Crossposted at http://Politicook.net
This will conclude the overview part of chemical weapons. Once again, I focus only on the ones that have been developed and stockpiled by primarily the United States and the Soviet Union.
Most of the information here is about really scary agents, the nerve agents, but there was or is an inventory of other agents, and a considerable amount is in the hands of the civil authorities.
If I seen distracted, I am watching the VH1 salute to THE WHO (shouting intentional).
Before we get to the really frightening materials, there are three classes of agents considered nonlethal, and they were purportedly developed to reduce causalities. They are the sternutators, the lachrymators, and the bizarre agent called BZ, a mind drug.
Sternutators are designed to cause projectile vomiting. Another nasty feature about them is that they are not well filtered by many protective masks, and vomiting into your mask, once you inhale, kills you by a form of pneumonia.
The most well know one is Adamsite, or DM in Army lingo.
Notice that is also an arsenic-containing material. Like all modern chemical weapons, it is not a gas at normal conditions, but in this case a solid. There are other sternutators, but all have pretty much the same effect: nasal itching, profuse discharge, and finally projectile vomiting. These agents are obsolete, but were produced in quantity after World War I.
The next class are the lacrymators, and these are common even today. They are commonly known as "tear gas", although the are solids dispersed by heat, and so not a gas. Does the refrain that true gases are not very good chemical agents? It should. Here is the structure of CS, also called Mace, the most common one.
I can tell you from personal experience that these materials HURT! I was initially hired to try to reverse engineer CS back to its starting materials as an alternative to incineration, and even using a glove box and fume hood cried at times. The reverse engineering did work, but cost more than the products were worth, so the effort was abandoned. The obsolete stocks were all incinerated, but CS is the material of choice for police, the military, and even civilian crowd control. Note the two CN groups on the molecule. Those are cyanide, and the material is toxic. Fortunately, it is so irritating that most people get away from it before the cyanide takes effect.
A really bizarre material is BZ, one of the "mind" agents. It was discovered by the same guy that gave us Valium in the late 1950's. it is referred to as a disorientation agent, since it makes you nuts. Here is its structure:
This material makes you crazy, by interrupting neural transmissions. Delusions are the norm, and hallucinations are not unheard of. It is like atropine on steroids. BZ has the property of pretty much completely decoupling the mind from the body. I personally have seen a person who was accidentally dosed, and he did not come back from across the void for over a week. It also makes you feel very warm, because it inhibits sweating, so most people exposed strip naked, which could be life threatening depending on the environment. Taking off protective gear could also be dangerous. BZ stockpiles have all been destroyed. You are welcome.
But these are not the worst of the worst. The so called "nerve gases" are by far the worst. There are two kinds, but both work the same way.
One of your most important neurotransmitters is acetylcholine. It is released, for instance, from parasympathetic neurons to communicate with others. These nerve impulses control your life giving actions, like breathing and other serious body controls, like muscle control and water regulation. Get a whiff of a nerve agent, and you will most likely die. The first symptom is pinpoint pupils, then uncontrollable muscle cramps, then the dumping of your bladder and colon. Then you curl up into a ball, twitching uncontrollably until you can not breathe any more. This, with sufficient dosage, happens in minutes. Seconds, if IV, as the Germans determined. Brain damage is likely if you survive.
There are two series of nerve agents, the G-Agents, and the V-Agents. Both series are based on phosphorous. The Germans, during World War II, developed at least three G agents. (G-Agents are designated because they are German).
Here are the most common G-Agents:
This one is Sarin, (pronounced, properly, in the German, as "Zarin"). It is also called GB in the US Army language. It exists in quantity in the United States on certain Army installations.
This one is Tabun, also known as GA. There are not stockpiles as far as I know.
It was the first one that the Germans discovered, as far as I can tell.
The third one is Soman, and it is actually worse than the other two, because it binds with acetylcholenesterase very fast. The other two have a bit a of time window for an antidote, but Soman has not much.
Here it is:
It is called GD in the US Army vocabulary.
The G agents are fairly volatile, so they are more deadly by inhalation or ingestion than by skin absorption, but they can be absorbed by the skin. Lethal doses are about smaller than you can see.
Now, the worst for last, the so called V-Agents. V was chosen because it stands for "venomous", and they are. There are only a couple of them, and VX is the standard. The United States traded the secrets of the thermonuclear device with the British in return for this.
Here is the structure for VX:
First of all, notice how much larger this molecule is in comparison with the G agents. It is less like water and more like motor oil, so it is much more toxic by contact than my inhalation, unless dispersed as an aerosol.
If you have every sprayed an insect, you know what happens to them. The same thing happens to us with these materials. Next time I will cover a political part of these substances. I will hang around for questions and comments for a bit.
Update: next time I will cover the physiology of nerve agent toxicity, then on to real world issues.
Warmest regards, Doc.