Vesicant agents mustard

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. 

Mechlorethamine [me klor ETH a meen] was developed as a vesicant (nitrogen mustard) during World War I. Its ability to cause lymphocytopenia led to its use in lymphatic cancers. Because it can bind and react at two separate sites, it is called a bifunctional agent. ... 

The USA has disposed of stockpiles of sulfur mustard at sea. Fisherman or boaters who come across discarded canisters, leaky from sitting in salt water, unknowingly have become exposed. In treating these exposures, if the vesicant is pervasive, it is important to decontaminate in a prehospital setting, and have health care providers wear appropriate personal care protection. Latex gloves are not sufficient - butyl rubber is needed. Health care workers do not need to fear the patient s blisters, since these do not contain the vesicating agent. 

Sulfur mustard is a blistering or vesicating agent that primarily incurs damage at the organs that come into immediate contact with either its liquid or vaporous form. However, severe dermal and respiratory exposure to the agent may also result in the absorption of sulfur mustard that subsequently causes additional systemic damage (Kehe and Szinicz, 2005). 

Lewisite (2-chlorvinyldichlorarsin) is another vesicant agent. Unlike sulfur mustard, there has never been a documented use in armed conflict. It was first synthesized and described by the Belgian priest and chemist Julius Arthur Nieuwland (Nieuwland, 1904). During World War I, the US military chemist Winford Lee Lewis suggested and initiated its development into a chemical weapon, which due to the 1918 armistice in Europe was not used on the battlefield (Vilensky and Redman, 2003). 

IV. VESICATING AGENTS (DISTILLED SULEUR MUSTARD, HD IMPURE SULFUR MUSTARD, H LEWISITE, L)... 

Vesicant Agents Nitrogen and Sulfur Mustards, Lewisite, and Mustard-Lewisite Mixture... 

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