Chemical warfare

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Chemical warfare
Castulo Olivas Alex Avila
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Outline

• What is a chemical weapon?
• The first chemical weapons
• Modern chemical weapons
• Effects of chemical weapons on humans
• Effects of chemical weapons on the environment
• Modern methods of chemical weapon destruction
• Should we continue to use chemical weapons?
• Summary
• The solution

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What is a chemical weapon?

• chemical substances that can be delivered using
  munitions and dispersal devices to cause death or
  severe harm to people and animals and plants
• Chemical weapons are classified as weapons of
  mass destruction

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First chemical weapons

• The first chemical weapons were poison tipped
  arrows used in southern Africa during the stone
  ages.
• In the 17th century during sieges, armies
  attempted to start fires by launching incendiary
  shells filled with sulphur, tallow, rosin,
  turpentine, saltpeter, and/or antimony
• On April 22, 1915, Germans used chlorine gas to
  kill French troops
• Germany also used mustard gas in WWI
• During the Rif War combined Spanish and French
  forces dropped mustard gas bombs in an attempt to
  put down the Berber rebellion.
• During the Ethiopian invasion, Italy dropped
  mustard gas from bombs, sprayed it from
  airplanes, and spread it in powdered form on the
  ground.

Mustard Gas Bomb
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Modern Chemical Weapons
Mustard gas
An oily, volatile liquid that is corrosive to the
skin and mucous membranes and causes severe,
sometimes fatal respiratory damage. It was
introduced in World War I as a chemical warfare
agent.
Yellow Rain
A powdery, poisonous, yellow substance reported
as dropping from the air in southeast Asia and
found to be the excrement of wild honeybees
contaminated by a fungal toxin.
Anthrax
Bacillus anthracis is the scientific name for
anthrax. Anthrax powder was used in bioterrorism
attacks when it was put into letters and caused
the death of several postage workers.
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Effects of Chemical Weapons on humans
Effects of lewisite

• Chemicals that Blister
• Sulphur mustard
• Lewisite
• Nitrogen mustard
• Mustard-lewisite
• Phosgene-oxime
• Chemicals that affect the nerves
• VX
• Sarin
• Soman
• Tabun
• Novichole agents
• Chemicals that cause choking
• chlorine
• Phosgene

Agent VX Type Nerve agent Symptoms Breathing
problems, muscle spasm, unconsciousness.
Outcome Possibly death. Status May have been
used against Iran in 1988. Iraq claims it
produced 3.9 tons. Source International
Institute for Strategic Studies
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Effects of chemical weapons on the environment

• persistent agents tend to remain in the
  environment for as long as a week, complicating
  decontamination
• Non-volatile liquid agents, such as blister
  agents and the oily VX nerve agent, do not easily
  evaporate into a gas, and therefore present
  primarily a contact hazard
• Buried munitions pose problems environmentally.
  Once the munitions begin to corrode and leak, the
  agents can contaminate the surrounding soil and
  even get into water sources.
• Sea dumping of chemical munitions is another
  method of disposal that has caused a number of
  problems. Some of these dumping operations have
  occurred in shallow water in the Baltic Sea and
  off the coast of Japan. In both of these places,
  dumped chemical weapons caused serious problems
  for the fishing industry.

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Modern methods of chemical weapon destruction

• There are two common methods for destroying
  chemical weapons, incineration and chemical
  degradation. However, there are dozens of
  alternative technologies, and the number is
  growing.
• Under the Baseline incineration process, chemical
  weapons are first taken to the demilitarization
  facility, where the chemical agent is removed
  from the munitions or containers by automated
  equipment.
• Chemical degradation (or chemical
  neutralization) technologies take many different
  forms. There are a number of chemicals, like
  alkalis and oxidants, which reduce and often
  negate the toxicity of chemical agents.

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Should we continue to use chemical weapons?
NO

• We should not continue to use some chemical
  weapons. Chemicals are too cruel because they
  usually cause extreme pain or irritation , along
  with other side effects. Blister agents should
  not be used because they cause extreme suffering
  in victims also. Some chemicals cause you to die
  of asphyxiation. These chemicals should also not
  be used. All chemical weapons are very dangerous
  and can affect the environment and even kill
  animals that get in the crossfire in a war.

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Summary

• Chemical weapons have been used ever since spears
  and arrows were invented. Now, the weapons are
  much more advanced and deadly.
• There are many different types of chemical
  weapons and they all have their own unique way of
  making a victim suffer.
• We should no longer use chemical weapons because
  they are harsh and persistent chemicals can
  effect the environment and animals.

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The solution

• The only solution is to not have war. The main
  reason we have chemical weapons is because we
  need them for war. If we didnt have war we would
  have no need for chemical weapon development.