Chemical Weapons of Mass Destruction

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Chemical Weapons of Mass Destruction

• S255 Threats, Violence, and Workplace Safety
• 2nd Eight weeks, Fall Semester 2003
• Guest Lecturer Jessica Cordette, MPH(c)

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A Century of Chemical Warfare

• The use of poison gas in warfare originated
  during WWI in the battle of Ypres, April 22, 1915
• 1.3 million casualties, 91,000 fatalities were
  attributed to the use of phosgene, chlorine, and
  mustard gas
• Italy used chemical weapons aggressively against
  Ethiopia in 1935-1936.
• 15,000 reported chemical casualties mostly from
  mustard gas
• The Japanese Army used mustard gas, phosgene,
  lewisite and other agents indiscriminately in
  China from 1937-1945
• Over 900 reported chemical casualties
• Poisonous gases such as factory exhaust fumes and
  the infamous Zyklon B were used to kill millions
  in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany during
  WWII from 1941-1945

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A Century of Chemical WarfareContinued

• Phosgene and mustard bombs killed at least 1,400
  people during the Yemeni civil war (1963-67), in
  Egypt
• Massive chemical weapon assaults were seen during
  the Iran-Iraq War (1983-1988) and in the Iraqi
  suppression of its Kurdish minority (1987-1988)
• On March 17, 1988, Iraq attacked the Kurdish
  village of Halabja with suspected nerve agents,
  killing hundreds of civilian refugees
• The U.S. waged chemical warfare in Southeast Asia
  (1961-72)
• Riot control agents (similar to tear gas) and
  chemical defoliants and herbicides (Agent Orange)
  were used extensively

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Classification of Chemical Weapons- By Human
Effects

• Blister Agents
• Choking Agents
• Blood Agents
• Nerve Agents

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Blister Agents

• Intended to cause incapacitation rather than
  death
• Used extensively during WWI
• Tactic Overload a regions medical facilities
• Examples Lewisite, Mustard Gas

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Choking Agents

• Most common during WWI but have lost much of
  their usefulness since the advent of the nerve
  agents.
• Intended to cause death
• Easily obtained
• Example Phosgene (CG as designated by the
  military) is a common industrial chemical with a
  moderate lethal dose

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Blood Agents

• Cyanide based compounds are the main components
  of the blood agents
• Rapid rate of evaporation
• Tactic assassination of an individual since
  these agents arent well suited for use on a
  large number of people
• Example Hydrogen Cyanide (AC)

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Nerve Agents

• Newest trend in chemical weapons
• Original nerve agents were developed by German
  scientists during the 1930s as insecticides and
  were developed into chemical weapons by the Nazi
  military later that decade.
• Sarin, Tabun, Soman and other agents have been
  the main toxins stockpiled as chemical weapons

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Nerve AgentsContinued

• Nerve agents are hundreds to thousands times more
  lethal than blister, choking or blood agents
• Most useful to terrorists because only a minute
  quantity is necessary to cause a substantial
  amount of casualties
• In their most effective form, most nerve agents
  are more difficult to obtain
• VX and Sarin, the most toxic of the nerve agents,
  can be synthesized by a moderately competent
  organic chemist.

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Close up Chemical Weapons Making Recent News

• Iraq has admitted to manufacturing the chemical
  agents mustard gas, VX, sarin and tabun before
  the 1991 Gulf War, although much of this has been
  destroyed by UNSCOM inspectors.
• However, intelligence estimates that 360 tones of
  chemical warfare agent remain unaccounted for
  and that Iraq could produce mustard gas within
  weeks and nerve agents such as VX, tabun and
  sarin within months.
• Iraq says anything that has not been destroyed
  will have degraded beyond use by now.

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Major Iraqi Sites Suspected of Housing Chemical
Weapons
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For ComparisonUnited States Stockpiles of CW
(June, 2000)
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Close Up Chemical Weapons Making Recent
NewsContinued

• Mustard Gas
• Mustard gas 'Mustard' is liquid at room
  temperature, but is more commonly used in its gas
  form - which has a strong smell likened to
  horseradish or garlic.
• Absorption Contact with skin or inhalation
• Effects Mustard gas is a blistering agent,
  burning eyes and skin exposed to it and lungs,
  mouth and throat if it is inhaled. It is not
  normally lethal, but can cause cancer and serious
  disfigurement.
• Symptoms Conjunctivitis, skin burns, throat
  pain, cough and susceptibility to infection and
  pneumonia. Symptoms are not usually noticed until
  1 6 hours after exposure.
• Protection Protective clothing and early
  decontamination, followed by antibiotics.
• Iraqi program Iraq has admitted making 2,850
  tons of mustard gas, has filled bombs with it and
  used it against Kurds at Halabja in 1988.

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Close Up Chemical Weapons Making Recent
NewsContinued

• VX
• VX A clear, colorless liquid technically named
  methylphosphonothioic acid and described as the
  most deadly nerve agent ever created.
• Absorption Through eyes, lungs and skin
• Effects Like other nerve agents, VX attacks the
  nervous system severe doses can cause death
  within 15 minutes of exposure.
• Lethal dose Fraction of a drop
• Symptoms Small doses trigger nasal discharge,
  chest tightness, wheezing and headaches severe
  doses lead to convulsions, confusion and
  respiratory failure.
• Protection Immediate injection of atropine
• Iraqi program Iraq has admitted making 3.9
  tonnes, including 1.5 tons which the UK says
  remain unaccounted for. Also unaccounted for are
  300 tons of a chemical which Iraq had used only
  for the production of VX. VX was used in the
  Iraqi attack on the Kurds at Halabja and traces
  of it have also been found on remnants of
  ballistic missile warheads.

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Close Up Chemical Weapons Making Recent
NewsContinued

• Sarin
• Sarin A colorless liquid several times more
  deadly than cyanide, sarin is related to a group
  of pesticides and was initially developed in
  Germany in the 1930s.
• Effects Sarin attacks the nervous system when
  inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Inhalation
  can cause death within 1 10 minutes of
  exposure.
• Lethal dose 0.5 milligrams
• Symptoms Pupils shrink to pinpoints and sweating
  and twitching precede symptoms similar to those
  for VX exposure.
• Protection Injection of antidote immediately
  after contact.
• Iraqi program Iraq has admitted to manufacturing
  795 tons of sarin, filling bombs with it and
  developing ballistic missile warheads to deliver
  it. Iraq used sarin against Iranian troops during
  the Iran-Iraq war, and against Kurds at Halabja
  in 1988.

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Close Up Chemical Weapons Making Recent
NewsContinued

• Tabun
• Tabun Also known as GB, tabun was discovered in
  Germany by Dr Gerhard Schrader, who also first
  developed sarin.
• Effects If inhaled or absorbed through the eyes
  or skin, tabun can kill in as little as one or
  two minutes.
• Symptoms Similar to VX and sarin.
• Protection Injection of antidote immediately
  after contact.
• Iraqi program Iraq has admitted to producing 210
  tonnes of tabun and using the agent to fill
  bombs. A UN-backed team has confirmed that Iraq
  used tabun as early as 1984 against Iranian
  forces. Tabun was also used in the Iraqi attack
  on Kurds at Halabaja in 1988.

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Advantages

• Difficult detection
• Ease of transport in a sealed container
• Low cost/ low technology to develop
• Frightening image
• Overall efficiency
• Industrial chemicals can be purchased legally

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AdvantagesContinued

• A cost comparison
• For a large-scale operation against a civilian
  population casualties might const 2,000 per
  square kilometer with conventional weapons, 800
  with nuclear weapons, 600 with nerve-gas
  weapons, 1 with biological weapons

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Disadvantages

• Increased effort in retaliation from
  anti-terrorist forces
• Risk for terrorists using chemical weapons to
  harm themselves

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Future Implications

• The likeliness of an incident involving chemical
  weapons has increased dramatically in the past
  decade
• Binary weapons are becoming an even more
  desirable terrorist weapon
• Reduced risk during storage and transport
• Binary weapons store the chemical agent as two
  separate precursor chemicals that combine to form
  the final lethal product
• reduce the threat of accidental exposure upon
  dispersal of the agent
• Binary weapons can be made with a time-delay
  mechanism to assure the terrorist escapes without
  harm

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Future ImplicationsContinued

• The spread of chemical weapons capability to
  third world countries which may have connections
  with terrorists

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International Policy Attempts to Eradicate
Chemical Warfare

• The Hague Gas Declaration of 1891 banned the use
  of projectiles the sole object of which is the
  diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases
• The Brussels Declaration of 1874 and the Hague
  Conventions of 1899-1907 banned the use of poison
  gas and poisoned bullets
• Following the horrors of CW in WWi, the
  Washington Arms Conference Treaty was signed on
  Feb 6, 1922, prohibiting the use of asphyxiating,
  poisonous or other gases
• France objected to other provisions in the treaty
  and it never went into effect

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International Policy Attempts to Eradicate
Chemical WarfareContinued

• The 1925 Geneva Protocol also prohibited the use
  of poison gas and bacteriological methods of
  warfare
• The protocol languished in the U.S. Senate until
  1975, when it was finally ratified

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U.S. National Policy on Chemical Weapons

• In May, 1991 President Bush committed the United
  States to destroy all CW and to renounce the
  right to CW retaliation
• Congress has since passed legislation requiring
  the destruction of the entire stockpile by
  December 31, 2004.
• The U.S. declared policy is to support the
  Chemical Weapons Convention as a means to achieve
  a global ban on this class of weapons and to halt
  their proliferation.