Brief History of Biological and Chemical Warfare

Melnick (ed.), Biological, Chemical, and Radiological Terrorism. Springer 2008 

Soviet Union research began earlier, in 1928 with typhus. Following World War II, the Soviet Union expanded its research efforts after obtaining Japanese biological and chemical weapon research data (1). At its peak, the Soviet military biological research division, the Biopreparat, employed up to 55,000 microbiologists, physicians, engineers and nontechnical personnel (1,2). 

By the final two decades of the twentieth century, individuals and small groups learned how to obtain and use biological and chemical weapons effectively. The tamper resistant pharmaceutical packaging we are familiar with today is a consequence of the intentional contamination of Extra Strength Tylenol capsules with cyanide (1). The first documented case of domestic biological terrorism occurred in Oregon in 1984, when a religious cult, the Rajneesh commune, sprinkled 

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