Poisons mustard gases

Alkyl sulphides are the sulphur analogues of ethers from which they differ considerably in chemistry. They are unpleasant-smelling oils, insoluble in water but soluble in organic solvents. They tend to be comparatively inert. Mustard gas, CICH2CH2—S—CH2CH2CI, an oily liquid boiling at 216°C with a mustard-like smell, is highly poisonous and a vesicant, and for this reason found use in chemical warfare. 

Another time a friend insisted I go to an appointment she d made for me to see some kind of healer. Not knowing what I was getting into, I went and told the woman what had happened to me. What she told me was the most absurd thing I d ever heard in my life. She said, It s obvious that what has happened to you is that your exposure to the poison paint triggered memories of your most recent life when you were poisoned by mustard gas in World War I in the trenches of France. ... 

But if we accept that plutonium is chemically toxic, then we must also recognize that the extent of its toxicity will depend on how the plutonium is bonded chemically, i.e. in what redox and chemical form it is present. As an example, note how soldiers were poisoned with chlorine gas during the First World War (when it was called Mustard Gas), but chloride in table salt is vital for life. Some plutonium compounds are more toxic than others. 

Case RAM, Lea AJ Mustard gas poisoning, chronic bronchitis and lung cancer. An investigation into the possibility that poisoning by mustard gas in the 1914-18 war might be a factor in the production of neoplasia. Br J Prev Soc Med 9 62-72, 1955... 

Yamada A, Hirose F, Nagai M, et al Five cases of cancer of the larynx found in persons who suffered from occupational mustard gas poisoning. Gann 48 366-368, 1957... 

Mustard gas is not only a vesicant, but also a systemic poison. Its a ute effects have been demonstrated in bone marrow, intestinal tract, and respiratory tract. It can cause blindness and permanent... 

In one of the final Allied chemical assaults of the First World War the British fired mustard gas into German positions at Wervick in Belgium. One of the injured was a corporal by the name of Adolf Hitler who was evacuated back to Germany burned and temporarily blinded. As a result of that experience, Hitler developed a distaste for the use of poison gas on the battlefield. The experience of this German corporal would, in turn, shape the events of another world war 20 years later. 

As with chemical weapons ingredients, the chemical equipment needed to make chemical warfare agents is commercially available just about anywhere. Certainly, to set up a full-scale poison gas production line, terrorists would need reactors and agitators, chemical storage tanks, containers, receivers, condensers for temperature control, distillation columns to separate chemical compounds, valves and pumps to move chemicals between reactors and other containers. Additionally, ideally the equipment would be corrosion-resistant. For a full-scale mustard gas production plant the price tag would be between 2.5 and 5 million. Approximately 10 million would be required to set up a plant to manufacture tabun, sarin or soman.47 Terrorists, however, can be assumed to forego the scale and the safety precautions that most governments would consider essential for a weapons programme. In fact, standard process equipment or a laboratory set-up of beakers and... 

Historical accounts of military conflicts since the First World War lead us to believe that the use of chemical weapons was non-existent for legal or ethical reasons, or for fear of retaliation. Matthew Meselson, a noted biochemist, stated, There have been only two instances of verified poison gas warfare since 1925. .. in Ethiopia and Yemen. 5 However, a preponderance of evidence exists to indicate that there have been numerous instances of chemical warfare use in military conflicts since 1918. In 1919, in India, stocks of phosgene and mustard gas were sent out from Britain for use on the frontier, and the Royal Air Force (RAF) is alleged to have used gas bombs against the Afghans in 1920. By 1925 the French and Spanish were employing poison gas in Morocco, and it had become clear that chemical warfare had found a new role, as a tool by which major powers could police rebellious territories. 

Chlorine is by far the most useful of the elements of the halogen family. This fact becomes evident when one learns that the annual production of chlorine in the United States alone amounts to approximately 250,000 tons. Much of this chlorine is used in the bleaching of fabrics, wood pulp, and so forth. Considerable quantities of this element are used in treating water supplies for the purpose of destroying harmful bacteria. Many of the poisonous gases used in the world wars were chlorine compounds, such as mustard gas [(C1C2H4)2S], chloropicrin... 

Mustard gas, Cl—CH2CH2 — S —CH2CH2—Cl, was used as a poisonous chemical agent in World War I. Mustard gas is much more toxic than a typical primary alkyl chloride. Its toxicity stems from its ability to alkylate amino groups on important metabolic enzymes, rendering the enzymes inactive. 

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