Word: panic
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Panic buttons aren't standard equipment yet, not even for hazardous-material haulers. But since Sept. 11, more trucking companies are looking into them. Another device that could help, also made by Qualcomm, can stop a truck from operating when the messaging system is disabled. The technology is used in other parts of the world where terrorism has been a bigger threat, but few U.S. truckers know about it. "We didn't do it here because it wasn't a big issue," says Qualcomm's Chris Wolfe. "We weren't projecting a terrorist problem...
Some security advocates are asking Congress to help fund the installation of a panic button on every truck that hauls blasting agents. The Institute of Makers of Explosives, a trade group whose products are often shipped by truck, advocates federal background checks on drivers who haul explosives. "I don't mean you need a top-secret clearance," says James Ronay, a former FBI bomb expert who runs the institute. "But you need to know who that person is." Ronay's group is also pushing for a new federal licensing system for all purchases of explosives. Such licensing is now required...
Which is why the greater danger may lie in dirty bombs, conventional weapons used to spray radioactive material--anything from used reactor rods to contaminated clothing--over wide areas. Although the death toll wouldn't be great, the contamination and the public panic could be widespread. "The ultimate dirty bomb is a nuclear power reactor," says NCI's Leventhal. That someone will run a jet into a cooling tower isn't the only risk. Periodically the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has staged mock attacks against facilities, and the faux intruders won half the time--meaning they were in a position...
...Arkansas, Governor Mike Huckabee has encouraged trick-or-treaters to engage in church or school activities instead because "we can't handle the panic that comes when a parent encounters a broken Pixy Stick in a sack and thinks it is anthrax." And businesses, fully aware that Halloween is the nation's second biggest shopping holiday, are trying to adapt too. Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., is continuing its 11-year tradition of Halloween Horror Nights but has changed the name of its dance club from the Blood Bath to the Ooze Zone. Other businesses are erring on the side...
...jitters about biological attacks. "Not only are you helping fuel hysteria," complained a Wisconsin man, "but you are promoting the flawed logic that if you have enough money, you can keep your family safe." From San Antonio, a Texan warned, "Sensational journalism does little more than cause inevitable panic buying and doomsday fears." A Nebraskan declared, "Gas masks won't help against an anthrax attack," and urged TIME to "stop scaring people and tell us how to protect the country." And a reader from Maine imagined "the terrorists laughing their heads off as Americans frantically wave the flag and shop...