Mustard lethality

The interplay between the chemical and biological properties of the threat agent, on the one hand, and the specific attack scenario, on the other, can influence the lethality of the attack. Table 2-2 shows the relative respiratory toxicities (expressed as the lethal concentration of toxin at which 50 percent of test animals are killed, or LCT50, in milligrams per minute per cubic meter) of a variety of toxic gases compared with chlorine gas, which was used as a chemical weapon in World War I. According to Table 2-2, the nerve agent sarin (GB) has a respiratory toxicity approximately 100 times that of chlorine, while sulfur mustard (HD) is about 7 times more toxic. However, the lethality of an attack... 

Material Safety Data Sheet Lethal Nerve Agents Sulfur Mustards... 

Like many other Irritants, PS has not been tested thoroughly for mutagenicity. However, in one early study, Auerbach tested its capacity to Induce sex-linked recessive lethal mutations In the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. In all broods of flies derived from PS-treated males, the mutation frequencies were consistent with those of untreated laboratory stocks. A total of 4,454 chromosomes were tested, and the mutation frequency was 0.2%. In contrast, flies treated with mustard gas had a frequency of 5.2%. 

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. 

Among the most biologically reactive alkylating agents are the nitrogen and sulfur "mustards" such as bis-(2-chloroethyl)sulfide. These toxic bifunctional compounds cause lethal crosslinking of DNA chains... 

Sulfur mustards (designated H [mustard], HD [distilled mustard], and HT [HD and T mixture]) do not present acute lethal hazards. Their principal effect is severe blistering of the skin and mucous membranes. Epidemiological evidence indicates a causal relationship between exposure to mustard agent at high concentrations and the development of chronic nonreversible respiratory disorders, such as chronic bronchitis and asthma, and ocular diseases, such as delayed recurrent keratitis and prolonged, intractable conjunctivitis (IOM, 1993). Sulfur mustard has been classified as a known human carcinogen based on evidence of in-... 

No doubt the British government had some scruples about the use of gas, and certainly by 1940 was well aware that in fact high explosive was a much more effective killer than any of the gases available to them. This was not the case in Germany. Starting in 1940 two new works were built, at Dyhernfurth and Gendorf, to exclusively produce mustard gas and the new lethal nerve agents, tabun and sarin.6... 

The first definitive studies were performed in Britain during World War II by Charlotte Auerbach.19 After the observation that injuries from war gases resembled x-ray burns, Auerbach demonstrated unequivocally that mustard gas induced sex-linked recessive lethal mutations in Drosophila. At about the same time, I. A. Rapoport361 independently reported that several other chemicals induced gene mutations and chromosomal aberrations. Their work ushered in the era of chemical studies of mutation, and within a few years a large number of chemical mutagens had been identified. 

Some agents such as mustard gas (blister agent) and VX (the most lethal nerve agent ever produced for weaponization) are also persistent, meaning they present severe, long-term contamination hazards. Because these can act topically, secondary contact... 

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