O.C. Gas Mask Sales Leap Amid ‘Paranoid Reaction’

Military surplus stores throughout Orange County are reporting increased sales of gas masks to customers apparently frightened by reports of potential chemical warfare by Iraqi forces in the Middle East.

And although store employees warn that the type of mask available at surplus outlets does nothing to protect its wearer from the kind of poison gas that would be used in combat, it hasn’t stopped the demand.

“It’s a paranoid reaction,” said Gil Wiggins, an employee of South Coast Army & Navy in Newport Beach. “Some people are just not that intelligent. They hear about chemical warfare in Iraq, and they think we’re next. It’s the same thing that happened in the 1950s with the Cold War, when everybody was building shelters to protect themselves from the atomic bomb.”

Wiggins walked over to a shelf, pointing out a box of gas masks selling from $5 to $10 each. The Israeli-made masks have a rubber strap that hooks around the back of the head and contain a carbon filter that goes over the mouth and nose.

“If people want to buy these, that’s fine,” Wiggins said. “But you’re not going to find our (U.S.) troops wearing them. The only reason we carry these is because people who work as sandblasters or house painters can use them as a cheap, disposable filter for contaminating fumes.”

Military personnel in the Middle East are equipped with a special, hooded mask known as the M-17, which is not legally available at surplus stores. The masks have a chemical-resistant covering and should be worn with a special combat suit, said Jeff Walton, assistant manager of Army-Navy Surplus in Orange.

Walton said the demand for gas masks has been so high that he took them off an obscure shelf and created a display near the front counter. Pre-Mideast crisis sales of two or three masks a week have jumped to an average of three or more a day, he said.

“We’ve sold out twice on them already since about a week ago,” Walton said. “I sold 10 one day, and a lot of people are buying them for their entire family. It’s almost a paranoia.”

Calls have also come in from Middle Eastern people in the area inquiring about ordering large quantities of the special, chemical-proof masks to ship them overseas to family and friends, Walton said.

At Long Beach Surplus in Westminster, an older version of a chemical-proof gas mask known as the M-16 is available at prices ranging from $60 to $100, and chemical combat suits sell for about $40 each, employee Marvin Ferguson said.

“I made a sign advertising the suits that said, ‘The time is now to buy your chemical suit,’ but (the management) wouldn’t let me put it up because they thought it might start a panic,” Ferguson said. “It was just meant as a joke, but I guess some people think (Iraqi troops) are really coming over here.”

Store operators said that enlisted Marines and reserve troops also are stocking up on extra clothing and equipment that is reportedly in short supply on area military bases. Popular items include canteens, T-shirts, socks, salt tablets, hats and desert camouflage clothing.

“I couldn’t sell desert camouflage at all up until a week ago,” said Michael Sherman, who owns surplus stores in Newport Beach and Santa Ana. “Now I can’t keep it in stock.”