What to do if there is a chemical attack

Official updatesLU-Alert · RTL, 100.7 · 112

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If you are outside, cover your nose and mouth with a damp cloth and leave the area at once. Move across the wind, never with it or into it, and towards higher ground if you can.
Get inside the nearest building that is not affected. Close the doors and windows, and switch off ventilation, heating and air conditioning.
Go to a room with few or no windows, on an upper floor if you can: many toxic gases are heavier than air and collect low down. Do not go to the cellar.
Seal the gaps around doors, windows and vents with tape, wet towels or plastic sheeting.
If the substance touched you, take off your outer clothes, put them in a closed bag, then wash your hands, your face and your whole body with soap and water. Do not touch your face before your hands are clean.
Call Status: Verified if someone has trouble breathing or feels ill, then wait for the rescue services where you are. Do not go home or to hospital on your own unless they tell you to, and never go back into the area to help or to look.
Switch on the radio, Status: Verified, and watch for LU-Alert messages. Stay inside until the authorities say the air is safe.

Many of the same precautions apply to a chemical attack and an industrial leak. See Chemical leak for more on sealing a room.
Under Luxembourg’s CBRN plan, the government explains the danger and protective measures on infocrise.lu. Alerts also come through LU-Alert and the radio. Learn the signals on Alerts and sirens.

Learn how to switch off the ventilation, the heating and the air conditioning at home and at work.
Keep wide tape, plastic sheeting and a few old towels in the kit, to seal a room quickly.
Keep strong bin bags for contaminated clothes, soap, a change of clothes for each person, and stored water in case the taps stop: Status: Verified per person per day for Status: Verified. See the emergency kit checklist.
Choose a room on an upper floor with few windows that you could seal, and agree it with your household in your household plan.
Take a first-aid course with the Red Cross or the CGDIS.

Stay inside until the authorities say the danger is over. Then open the windows and air the rooms.
Keep the bagged clothes closed and away from people until the authorities say how to get rid of them.
Do not eat food that was left out in the open, and follow official advice on tap water and garden produce.
Restock the tape, bags and soap you used.
Feeling frightened, shaky or unable to sleep afterwards is common. Talk with the people around you. If it does not ease after Status: Verified, see a doctor or a psychologist. See Coping with a crisis.

Keep them inside with you, and do not go out to collect them from school. Moving around puts you at risk, and schools have their own plans.
Do not put a cloth over a baby's face: it can stop them breathing. Carry them inside quickly instead.

If you cannot walk away quickly, go into the nearest building and close it up. Agree now with a neighbour who comes to help you seal a room.

Stay where you are: the upper floors are the safer place from heavy gases. Close the windows, switch off the ventilation and seal the gaps.

Close the windows, switch off the ventilation and the air conditioning, and drive out of the area across the wind if the road is open. If you cannot, stay in the closed car until help comes.