Blisters mustard

Delayed-acting chemical Sulfur mustard Blistering, redness, swelling 2 to 24 hours... 

The two general categories of concern are nerve agent and mustard-blister agents. The nerve agents are organophosphate chemicals. The mustard-blister agents, also called vesicants, are systemic poisons,... 

Self-taped turnout gear with SCBA provides sufficient protection in an unknown nerve agent environment for a three-minute reconnaissance to search for living victimsJlpr a two-minute reconnaissance if HD (mustard, blister agent) is suspected. ... 

One of the doctors asked me to participate in a test he was carrying out. He had a bottle with a small amount of mustard gas in it, dissolved in some solvent. He put one drop on my left arm and told me to record what happened over the next several days. A hemispherical blister formed over an area about the size of a silver dollar. It was painless, and the stretched skin was smooth and tight. After a few days the blister dried and cracked releasing fluid, the skin came off, and there was a sore for many days. The sore healed, but even now, year 2001, I have a constellation of small red spots on my arm where the mustard blister had been. 

Blistering. The appearance of the blisters has been described above. Blisters are not painful per se, although may be uncomfortable and may feel tense. Blisters at points of flexure, anterior aspects of elbows and posterior aspects of knees can seriously impede movement. Mustard blisters are delicate and may be easily rubbed off by contact with bed linen, bandages or during transport of casualties. Crops of new blisters may appear as... 

Several studies 29 31 32 55 support the observation that intact or active mustard is not present in tissue or biological fluids after a few minutes. Occluding the blood supply to areas of the intestinal tract or to selected bone marrow for a few minutes protected these organs from the effects of a lethal amount of intravenously administered mustard. Approximately 85% of S-labeled mustard36 disappeared from the blood of humans after several minutes,56 and the half-life for intravenously administered mustard to disappear from the blood of piglets was about 2 minutes.57 Mustard blister fluid did not produce a reaction when instilled into the eyes... 

In 2004, a homeowner in the US state of Delaware noticed an object in his clamshell driveway which turned out to be a 75 mm artillery round (clam shells are commercially dredged partly for use as filler for driveways to homes in the region). An air force explosive ordnance disposal unit removed the shell and detonated it. Believing that it was conventional explosive round, the unit was somewhat surprised by the shell s weak explosion. The unit also noticed the presence of a dark liquid the colour of coffee surrounding the remnants of the shell. However, the unit did not consider that the shell might have been a chemical round until one of the members woke up in his home several hours later because of a severe and deep burning sensation. Classical sulphur mustard blisters soon formed and the samples taken from the fluid of the blisters confirmed that the person had been exposed to sulphur mustard. The shell had originally been dumped by the US off the east coast. 

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