The Dangers Of Chemical Warfare Essay, Research Paper

How many people were killed or injured in WWI due to chemical arms? Harmonizing to

the Chemical Weapons Convention web page 1,400,000 people were affected by chemical

arms. The most serious casualties were in Russia with 475,000 hurts and 56,000 killed.

The jobs of chemical warfare are upon us yet once more. Saddam Hussein is presently seeking to

avoid arm reviews by the United Nations. After it has been discovered that he used

arms during Desert Storm, can we put on the line confrontation with him once more?

Chemical warfare can be used in many ways. The most common manner is gases used in

hand-to-hand combat which are contained in grenades or case shots and thrown or fired from a

launcher. For a more widespread consequence, the gas or micro-organism can be sprayed from an

aeroplane, as in harvest dusting. Often, bombs incorporating atomic centres or toxicant gases are

dropped onto dumbly populated metropoliss. Recently atomic payloads and even biological toxins

have been put in missiles, such as the United States? Tomahawk missiles and Iraq? s S.C.U.D. ? s.

Chemical arms are designed to assail a individual? s nervous system, eyes, nose, pharynx, or

tegument. Chemical agents are typically airborne. Tear gas is frequently used by constabulary in public violence state of affairss.

Contained in grenades, tear gas irritates the eyes and lungs, doing violent coughing, blurred

vision, and a general inability to contend.

One widely known chemical arm is mustard gas or 1,1? -Thiobis [ 2-chloroethane ] . It? s

molecular expression is C4H8Cl2S. The chemical construction for mustard gas is:

Cl-CH2CH2-S-CH2CH2-Cl

There is no immediate consequence from this substance. In approximately 4 hours symptoms begin to organize.

These include itchiness, combustion, and redness of countries where the mustard gas comes in contact

with the tegument, followed by swelling of the tissue. After 20-24 hours little blisters form around the

affected countries. Finally, to the full developed blisters fill with a colorless to yellow liquid. This liquid

causes terrible tissue devolution in the blisters, which are vulnerable to infection. The lesion

may take several months to mend. The estimated lethal dosage is 1,500 g min m-3 ( 50 milligram m-3 for 30

min ) by inspiration and 10,000 milligrams min m-3 ( 50 milligram m-3 for 200 min ) by cuticular exposure. The

deadly dosage of liquid mustard gas for a 70 kilogram adult male is 7.0 g. Another deathly arm is sarin. The

dosage of GB which causes decease for 50 per centum of animate beings in a trial is 0.42 mg kg-1 for mice, 0.30

mg kg-1 for coneies, and 0.0385 milligrams kg-1 for guinea hogs. The deadly dosage for a 70 kilogram adult male is 1.7

g. Sarin? s formal name is Methylphosphonofluoridic acid, ( 1-methyl ethyl ) ester. The molecular

expression is C4H10FO2P. The chemical construction for GB is:

Oxygen

ll

F-P-O-CHCH3

cubic decimeter cubic decimeter

CH3 CH3

Nuclear arms are the newest type of chemical warfare. When atoms split, a

enormous detonation occurs, raising the temperature of the immediate country to about one

million grades Fahrenheit in less than one 2nd. Everything close by is immediately vaporized, and

a immense blast beckon expands out from the epicentre of the detonation. Intense radiation from the

blast can do harm to the Deoxyribonucleic acid of an being and improper cell mitosis. Nuclear bomb or

radioactive dust victims can hold terrible radiation Burnss, mutants, asepsis in work forces, and birth defects in

pregnant adult females.

Biological warfare is possibly the most lifelessly of chemical warfare methods. Biological

warfare, or source warfare, is the usage of micro-organisms, viruses, or the toxins they produce to

cause disease and decease of enemy soldiers, civilians, animate beings, or harvests. Biological warfare can be

more dangerou

s than other arms because one time the disease is caught by one individual it may be

spread to others, therefore go oning to be effectual long after the original sample has been exposed.

One of the more popular biological arms is Anthrax. There are two major types of

Anthrax. The less unsafe type lives in the dirt and can be contracted by worlds when

managing septic cowss or sheep. This signifier of Anthrax can do sickness and unwellness. The more

serious signifier of Anthrax is airborne and can be easy dropped from aeroplanes. When inhaled, it

causes cardiac and respiratory apprehension and immediate decease.

Viruss can besides be used as chemical arms. Poxviridae, the variola virus, exists

today in merely two topographic points on this planet. One topographic point is a deep-freeze in a lab in the United States. The

other is a deep-freeze in a lab in Russia. Each side wants to wholly stop the menace of variola.

nevertheless, each side holds the same fright: Equally shortly as they destroy their strain of variola, the

other will assail with Poxviridae and get the better of their state. Therefore, each side still has their ain

small biological arm. This is an illustration of the complicity of complete chemical arm

censoring. Everyone frights that if they give up their arms, they will merely be overtaken by

another state? s arms.

The construct of chemical warfare is non a new one. For centuries, states have used

chemical and biological agents to derive an advantage over their enemies. The antediluvian Spartans

used pitch and S. In mediaeval times, soldiers would catapult the organic structures of pestilence victims

over the walls or throw them into the Wellss of their enemies. During the Gallic and Indian Wars,

American settlers handed out covers used by variola victims to enemy Native Americans.

The disease dispersed rapidly among the Indians who had ne’er been exposed to European disease.

Chemical warfare was foremost widely used in World War I. In 1915 at Ypres, France, the

Germans released Chlorine gas toward the British and Gallic lines. This started the development

and usage of many toxic chemical agents by both sides in the war. By 1917, the Germans were

utilizing lifelessly nervus gas and Mustard Gas. Gas masks became the most of import piece of

equipment a soldier owned, following to his gun.

In the past one-fourth of a century, people have begun to recognize the horror of chemical

warfare. In 1972, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 68 other states signed the Biological

Weapons Convention. In subscribing the BWC, these states pledged to discontinue development and

production of chemical arms and destruct all of their existing chemical and biological agents.

The statement was made that those arms killed excessively many people.

Today President Clinton is working hard to criminalize the usage, production, and ownership of

chemical arms. A pact was completed in 1992 and opened for signature in January 1993.

As of November 18, 1997, 168 states have signed the Convention and 105 have ratified it.

The job of chemical warfare may ne’er be solved. Each side fears that if they give up

their research and supply of arms, they are merely unfastened to an onslaught by a state with chemical

arms. With the fright of Iraq? s arm supply, this is genuinely a job today. Due to the violent

nature and mass devastation of these arms, they pose a great menace to everyone. We must

work harder to wholly censor chemical arm production and usage.

George Daws

Bibliography

1. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.heritage.org/heritage/library/categories/natsec/bg990.html

2. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.mitretek.org/offer/energy/cw.page/cwagent.html

3. hypertext transfer protocol: //www.opcw.nl/guide.html

4. The Poisonous Cloud: Chemical Warfare in the First World War. Haber, L.F. UG447.H255. 1986.