Haha. Spam, the food of choice for EMP'ers. :-) Just kidding.
I've read that EMP's effect people and that they don't effect people. I think maybe if you receive a really high dose it might kill you. But isn't that the "bomb" that doesn't kill people? I don't know for sure about all this. But I also read the EMP's are the first thing to hit from an atomic bomb.
I think you might be right about the dirty contrail from the missile. The guy in the article I just poseted said the same thing, and he's supposed to have witnessed quite a few missile launches. Good observation!