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CHILE

The growing fear of biological warfare has brought a small manufacturer in Chile a good business opportunity. Masprot, a Santiago-based firm manufacturing gas masks, has received orders from several us companies to supply 10,000 gas masks a month. Masprot is one of the few Latin American makers of gas masks that meets us quality standards. "Following the recent attacks, there is so much hysteria in the us, that demand for the masks has gone up considerably. People remember the Gulf War when chemical attacks were expected and want to buy the masks as a precautionary measure,' said Francisco Le Dantec, Chilean military expert. But the company's management claims that the masks would provide only limited benefit against a surprise chemical or biological weapons assault.

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