Mustard agents

Vesicant agents, such as mustard, require no special treatment once the bums have occurred. Copious washing is quite effective when used early for Hquid contamination of the eyes, and soap and water removes the Hquid agent from the skin. Bums resulting from mustard agent are treated like any other severe bum. The pulmonary injuries are treated symptomatically antibiotics are used only if indicated for the control of infection. 

Appearance Mustard agent liquid is colorless when pure, but it is normally a yellow to brown oily substance. 

Odor Mustard agent vapor is colorless with a slight garlic- or mustard-like odor. 

Blister Agents Sulfur Mustard Agent H / HD and Sulfur Mustard Agent HT ToxFAQs." April... 

Detailed Facts About Sulfur Mustard Agents H and HD. Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD United... 

Exposure to high concentrations of aerosolized agent can cause severe skin irritation and even produce blistering similar to mustard agents (C03-C05). 

Keywords decontamination efficiency, mustard agent, desorption, camouflage clothing... 

As objects of research samples of camouflage textile material with dimensions 20x50 mm were used. For contamination of the samples we used mustard agent (P,P -dichloroethyl sulphide) with a purity of 95,6 %. Contamination was accomplished with a special dropper (figure 1) resulting in a weight of the droplets of 0,5.10"6 kg and a density on the test material of 5.10"3kg/m2. 

Extraction of mustard agent from the samples was realized with ethyl alcohol. The remains of the toxic substance in samples were determined with the spectrophotometer SPECOL according to the thymolphtalein reaction [1, 2] with preliminarily made calibration curve. 

Evaporation of the mustard agent was performed in desorbers (fig. 2) mounted in thermal chamber (fig. 3). 

Quantitative determination of evaporated and residual quantities mustard agent depending on temperature and time ... 

Figure 4. Kinetics of evaporation of mustard agent from camouflage garment according to the time and temperature. Exposition of contamination of the samples 3600 s. Velocity of airflow 5 l/min.

Cotton textile material and used dyes for painting contain a lot of such bonds and groups and probably create hydrogen and other chemical bonds with mustard agent. According to reference [3] remained toxic substances bonded chemically samples do not exert influence on the physiological condition of the organism. 

After the decontamination process not the whole amount of the mustard agent is decontaminated and 2-3% of the preliminary quantity remains bonded to textile. Comparing both evaporation and decontamination the temperature has a significant influence on the kinetics of the process. At of 60°C mustard agent is not fully decontaminated in the researched period of time. 

Thioether. Mustard agent received its name because of garlic, horseradish, or mustard odor that can be detected by smell. The human nose can detect mustard (H, HD) in concentrations of 0.6 to 1.0 mg/m3. It must be understood that until recently, the U.S. military had no automatic vapor/liquid detection capability. Therefore, alert soldiers would most likely smell the agent vapor before encountering the liquid (after release, H or HD appears as a thick, colorless or pale yellow liquid HL, or mustard/lewisite mixture, appears as a dark oily cloud that can be detected visually). 

Dermal (skin) contact with sulfur mustard agents causes erythema and lesions (blistering), while contact with vapor may result in first and second degree burns contact with liquid typically produces second and third degree chemical burns. Any burn area covering 25 percent or more of the body surface area may be fatal. Respiratory contact is a dose-related factor in the sense that inflammatory reactions in the upper and lower airway begin to develop several hours after exposure and progress over several days. 

Medical Management There is no known antidote for mustard exposure, and the process of cellular destruction is irreversible. It is essential to remove the mustard agent as quickly as possible. Vesicants rapidly penetrate the skin causing both localized cellular damage and systemic damage. The deadly nature of such agents effect is that a person... 

Arsenicals A category of blister agents in which arsenic is the central atom. Although more volatile than mustard agents, they are much more dangerous as liquids than as vapors. 

Automatic Continuous Air Monitoring System (ACAMS) This system can detect G agents, VX, or mustard agents at very low levels. It is an automatic gas chromatograph that first collects agent on a solid sorbent and then thermally desorbs the agents into a separation column for analysis. 

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