Physical incapacitating agents

You may find the accompanying student pages sufficient to provoke discussion about the wisdom of using nonlethal physically incapacitating agents in war and in police work. The following questions could stimulate deeper thinking on the issue. 

Incapacitants. Incapacitating agents, or incapacitants, are just what the name implies. In wartime, soldiers and civiUans must be physiologically, physically, and mentally able to perform their jobs. Thus, an agent rendering an individual incapable of job performance may be classified as an incapacitating agent (6,7). 

Varies according to the type of incapacitating agent. Care must be taken in that many signs and symptoms associated with exposure to incapacitating agents are also associated with anxiety or physical trauma. Potential indications of exposure include apprehension,... 

Until 1961, all volunteer testing took place on this ward in the annex. Psychology technicians assisted the physicians. By 1962, registered nurses were hired and an adjacent ward housed volunteers undergoing testing with incapacitating agents such as BZ and LSD. Later, padded areas provided much better physical safety. 

A standard military classification of CW agents refers to cyanides as lethal blood agents HCN is coded AC (HMSO, 1987 Maynard, 1999). In the context of CW operational situations, cyanide is likely to be dispersed atmospherically and would be used for either low-concentration mental and physical incapacitations or high-concentration lethal objectives. For the former, it is well known that exposure to HCN vapor produces a disturbance of consciousness and perception, and combined with muscle weakness and ataxia would cause mental and physical incapacitation of troops and a... 

The traditional emphasis of defence research in the area of nerve agents has, understandably, focused on the prevention or mitigation of the effects of exposure to doses that induce lethality or severe physical incapacitation. In consequence, relatively little attention has been paid to the effects of lower doses. 

Incapacitating agents are designed to induce physical disability or mental disorientation. LSD (a form of lysergic acid) and BZ (3-quinuclidinyl benzilate) are two examples. The United States investigated potential military uses of LSD. It also weaponized BZ, which can cause constipation, headaches, hallucinations, and slowing of mental thought processes (the US s BZ stockpile, located at Pine Bluff Arsenal, Arkansas, was incinerated in May 1988-Sep. 1989). 

---