chemical warfare

chemical warfare,

employment in war of incendiaries, poison gasespoison gas,
any of various gases sometimes used in warfare or riot control because of their poisonous or corrosive nature. These gases may be roughly grouped according to the portal of entry into the body and their physiological effects.
..... Click the link for more information. , and other chemical substances. Ancient armies attacking or defending fortified cities threw burning oil and fireballs. A primitive type of flamethrowerflamethrower,
mechanism for shooting a burning stream of liquid or semiliquid fuel at enemy troops or positions. Primitive types of flamethrowers, consisting of hollow tubes filled with burning coals, sulfur, or other materials, came into use as early as the 5th cent. B.C.
..... Click the link for more information. was employed as early as the 5th cent. B.C.; modern types are still in use. In the Middle Ages, before the introduction of gunpowder, a flammable composition known as Greek fireGreek fire,
a flammable composition believed to have consisted of sulfur, naphtha, and quicklime. Although known in antiquity, it was first employed on a large scale by the Byzantines.
..... Click the link for more information. was used. Smoke from burning straw or other material was employed in early times, but its effectiveness is uncertain.

Poison gaspoison gas,
any of various gases sometimes used in warfare or riot control because of their poisonous or corrosive nature. These gases may be roughly grouped according to the portal of entry into the body and their physiological effects.
..... Click the link for more information. was first used during World War I, when the Germans released (Apr., 1915) chlorine gas against the Allies. The Germans also introduced mustard gasmustard gas,
chemical compound used as a poison gas in World War I. The burning sensation it causes on contact with the skin is similar to that caused by oil from black mustard seeds.
..... Click the link for more information. later in the war. Afterward, the major powers continued to stockpile gases for possible future use and several actually used it: the British in Afghanistan, the French and Spanish in Africa, the Italians in Ethiopia, and the Japanese in China. Lethal gases were not employed in combat during World War II, but the Germans did use gases for mass murder during the HolocaustHolocaust
, name given to the period of persecution and extermination of European Jews by Nazi Germany. Romani (Gypsies), homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, the disabled, and others were also victims of the Holocaust.
..... Click the link for more information. . The Germans also invented and stockpiled the first nerve gas. It is odorless and colorless and attacks the body muscles, including the involuntary muscles. It is the most lethal and insidious weapon of chemical warfare. Since World War II, chemical weapons are known to have been used by Egypt in Yemen (during the 1962–67 civil war) and by Iraq against Iran during the Iran-Iraq War and against Kurdish rebels. Iraq threatened to use them in the First Persian Gulf WarPersian Gulf Wars,
two conflicts involving Iraq and U.S.-led coalitions in the late 20th and early 21st cent.

The First Persian Gulf War, also known as the Gulf War, Jan.–Feb.
..... Click the link for more information. , but it is unclear whether their use was attempted or not. Syria used chemical weapons in the civil war that began in 2011. The threat of U.S. air strikes after an especially deadly attack in Aug., 2013, led Syria to agree to the destruction of its chemical weapons stockpile. Attacks with chlorine gas, which was not among the chemical weapons it had to declare, and nerve gas have occurred since then, and have twice (2017, 2018) led to retaliatory attacks. The Islamic StateIslamic State
(IS), Sunni Islamic militant group committed to the establishment of an Islamic caliphate that would unite Muslims in a transnational, strict-fundamentalist Islamic state.
..... Click the link for more information. also has been accused of using chemical weapons in Syria and Iraq.

Besides lethal gases, which attack the skin, blood, nervous, or respiratory system and require hospitalization of the victim, there are also nonlethal incapacitating agents, which, like tear gastear gas,
gas that causes temporary blindness through the excessive flow of tears resulting from irritation of the eyes. The gas is used in chemical warfare and as a means for dispersing mobs.
..... Click the link for more information. , cause temporary physical disability. Such agents have often been employed in riot control, espionage, and warfare. Various forms of herbicidesherbicide
, chemical compound that kills plants or inhibits their normal growth. A herbicide in a particular formulation and application can be described as selective or nonselective.
..... Click the link for more information. and defoliants are also used to destroy crops or vegetation, as Agent OrangeAgent Orange,
herbicide used by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War to expose enemy guerrilla forces in forested areas. Agent Orange contains varying amounts of dioxin. Exposure to the defoliant has been linked with chemical acne, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease,
..... Click the link for more information. was used by the United States during the Vietnam War.

The potential effectiveness of chemical warfare is increasing with improved methods of dissemination, such as artillery shells, grenades, missiles, and aircraft and submarine spray guns. Some protection against chemical weapons is possible using suits, sealed vehicles, and shelters. Such countermeasures usually protect against nuclear falloutfallout,
minute particles of radioactive material produced by nuclear explosions (see atomic bomb; hydrogen bomb; Chernobyl) or by discharge from nuclear-power or atomic installations and scattered throughout the earth's atmosphere by winds and convection currents.
..... Click the link for more information. and biological warfarebiological warfare,
employment in war of microorganisms to injure or destroy people, animals, or crops; also called germ or bacteriological warfare. Limited attempts have been made in the past to spread disease among the enemy; e.g.
..... Click the link for more information. as well. Lethal chemical weapons are held by many nations and they continue to be used. The danger of the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons remains despite arms control because they are relatively easy to manufacture and deploy.

Efforts to control chemical and biological weapons began in the late 19th cent. The Geneva Protocol of 1925, which went into force in 1928, condemned the use of chemical weapons but did not ban the development and stockpiling of chemical weapons. The United States did not ratify the protocol until 1974. In 1990, with the end of the cold warcold war,
term used to describe the shifting struggle for power and prestige between the Western powers and the Communist bloc from the end of World War II until 1989. Of worldwide proportions, the conflict was tacit in the ideological differences between communism and
..... Click the link for more information. , the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to cut their arsenals by 80% in an effort to create a climate of change that would discourage smaller nations from stockpiling and using such lethal weapons. In 1993 a international treaty banning the production, stockpiling (both by 2007), and use of chemical weapons and calling for the establishment of an independent organization to verify compliance was adopted. The agreement, which became effective in 1997, has been signed and ratified by all but a handful of nations. The treaty is enforced by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical WeaponsOrganization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
(OPCW), international body (est. 1997) responsible for the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which aims at the destruction of all chemical weapons. The CWC was adopted in 1992 and came into force in 1997.
..... Click the link for more information. . The alleged Iraqi retention, after the Persian Gulf War cease-fire, of chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction was the main pretext for the 2003 U.S.-British invasion of Iraq. The completion of the destruction of Russian and U.S. weapons was several times delayed, but in 2017 Russia destroyed the last of its declared chemical weapons; the United States is scheduled to complete the destruction of its stockpile in 2023. In 2018, however, a former Russian double agent and his daughter were sickened in Great Britain in an attempted murder with novichak, an undeclared Russian nerve agent, and several months later a couple were exposed to apparently discarded novichak, and the woman died; Britain accused Russia of masterminding the attack.

Bibliography

See the ongoing Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), The Problems of Chemical and Biological Warfare (1971–); R. Harris and J. Paxman, A Higher Form of Killing (1982); E. M. Spiers, Chemical Warfare (1986); J. B. Tucker, War of Nerves (2006).

chemical warfare

[′kem·i·kəl ′wȯr‚fer] (ordnance) Originally, the employment of poison gases as antipersonnel agents; later expanded to include flame and incendiary warfare, smoke for screening or signaling purposes, and microorganisms (bacteria and their toxins, rickettsia, viruses) for the production of casualties or destruction of crops. Also known as chemical operations.

chemical warfare

The use of chemicals as a weapon of mass destruction, deployed as gases; the tremendous morbidity caused by such weapons in World War I—killing or injuring roughly 1.3 million soldiers—led to their ban under the ‘Geneva Protocol’ of 1925

chemical warfare

Waging war with toxic chemical agents. Agents include nerve gases; agents that cause temporary blindness, paralysis, hallucinations, or deafness; irritants to the eyes and lungs; blistering agents, e.g., mustard gas; defoliants; and herbicides.

Patient care

Victims of a chemical exposure or attack require decontamination, ideally on site as rapidly as possible by specially equipped and trained Emergency Medical Services (EMS)/fire personnel or hospital-based health care professionals. Decontamination includes isolation of the victim, preferably outdoors or in a sealed, specially ventilated room; removal of all of the victim's clothing and jewelry; protection of any part of the victim's body that has not been exposed to toxins; repeated irrigation and flushing of exposed skin with water (a dilute wound-cleansing solution, such as Dakin’s solution, may be used on skin but not on the eyes or within penetrating wounds); additional irrigation of wounded skin with sterile solution (typically for about 10 min longer than the irrigation of intact skin); irrigation of the eyes with saline solution (about 15 min); cleansing beneath the surface of exposed fingernails or toenails; and collection and disposal of effluent and contaminated clothing. To avoid secondary injuries and exposures, trained personnel who carry out decontamination must wear chemical masks with a filtered respirator, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA), and splash-resistant protective clothing that covers all skin and body surfaces and is impervious to all chemicals. Following decontamination, victims require triage and treatment.

Treatments for chemical exposures include both supportive care (such as the administration of oxygen, intravenous fluids, analgesics, topical remedies, and psychosocial support) and the administration of antidotes or chemical antagonists such as physostigmine. Details of the treatment for most specific exposures may be found in references such as the National Library of Medicine’s website: www.sis.nlm.nih.gov/Tox/ChemWar.html. See: biological warfare.

chemical warfare

chemical warfare

chem′ical war′fare

chemical warfare

chemical warfare

chemical warfare,

Bibliography

chemical warfare

chemical warfare

chemical warfare

Patient care

chemical warfare

Synonyms for chemical warfare

noun warfare using chemical agents to kill or injure or incapacitate the enemy

Synonyms

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