Chemical incapacitating agents

Wal, A. van de, Jr. 1962 A Compilation of Preliminary Toxicologic-Pharmacologic Information on Suggested Incapacitating Agents. Chemical Research and Development Laboratories Technical Report 3147. 

Currently, there is no information on performance testing of chemical protective clothing against incapacitating agent. 

While the term incapacitating agent seems to have first appeared in the 20th century, the concept is extremely old. Not only have armies used chemical weapons against both enemy troops and civilians, but criminals have also employed chemical agents to simplify robberies or to buy extra time necessary to carry out complex illegal activities. 

Had the Chemical Corps not already decided to make BZ the standard incapacitating agent (approved for weaponizing) it is likely that it would have chosen either EA 3443 or EA 3580. The choice would probably depend mostly on whether a duration of 1-2 days or 3 4 days was preferable. 

In addition, Meselson was a member of the NAE Committee on Alternative Chemical Demilitarization Technologies and the Advisory Panel on the Chemical Research, Development and Engineering Center. I decided to write to him, and composed a two-page letter pointing out that he and I were approximately the same age, and had similar Ivy League educations. I wondered why we had reached such different views on the topic of chemical warfare, especially about incapacitating agents, which were intended to reduce wartime casualties. 

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. 

Chemical Weapons Chemical weapons are categorized as nerve, blood, blister, and incapacitating agents. Contrary to the hype of reporters and politicians, they are not weapons of mass destruction they are area denial, and terror weapons that don t destroy anything. When you leave the area you almost always leave the risk. That s the difference you can leave the area and the risk, but soldiers may have to stay put and sit through it and that s why they need all that spiffy gear. 

The ban on the use of chemical weapons, as codified in the 1925 Geneva Protocol, was considered to constitute international law, applicable to all states. Yugoslavia had ratified the protocol and at no time indicated any desire to repudiate its treaty obligations. In earlier years certain countries, including the United States which used massive quantities of tear gas in the Vietnam War, maintained the protocol did not ban the use of riot control agents. However, incapacitating agents, like BZ, were not included in this apparent exception. 

Ketchum, J.S., Sidell, F.R. (1997). Incapacitating agents. In Textbook of Military Medicine, Warfare, Weaponry, and the Causality Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare, Part I, pp. 287-306. The Office of the Surgeon General and TMM Publications. Borden Institute, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington DC. 

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