A History of Chemical Weapons: Agents, Effects, and Treatments

1. Chemical weapons

2. Chemical weapons definition A substance , such as a poisonous gas rather than an explosive ,which can be used to kill or injure people.

3. Use of chemical weapons in the 20th century • 1914-8: Over 1300000 people receive gas injuries in first world war, and over 90000 of them die • 1935: Italy begins conquest of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) using mustard gas delivered by aircraft spray • 1936: Japan invades China using chemical weapons (including mustard gas, phosgene, and hydrogen cyanide • 1963-7: Egypt uses phosgene and mustard aerial bombs in support of South Yemen against the Yemeni royalist forces during the Yemeni civil war • 1980-8: Iraq attacks Iran and Iraqi Kurds during Iran-Iraq war using mustard and nerve agents • 1994-5: Japanese uses sarin in terrorist attacks at Matsumoto in June 1994 and on the Tokyo underground in March 1995

4. History of chemical weapons • The first large-scale use of chemical weapons, in the modern era, occurred during World War I, on battlefields near Ieper, Belgium. In the course of that war, 100,000 tonnesof toxic chemicals, such as chlorine, mustard gas and phosgene, were deployed against soldiers and civilians, resulting in about 90,000 deaths and over a million casualties

5. Chemical warfare agents • Chemical Agents • Chemicals used in military operations to kill, injure, or incapacitate • Incapacitating vs. Lethal • Local vs. Systemic effects

6. Routes of entry • Ingestion • Eyes • Respiratory Tract • Injection • Skin

7. The chemical agents • Nerve Agents • Blister Agents

9. Nerve agents The most toxic of all weaponized military agents • They are liquids, not “gas” • Stored and transported in liquid state

10. Nerve agents physiology • Inhibits the enzyme that breaks down Acetylcholine (neurotransmitter) • Causes Hyper stimulation of organs of cholinergic nervous system • Muscarinic-smooth muscles and glands • Nicotinic—Skeletal muscles, ganglions

12. Nerve agents : treatment • Antidotes Atropine,2-Pam • Decontaminate

13. atropine • Dries secretions, relaxes smooth muscle • May cause cardiac arrhythmias • Starting dose = 2 mg, max dose 20 mg • Don’t rely on heart rate/pupil size

14. Pralidoxime chloride • Removes nerve agent from AChE in absence • “Aging”= the bond between enzyme and nerve agent. • Usually enough time to prevent aging before bond is permanent (2 minutes)

15. Mark 1 kits • Nerve agent antidote medications are only given if patient is showing signs and symptoms of nerve agent poisoning. THEY ARE NOT TO BE GIVEN PROHPHYLACTICALLY • Bronchospasm and respiratory secretions are the best indicators of need for atropine and 2-PAM therapy

16. Vesicants (blister agents) • Chemicals that cause redness and blistering • of the skin • Military Vesicants • Sulfur Mustard

17. mustard • Vapor and Liquid Threat • Topical eye, skin, and airway damage; • causes extensive blistering Treatment is symptomatic

18. Onset of mustard symptoms • Chemical cell damage —1-2 minutes • Clinical effects: 2-48 hours, usually 4 to 8 hours

19. How mustard works ? • Quickly cyclizes in tissue • DNA damage, cell death • May affect eyes, skin, and respiratory tract • Very similar to radiation poisoning.

20. G 1 effects of mustard • Within 24 hours: Nausea/vomiting; • After 3 to 5 days: Tissue destruction

21. Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) • The convention is administered by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which acts as the legal platform for specification of the CWC provisions (the Conference of State Parties is mandated to change the CWC, pass regulations on implementation of CWC requirements etc.). The organisations furthermore conducts inspections at military and industrial plants to ensure compliance of member states.

23. references www.catawbacountync.gov And Wikipedia.org