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Introduction
Chapter 7. Blast Terrorism
In the short time between January and September 2003, explosive devices were involved
in 73 of 189 terrorist events that occurred worldwide. A 1997 report by the Department of
Justice found an abundance of evidence suggesting that given intent, the knowledge
required to build bombs is readily available in print and on the Internet. The report cited
at least 50 publications in the Library of Congress; several texts intended for military
training, agricultural, and engineering use; 48 different underground pamphlets and
publications; and countless sources on the World Wide Web. Bomb data from the FBI
indicate that from 1987 to 1997, bombing incidents increased approximately 2.5 times,
peaking in 1994 with 3,163 domestic bombing incidents. Of those incidents, 66%
involved explosive devices, and the remaining 24% involved incendiary devices. More
recent bomb data indicate that the number of domestic bombing incidents has decreased
since 1994, with 1,797 incidents in 1999. In most incidents, low-explosive fillers were
used. High-explosive ammonium nitrate mixtures, however, were used during the first
World Trade Center bombing and the Oklahoma City bombing, highlighting the
tremendous destructive power of a significant amount of a high explosive.
The raw materials for explosive devices are regularly found in areas of farming or mining
activities. Due to the public accessibility of explosives materials and bomb-building
knowledge, a domestic terrorist attack would probably take the form of a conventional
explosive munitions attack. This chapter introduces the spectrum of injuries caused
during an explosion and the differences between blast trauma and conventional trauma.
Both blast trauma and conventional trauma have aspects of blunt, penetrating, burn,
crush, and inhalational injuries. However, victims of a blast may suffer all of these
injuries simultaneously, with additional injury caused by the blast wave itself, i.e.,
primary blast injury. Primary blast injuries are lethal, unique, and often subtle. Although
the vast majority of blast injury victims suffer from conventional injuries, lack of
knowledge about primary blast injuries and failure to recognize a blast’s effect on certain
organs can result in additional morbidity and mortality.
Explosives
Explosives are solid, liquid, or gaseous substances that, when detonated, transform
rapidly into more stable products in the form of heat, gas, and energy. Explosives are
frequently used in military, demolition, and industrial applications and are categorized as
low explosives or high explosives. Low explosives are considered propellants and are
used chiefly in small arms and munitions. Two examples are smokeless powder or black
powder. High explosives have a greater potential for destruction due to their higher
burning rate and therefore higher shattering effect. Notable examples of high explosives
are TNT (trinitrotoluene), dynamite, RDX, C-4, ammonium nitrate, ammonium-nitrate
fuel oil, HMX, and PETN. Due to their relative stability, these compounds require
another explosive (e.g., a primer or detonator) to initiate a charge.
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