In today's episode we discuss past chemical warfare agent attacks and talk about the different classes of agents and what they are used for.

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In future episodes, I plan on looking at some of thechemical warfare agents or CWAs in-depth, but before I do, I wanted to talk aboutthe group as a whole to provide the big picture. So what is a chemical warfareagent?  A chemical warfare agent issimply any chemical that is used to harm or kill people.

WWI chemical warfare

While there are other historical instances, chemical warfareagent use began in earnest in WWI.  Thefirst use was in August of 1914 when the French used teargas in the battlefield.  By October of 1914, the Germans had deployedover 3,000 shells of chlorosulfate, although they were relatively ineffectiveas the chemical was mostly destroyed in the explosion.

In January 1915, the Germans tried again against theRussians using xylyl bromine, but this time it was ineffective due to theextreme cold.  In April of that year, thefirst large scale deaths (~1100 with 7000 injuries) due to CWAs are documentedat Ypres, Belgium where the Germans deployed almost 170 metric tons of chlorinegas.  Chlorine gas tends to sink and sowas quite effective in trench warfare applications, assuming the wind didn’tblow it back into your trench.

By September, the British begin using chlorine against theGermans.  Shortly after that, the Germansintroduce phosgene.  So began a CWA armsrace.  By 1918, nearly 10% of all USarterial shells contain mustard. Interestingly, Adolf Hitler was temporarily blinded by Mustard inOctober shortly before the end of the war. There is some supposition, that this is the reason Germany didn't usemore CWAs during WWII.  All told, therewere more than 1.3 million casualties and 90K+ deaths due to CWAs (mostlyphosgene) during WWI.

WWII chemical warfare preparations

In the run-up to WWII, most nations developed mustard andnerve agents.  Among these are sulfur andnitrogen mustard, tabun, sarin, soman, and VX. Many of these compounds were discovered in pesticide research, but mostnations had a specific CWA development program. In 1972, the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention sought to end alloffensive research into CWAs.  This wasmoderately successful with countries like the US and Britain abiding, withother countries, Russia, Iran, Iraq, and others, continuing with research andproduction. https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/a-brief-history-of-chemical-war

Tokyo sarin chemical weapon attack

Let's look at two well-known uses of chemical weapons.  The first is of interest to developed countries, as our largest threat from CWAs is terrorism.  On 20 March 1995, a Japanese cult known as the Uhm-Shinrikyo released sarin on the Japanese subway.  Their attack was fairly crude, but it got the world's attention.  Between 7:30 and 7:45 AM, five different cult members boarded trains headed to different parts of the city with 2-3 plastic bags full of sarin carried in an outer paper bag.  At 7:48, the members punctured the bags with sharpened umbrellas.  Although the sarin was only 30% pure and the dissemination method was somewhat crude, mass casualties soon ensued. https://www.belfercenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/files/consequence_management_in_the_1995_sarin_attacks_on_the_japanese_subway_system.pdf

Twelvepeople died with over 50 victims being so severely injured that they neededmechanical ventilation to survive.  Theclosest hospital received over 600 casualties at one time.