Duck and cover

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For other uses, see Duck and cover (disambiguation).

Duck and Cover was a method of personal protection against the effects of a nuclear detonation which the United States government taught to generations of United States school children from the late 1940s into the 1980s. This was supposed to protect them in the event of an unexpected nuclear attack which, they were told, could come at any time without warning. Immediately after they saw a flash, they had to stop what they were doing and get on the ground under some cover – such as a table, or at least next to a wall – and assume fetal position, lying face down and covering their heads with their hands.[1]

Critics have said that this training would be of little, if any, help in the event of thermonuclear war, and had little effect other than promoting a state of unease and paranoia.

Today, "Drop, Cover and Hold On" is taught in areas which are prone to earthquakes. Schools in some tornado-prone areas of the United States also pratice tornado drills that involve children squatting and covering the backs of their heads.[2],[3]

Contents

[edit] Background

The United States monopoly on nuclear weapons was broken in 1949 when the Soviet Union exploded its first nuclear device, and many in the government and public perceived that the United States was more vulnerable than it ever had been before. Duck and cover exercises had quickly become a part of Civil Defense drills that every American citizen, from kids to the elderly, practiced so as to be ready in the event of nuclear war. In 1950, during the first big Civil Defense push of the Cold War, the movie Duck and Cover was produced (by the Federal Civil Defense Administration) for school showings in 1951. At the time, it was believed the main dangers of a Hiroshima-type nuclear blast was mainly heat and blast damage: radioactive fallout itself was not clearly identified until 1954 after the Castle Bravo weapons test in the Marshall Islands caused sickness and death in Japanese fishermen on the fishing vessel the Lucky Dragon.

A Duck & Cover movie poster
A Duck & Cover movie poster

[edit] Assessment

The advice to "duck and cover" holds well in many situations where structural destabilization or debris may be expected such as during earthquakes or tornados. At a sufficient distance from a nuclear explosion, the shock wave would produce similar results and ducking and covering would perhaps prove adequate. However within a certain radius (depending on its height and yield), ducking and covering would do little to protect against the intense heat and radiation following a nuclear explosion.

The exercises of civil defense are now seen as having less practical use than political or cultural use: to keep the danger of nuclear war high on the public mind, while also assuring the American people that something could be done to defend against nuclear attack. The duck and cover exercises remain a unique part of the American Red Scare culture, as neither Soviet people or Western Europeans during the Cold War, nor citizens of North Korea today had anything even remotely similar (though all did have other sorts of civil defense education).

Elementary school children on military installations during the Cuban Missile Crisis confused fire drills with "duck and cover" drills and hid under desks and bathroom fixtures instead of exiting school buildings.

Some critics have drawn comparisons with the "duct tape alert" issued by the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, advising citizens to prepare to seal a room of their house with duct tape (including, ironically, the ventilation shafts and windows, which can lead to carbon dioxide poisoning and suffocation) to protect from terrorist attacks.

However, it can also be argued that, due to the nature of nuclear weapons, some protection, whatever its form, is better than none. Not everyone would be within the instant-vaporization radius of ground zero, and the duck and cover method can be rather effective in preventing injuries due to debris, radiation burns, and 'flash' burns. Moreover, the general consensus is such that, if you have warning at all, you stand a chance of survival should you get cover. It was also clearly labeled as a 'last-ditch' defense to be used 'when you see the flash', when one has little or no warning : if the duck and cover method was compared to a well-prepared blast shelter, it will always fall short.

A testament to the effectiveness, however limited, of the duck and cover method is that it is still widely practiced in the United States. In states prone to tornados, school children are urged to 'duck and cover' against a solid inner wall of a school, if time does not permit seeking better shelter during a tornado warning. The practice is also very widely practiced in schools in states along the West Coast of the United States, where Earthquakes are commonplace. Ducking and covering in either scenario would theoretically afford significant protection from falling or flying debris.

In an earthquake, people are encouraged to "drop, cover and hold on": to get underneath a piece of furniture, cover their heads (and eyes if possible) and hold onto the furniture. This advice also encourages people not to run out of a shaking building, because a large majority of earthquake injuries are due to broken bones from people falling and tripping during shaking. While it is unlikely that "drop, cover and hold on" will protect against a building collapse, buildings built in earthquake prone areas in the United States are usually built to Earthquake "Life Safety" codes, and a building collapse (even during an earthquake) is rare. "Drop, cover and hold on" may not be appropriate for all locations or building types, but many experts agree it is the appropriate emergency response to an earthquake in the United States.

[edit] Duck and Cover in popular media

  • The computer game Fallout made fun of the idea behind Duck and Cover. As the game has a large cult following, the idea of the unusefulness of the duck and cover scheme got another boost in the 1990s.
  • In the South Park episode "Volcano" residents are advised to duck and cover in order to survive a lava flow, this is demonstrated with an educational movie where the method results in the lava flowing over the person, leaving him unharmed. Needless to say, this didn't work as well when later attempted.
  • Duck and Cover is also the name of a clothing brand popular with young people.
  • In the West Wing episode "Duck and Cover", the possiblity of a nuclear explosion in California is explored.
  • The movie The Iron Giant had a parody of a Duck and Cover educational video. Later in the movie, a nuclear bomb is sent toward the town the movie is set in. Someone suggests that they duck and cover, and a general responds with, "You idiot, we all know that doesn't really work!"
  • The "Weird Al" Yankovic song "Christmas at Ground Zero" (song about nuclear annihilation on Christmas Day) contains the lyric "I'll duck and cover with my Yuletide lover underneath the mistletoe". The music video for this song also features a lot of footage borrowed from the Duck and Cover film.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Military.com
  2. ^ Florida Disaster
  3. ^ Plano, Texas ISD
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