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Chemical warfare

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Urdnot_Grunt
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Chemical warfare

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What are chemical weapons?

About 70 different chemicals have been used or stockpiled as Chemical weapons (CW) agents during the 20th century. These chemicals are in liquid, gas or solid form and blister, choke and affect the nerves or blood. Chemical warfare agents are generally classified according to their effect on the organism and can be roughly grouped as: Nerve Agents, Mustard Agents, Hydrogen Cyanide, Tear Gases, Arsines, Psychotomimetic Agents, Toxins and Potential CW Agents.

Under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) chemicals are divided into three groups, defining their purpose and treatment:

* Schedule One are those typically used in weapons such as sarin and mustard gas and tabun;

* Schedule Two include those that can be used in weapons such as amiton and BZ;

* Schedule Three chemicals include the least toxic substances that can be used for research and the production of medicine, dyes, textiles, etc.

CW agents mainly used against people are divided into lethal and incapacitating categories. A substance is classified as incapacitating if less than 1/100 of the lethal dose causes incapacitation, e.g., through nausea or visual problems. The limit between lethal and incapacitating substances is not absolute but refers to a statistical average.

Incendiary agents such as napalm and phosphorus are not considered to be CW agents since they achieve their effect mainly through thermal energy. Certain types of smoke ammunition are not classed as a chemical weapon since the poisonous effect is not the reason for their use. Plants, micro-organisms, the produced toxins belong to that class. Pathogenic micro-organisms, mainly viruses and bacteria, are classed as biological weapons.

* Chemicals that blister: sulphur mustard, lewisite, nitrogen mustard, mustard-leweisite, phosgene-oxime.

* Chemicals that affect the nerves: VX, Sarin, Soman, tabun, novichole agents.

* Chemicals that cause choking: cholrine, phosgene, diphosgene, chloropicrin.

* Chemicals that affect the blood: herygem, cynanide, cynaogen chlorine.

* Chemicals for riot control: tear agent 2 (SN gas), tear agent 0 (CS gas), psychedelic agent 3 (BZ)

When have they been used - a short history

1863- The US War Department issues General Order 100, proclaiming "the use of poison in any manner, be it to poison wells, or foods, or arms, is wholly excluded from modern warfare".

World War I - the use of chemical agents in WWI caused an estimated 1,300,000 casualties, including 90,000 deaths.

1914- French begin using tear gas in grenades (xylyl bromide) and Germans retaliate with tear gas in artillery shells. This was the first significant use of chemical warfare in WWI.

1915- Germans attack the French with chlorine gas at Ypres, France. This was the first effective use of chemical warfare in WWI.

1915 - British use chlorine gas against the Germans at the Battle of Loos. This was the first chemical weapons attack by the British.

1918 - Germans launch the first projectile attack against US troops with phosgene and chloropicrin shells. The first major use of gas against American forces.

1918 - Fist US use of gas in warfare.

1918 - The US begins its formal chemical weapons program with the establishment of the Chemical Warfare Service.

1919 - British use Adamsite against the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War.

1922-1927 - The Spanish use chemical weapons against the Rif rebels in Spanish Morocco.

1936 - Italy uses mustard gas against Ethiopians during its invasion of Abyssinia.

1942 - Nazis begin using Zyklon B (hydrocyanic acid) in gas chambers for the mass murder of concentration camp prisoners.

1943 - A US ship loaded with mustard bombs s attacked by Germans in the port of Bari, Italy.

1945 - Germans manufacture and stockpile large amounts of tabun and sarin nerve gases but do not use them.

1962-1970 - US uses treat gas and four types of defoliant, including Agent Orange, in Vietnam.

1963-1967 - Egypt uses chemical weapons (phosgene, mustard) against Yemen.

1975-1983 - Alleged use of Yellow Rain (trichothecene mycotoxins) by Soviet-backed forces in Laos and Kampuchea. There is evidence to suggest use of T-2 toxin, but an alternative hypothesis suggests that the yellow spots labelled Yellow Rain were caused by swarms of defecating bees.

1979 - The US government alleges Soviets use of chemical weapons in Afghanistan, including Yellow Rain.

1983 - Iraq begins using chemical weapons (mustard gas), in the war against Iran.

1984 - First ever use of nerve agent tabun on the battlefield, by Iraq during Iran-Iraq War.

1987-1988 - Iraq uses chemical weapons (hydrogen cyanide, mustard gas) in its Anfal Campaign against the Kurds, most notably in the Halabja Massacre of 1988.

1995 - The Tokyo Subway sarin gas attack killed nearly a dozen people and incapacitated or injured approximately 5,000 others. Thousands did not die from the Tokyo attack due to impurity of the agent. A tiny drop of sarin, which was originally developed in Germany in the 1930s, can kill within minutes after skin contact or inhalation of its vapour. Like all other nerve agents, sarin blocks the action of acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme necessary for the transmission of nerve impulses.

http://www.toxipedia.org/display/toxipe ... al+Weapons
http://www.scienceclarified.com/Ca-Ch/C ... rfare.html
http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/res ... al-weapons
http://books.google.pl/books?id=WpeMj2C ... es&f=false
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