Chemical warfare incapacitating agents, irritant

Many countries voted against the use of chemicals as weapons and signed the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gas, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare in 1925 at Geneva. Meanwhile, however, the development of poisonous chemicals to kill, incapacitate, or irritate enemy soldiers continued. During World War n, nerve agents such as tabun and... 

For the purposes of this chapter, "chemical warfare agent" (CWA) is used as a fairly comprehensive term to refer to a diverse group of toxicants commonly discussed within the context of chemical incapacitation for crowd control during riots or death or incapacitation associated with military use or terrorism. The lachrymatory and irritant riot control agents include a-chlorbenzylidene malonitrile (CS), dibenz b,f)-VA oxazepine (CR), w-chloroacetophenone (CN), and oleoresin of capsicum (OC pepper spray) (Salem et al., 2008a). The CWAs... 

The use of phosgene gas by both sides continued for the rest of the war and caused the most fatalities from chemical warfare agents. Because of its lower water solubility compared with chlorine, phosgene was found to be more effective in producing a late onset of pulmonary oedema at lower concentrations. It was therefore more toxic than chlorine. It also caused immediate incapacitation due to its short latency upper respiratory tract actions ( irritant or choking ). 

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