How about a pack for Air Planes?

parachute
helmet
plastic crow bar
and a shirt that says:

“Paranoia drives my decisions”

water,
money,
some sort of multitool, leatherman, etc.

The “survival mask” looks like one from a hospital. If the train is burning or there is toxic gas, it won’t help.

Flashlight- good, we have those too

Pry bar- if I saw somebody with one of these, I would assume it’s a weapon. My next step would be to call about you on the radio.

Whistle- good, we have those too. Sometimes it’s the only way to attract attention in a noisy environment or from a long distance.

Moist towelettes- we use those, too. Everything in the tunnel is dirty with brake dust.

I’ve thought of buying a surplus gas mask but it would probably freak passengers out if they saw me wearing it.

No, seriously, it protects against breathing boulders. Boulders would be too large to pass through a standard facemask, so they could list that too.

and really, moist towlettes? because you might be in a terrorist attack in a subway, but that’s no reason you can’t be fresh and clean for lunch?

Ambient radiation – bad. Inhaling radioactive particles – the gift that keeps on giving.

1. Knowledge
2. Training
3. Luck

During survival training we were continually drilled with the following acronym and it ALWAYS works (assuming you’re still breathing) and it doesn’t even need a kit or a go-bag to implement.

SURVIVAL

S – Size up the situation
U – Undue haste makes waste
R – Realize where you are
V – Value your life
I – Improvise
V – Vanquish fear and panic
A – Act like the natives
L – Live by your wits

With the above in mind you still only have the framework for action (prevailing directives). Without proper training and practical application (to the point muscle memory kicks in) you’re still going to be compromised. Before buying anything to assist in your survival I would first become informed and learned. Knowledge is power. Repetition yields clarity in duress. And if you’re number is up, it’s up. PERIOD.

Ok, so let’s poke some more fun at the Subivor.

Survival Mask – doesn’t protect against carbon monoxide (most fire deaths are attributed to this BTW). One of the examples used on the site for this product is the Sarin gas attack in Japan…sorry but unless you’re in MOPP4 you don’t have a chance of surviving a serious NBC event. Though I haven’t tested the mask, I have to wonder how you would be able to blow the cool silver tone metal whistle if wearing the mask.

Pry bars are used to pry and you’re not going to get much leverage off of seven inches. I also seriously doubt it has enough concentrated mass to break any type of tempered glass. Also, how would you hold it to take a swing? I see some hurt hands out there.

Flashlight – Duh.

Orange Moist Towelette Pouch – Anyone recall how the survivors of subway or building disasters look? Talk about shooting a BB gun at a freight train. Anyone know what happens when you’re really contaminated with a bio or chemical agent? Perhaps the towelette can be used to dry your little tears after the DECON team has brushed off all the gross contaminates, stripped you butt-naked (and bagged everything you brought), sprayed you down with fire-hoses, scrubbed you down with a soapy solution, sprayed you down again for good measure and then dumped you into quarantine (possibly under armed guards). Now wasn’t that fun?

Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll rely on my brain and what happens to be either in my pocket or within my reach when the boogeyman comes.

Chris Wendt
USMC

Oh, a good read:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/policy/army/fm/3-5/fm3-5.pdf

When it comes to fear, trust the fearless:
http://www.thinkbam.com/aboutBam-meetTheTeam.html

Now, a normal dust mask is not a very effective screen against even nuisance dust particles. But carrying a respirator and petroleum jelly everywhere you go might raise even more eyebrows than this would.

Or get you a date that you’ll never forget.

They’d do better with a smoke hood instead of that mask: all the protection of the mask, plus protection against smoke (the Tube tragedy some years ago was all smoke inhalation).

What, a torch, whistle and towelette aren’t in your EDC anyway? :)

All that crap in a bag is what divides.

I have a go-bag I made myself (I bought the bag and the stuff to go in it : ) )
I once made the ‘mistake’ of buying an actual 3 day kit. They were on sale from $60 for $10…so I thought…why not. Not bad…but not worth $60…that’s for SURE!

Tak…in answer to your question. I think you’d likely encounter Americium-241. Also alpha radiation. You’d see it in VERY small amounts.

Chris, Danny, I don’t care about McGyver. He’s fiction too. In an emergency, what you need is reality. Let me quote you some of the extremely useful rules of thumb listed on the Macdonald Jump Kits/Go Bags emergency preparedness page (Greg London and I are both recommending the same page):

In a survival situation, you live as long as your feet do.
If you don’t understand what’s going on, back off until you do understand.
You can live to be ninety without a Rambo knife, but hypothermia or dehydration will kill you deader’n dirt by this time tomorrow.
A terrorist attack is just a badly-placarded HAZMAT incident.
Some situations are non-survivable. Think ahead. Stay out of those situations.
Never ignore a warning, even if it doesn’t make any sense to you at the time.
Check the batteries in your smoke detector.
Brush your teeth, wear your seatbelt, quit smoking, wash your hands before eating and after using the toilet, and look both ways before crossing the street.

If you have an emergency in an urban area and the power and/or transit go out, you’re going to wind up walking home, or to some place that’s better than where you are now. The fancy dust mask and the little pry bar won’t help you do that. Balmex, adhesive moleskin, a phone card, and some spendable cash are what you need. A radio gets you news reports so you can monitor the situation and make good decisions. A regional map helps you settle on a realistic destination and figure out which bridges to aim for. If the weather’s cold and/or wet, the poncho and space blanket are a lot of help for not much additional weight.

While you’re thinking about it: it’ll probably be easier for you to contact someone outside the affected area than someone inside it. You and your significant other(s) should settle on a person you’ll both call to get and receive messages. If there are obvious staging areas on the outskirts of your urban area, figure out what they are and agree on which ones you’ll head for.

Takuan, I agree that emergency kits can be overpriced. Get a fanny pack and stock your own.

and hey, respect the towelette. step one in any biohazard decontamination (say, bird flu guy coughs blood in your face) is to get most of the stuff off of you. when there’s only a film left you can use a microbicide. (i guess they assume if you are the kind of person who would buy this you’re already packing purell.)

You know, ‘cuz they attack subways, too.