Chemical agents lethality

Most chemical agents are essentially cumulative in their effects. The reason is that the human body detoxifies them very slowly or not at all. For example, a 1-h exposure to HD or CG followed within a few hours by another 1-h exposure has about the same effect as a single 2-h exposure. Continued exposure to low concentrations of HD may cause sensitivity to very low concentrations of HD. Other chemical agents also have cumulative effects. For example, an initial exposure to a small (less than lethal) amount of Sarin (GB) would decrease cholinesterase levels a second quantity less than the FDS0... 

In 1996, persuaded by the public opposition in Lexington, Kentucky, and Pueblo, Colorado, Congress enacted Public Law 104-201, which instructed the Department of Defense (DoD) to conduct an assessment of the chemical demilitarization program for destruction of assembled chemical munitions and of the alternative demilitarization technologies and processes (other than incineration) that could be used for the destruction of the lethal chemical agents that are associated with these munitions. The Army established a... 

Lynn Klotz, Martin Furmanski, and Mark Wheelis don t think so. In an article on the Internet, titled Beware the Siren s Song Non-Lethal Agents are not Non-Lethal, they draw some conclusions that I contest. For example, they assert that to be conservative, we should compare the dose of a drug required to incapacitate 99% of the target population with the dose that would cause death in 1%. They present a mathematical model that assumes the likelihood of incapacitation to be equal to the percentage of nerve cell receptors occupied by the chemical agent. 

Reliable knowledge of the typical effects of a chemical agent over a range of dosage, and under various conditions, provides the basis for rational preventive or remedial measures. Undeniably, this information may also be useful in designing weapons. On the other hand, the development of relatively safe incapacitating agents may pave the way to methods to battle enemy forces with a minimum of lethal outcomes. Many risks, many choices, and many ways to interpret benefits are all parts of a complex equation. 

Song Why Non-Lethal Chemical Agents are Lethal. Federation of American Scientists Chemical and Biological Arms Control Program, March 2003... 

The toxic effect produced by a chemical agent on a susceptible organism depends on the nature and magnitude of its interactions with the vital processes which it disrupts (which may be termed its intrinsic toxicity) and on the amounts which reach the sites of interaction. Both these determinants of toxic effect are expressions of biophysical and physico-chemical factors. The effectiveness of the lethal interaction which is equivalent to the intrinsic toxicity... 

Rapid advances in chemistry during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, coupled with the success of mustard gas as a toxic weapon in World War I, attracted attention to the warfare potential of chemical agents. This led to support for research on lethal nerve agents during and immediately after World War II. The research was followed by the development of treatment methods, and prominent among these was the use of cholinesterase reactivators to reverse the lethal effects of anticholinesterase nerve gases. 

Nerve agents Highly toxic and potentially lethal chemical agents that affect the human nervous system by inhibiting the enzyme that aids the transmission of nerve impulses. Causes blurred vision, weeping, nausea, vomiting, urinary incontinence, respiratory distress, and reduced mental capability by attacking the nervous system. 

Inherent potential or capacity of a chemical agent which specifically affects cells having immune functions (e.g., heavy metals can intoxicate bivalve hemocytes and impede them from ingesting and lysing pathogenic micro-organisms which can lead to either sub-lethal or lethal infections). Volume 2(1). 

At the same time as they experimented with more lethal chemical agents, both sides worked to develop more effective methods of agent delivery. Gas cloud attacks relied on the wind in the absence of wind or if the wind blew from the wrong direction, gas cylinders were useless. 

There are two points that emerge from these chapters that are worth drawing brief attention to here. First, it is clear that in those rare cases since the First World War when chemical weapons have been used on a substantial scale, it has always been against an enemy known to be deficient in anti-gas protective equipment or retaliatory capability. Second, in all substantiated cases of chemical warfare during the twentieth century, the employment of chemical irritants, such as tear gas, has always preceded the resort to more lethal chemical agents. This is true for the First World War, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, the Japanese invasion of China and the Yemeni Civil War. In Vietnam, where irritants were used on a scale approaching that of the First World War, the reports of uses of more lethal chemicals remain unsubstantiated. These points seem to... 

Fortitude save as normal. These grenades may be loaded with any chemical agent, but the most popular contain a simple knockout drag and are used by police to deal with large crowds without the need for lethal force. More exotic or lethal chemicals raise the purchase DC by 5 or more, at the GO.D. s discretion. The purchase DC is for a box of six grenades. 

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