There were 183 victims wounded and 13 had to have limbs amputated.

 

The explosive devices used in the bombings of the Boston Marathon appeared to have been placed in metal 1.6 gallon pressure cookers packed explosive material, a timer along with nails and ball bearings.  Similar pressure-cooker explosives have been used in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, according to a July 2010 intelligence report by the FBI and Homeland Security.

 

Now we all know why there is a safety valve on the top of such pressure cookers. Despite the strength of the steel that makes up such cookers, they cannot withstand the pressure that builds up when the water inside the cookers turns into steam. They explode. It follows that any gaseous built up by explosive material such as gun powder will cause the pressure cooker to explode. This doesn’t necessarily mean that if you put a small firecracker inside the pressure cooker that the vessel with explode. But we all know that more than a firecracker was placed in those pressure cookers used by the terrorists in Boston. 

 

Those devices were place on the ground and when they exploded, it resulted in three fatalities and a vast number of spectators watching the marathon had injuries in which doctors had to perform amputations on some of the wounded who had suffered extreme damage to their lower extremities. I suspect that their genitals were also damaged beyond repair.

Exactly what happened inside the pressure cookers when they exploded? 

 

 

 

To begin, the explosive has to be set off by a detonator. I don’t know if it was a blasting cap but I doubt that it was since they are hard for any ordinary citizen to get. It could be a large firecracker but unless they bought them during Halloween, it would be also hard to find. However, if gunpowder was use, then all at would be needed is a spark. I strongly suspect that it was some form of gunpowder that was used. That is easy to make but as I have made it when I was a kid as the elements to make gunpowder are easily obtainable.  One spectator said that she smelled sulfur and that is one of the ingredients used in creating gunpowder.

 

In the Boston IDEs, the terrorists could have used a timer or a remote controlled mechanism (RCM). I believe that at least one of IDEs contained the latter because investigators learned that one of the brothers bought such a device in a store that sells them to people who fly model planes and they also found a RCM near the site of one of the explosions.

 

The force of the ensuing blast inside the pressure cooker would donate at a rate of 28,000 feet (4.3 miles or 6.9 km) per second in milliseconds and that is 22 times faster than a 9 millimetre bullet coming out of the barrel of a gun. Needless to say, the pressure cooker would burst outwards although some of it would melt since the surrounding compressed super-hot air and the pressure inside the vessel would be equal to 2,200 pounds (almost a metric tonne) and that is enough to melt iron. The flying chards of steel from the pressure cooker along with the nails and ball bearings would then speed towards the victims.  Fragments of the bombs along with the nails and ball bearings could have achieved velocities from 3,000 to 11,000 feet per second.

 

Any victim standing nearby would in a millisecond also feel the 100 mile (161 km) shock wave hitting the victim’s body and rupturing organs such as the heart, the spleen, the kidneys and the lungs pulling them away from the surrounding tissues. Death would almost be instant if not, fairly soon thereafter. They would also feel the effects of extreme heat hitting the part of their bodies facing the blast. The effect on the bones of their bodies would be similar to falling off of a building. 

 

Since the IDEs were placed on the ground, much of the blast would be aimed towards the victim’s feet and legs and between the blast and the shrapnel, the victim’s legs would be shredded and in some instances, require amputation at least below the knees. I don’t know how may lost a leg or both legs but I do know that when they arrived at the hospital, some of the victims lost a leg and one of the victims lost both of his legs.

 

In one of the Boston hospitals, the injuries range from scalp and abdominal wounds to lower leg injuries. Another nearby hospital had victims who suffered from injuries that included ear trauma, stress reactions, lacerations, shrapnel wounds and injuries to the arms and legs. In a third hospital, 44 blast victims including thirteen underwent surgery, such as reconstructing tissues and removing potentially infecting shrapnel from their bodies. Many of the patients had lost a significant amount of blood, and all had 10, 20, 30, 40 or more pieces of shrapnel embedded in their bodies, mostly in their legs, but as high up as their necks. Some of the shrapnel which was pea-sized pellets and also nails were removed from their heads. One patient had a dense concentration of half-inch carpenter-type nails lodged in lower extremities. Three others had small, round metallic objects, similar to ball bearings, lodged in their tissues.

 

Further, a number of victims inhaled the smoke and suffered temporary lung damage and a great many people suffered from shock.

 

Strangely enough, one person was sitting only ten feet from the blast of one of the bombs and was able to rip off clothing to make a tourniquet for one of the injured.

 

As we all know, there was another death later. A MIT police officer was fatally wounded by one of the bombers on April 19, while the bombers were trying to flee from the area. He was shot a number of times and he also suffered injuries from a small bomb heaved towards him.

 

The two Boston bombers were evil men and deserve death as a consequence of their terrorist actions. The oldest was killed in a shootout and the youngest survive the shootout. The question on many minds is. “Should the surviving 19-year-old terrorist be executed?” To answer that question, I will give you a rhetorical question. If a malaria-ridden mosquito lands on your arm, will you gently pick it up and place it in a container and feed it until it dies of old age or will you squash it with your hand?

 

 

There are people who will forgive anything no matter how terrible the act is but in my opinion, they are soft-hearted and equally soft headed. Fortunately, they are not the ones who will make the decision with respect to this young terrorist’s fate.