Against Toxin Weapons

Toxins Compared With Chemical Warfare Agents Toxicity, Ease of Production, and Stability Sources of Toxins and Their Mechanisms of Action Mechanisms of Action and the Development of Countermeasures Populations at Risk 

COUNTERMEASURES Physical Protection Real-Time Detection of an Attack Diagnosis General Considerations Approaches to Prevention and Treatment Decontamination and Protection of Medical Personnel Sample Collection General Rules for Toxins Toxin Analysis and Identification Water Treatment 

Colonel, Veterinary Corps, U.S. Army Commander, U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland 21702-5011 

Some of the toxins described in the chapters that follow have been identified by the intelligence community as biological warfare threats. The likely route of intoxication for soldiers or victims of 

The purpose of this chapter is to introduce toxins and describe their physical and biochemical characteristics, and the implications for medical defense, in the context of the clearly defined, and 

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Franz, David R. Defense Against Toxin Weapons. Rev. ed. Fort Detrick, MD United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, 1997. 

Franc, D.R., Defense against Toxin Weapons, U.S. Army Medical Research Command, USAMRIID, Fort Detrick, MD, 1997. 

Franz, D.R. (1997). Defense against toxin weapons. In Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Weapons (Textbook of Military Medicine series. Warfare, Weaponry, and the Casualty, Part I, 1st edition (R. Zajtchuk, ed.), pp. 603-19. Borden Institute, Washington, DC. 

Franz, D. R. Defense against toxin weapons, in Textbook of Military Medicine Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare, 1994. http //www.usamriid.army.mil/education/defensetox/ toxdefbook.pdf. Accessed 2 June, 2005. 

Millard, C.B. (2005) Medical defense against protein toxin weapons review and perspective, in Lindler, L.E., Lebeda, F.J. and Korch, G.W. (Eds.) Biological Weapons Defense Infectious Diseases and Counterbioterrorism, Totowa, NJ, Humana Press. 

Norqvist A (1995). Covert use of bioterrorism and toxin weapons—For what purpose Proc. 5th International Symposium Protection Against CB Warfare Agents, Stockholm, Sweden, pp. 367-372. 

Although the threat of toxin weapons of the future is formidable, the prospect of new and better medical countermeasures is brighter than ever before. Biotechnology may have more value to those of us who are developing countermeasures than to those who would use toxins maliciously. Molecular biological techniques that have been developed in the last few years now allow us to produce more-effective and less-expensive vaccines against the protein and peptide toxins. Such vaccines will likely... 

Advocates of the treaty forecast that an immense array of benefits would flow from an international agreement in Geneva. They contended that a treaty would bolster the Geneva Protocol and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, establish legal norms against the development, production, stockpiling, transfer and retention of chemical weapons. 

This selective toxicity of the larvae s weapon suggests practical applications. Western subterranean termites are economically significant pests, considered to be the most destructive of all California termites. A pesticide directed specifically against them and harmless to other creatures would be environmentally friendly and extremely useful. Exterminators could rid a house of termites without endangering the residents or destroying beneficial insects. The chemical nature of this toxin is still unknown. We can only wonder what substance can rapidly paralyze one kind of termite and leave other insects unscathed. 

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