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Questions and Answers
The Soviet Union halted its biological warfare program upon signing the Biological Weapons Convention in 1972.
The Soviet Union halted its biological warfare program upon signing the Biological Weapons Convention in 1972.
False
The United States fully complied with the terms of the Biological Weapons Convention.
The United States fully complied with the terms of the Biological Weapons Convention.
True
The Biological Weapons Convention was signed in 1975 and entered into force in 1972.
The Biological Weapons Convention was signed in 1975 and entered into force in 1972.
False
Russian President Boris Yeltsin denied that the Soviet Union had violated the Biological Weapons Convention.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin denied that the Soviet Union had violated the Biological Weapons Convention.
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The Biological Weapons Convention included a verification regime to check members' compliance.
The Biological Weapons Convention included a verification regime to check members' compliance.
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The Soviet Union and its allies fully dismantled their biological warfare programs after signing the Biological Weapons Convention.
The Soviet Union and its allies fully dismantled their biological warfare programs after signing the Biological Weapons Convention.
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The United States provided financing to the former Soviet republics to contain the spread of biological warfare capabilities.
The United States provided financing to the former Soviet republics to contain the spread of biological warfare capabilities.
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The Soviet Union was the only country that developed biological weapons during the Cold War.
The Soviet Union was the only country that developed biological weapons during the Cold War.
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The Biological Weapons Convention was signed in response to the end of the Cold War.
The Biological Weapons Convention was signed in response to the end of the Cold War.
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The demise of the Soviet Union led to the complete dismantling of its biological warfare program.
The demise of the Soviet Union led to the complete dismantling of its biological warfare program.
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Study Notes
Nerve Gases
- Soman is a nerve gas that is twice as toxic as sarin and more persistent.
- It can be absorbed through the skin and has a faint odor of mothballs or rotten fruit.
- Iraq used soman in the Iran-Iraq War, often mixing it with cyclosarin to create a more effective cocktail in the desert heat.
Mechanism of Action
- Nerve gases work by irreversibly inactivating acetylcholine esterase (AChE) at cholinergic synapses, leading to an accumulation of toxic levels of acetylcholine (ACh) at the synaptic junctions.
Sites of Absorption
- Nerve gases can be absorbed through the lungs, gastrointestinal tract, skin, or conjunctiva.
Symptoms
- Clinical manifestations of nerve gas poisoning are similar to OP pesticides poisoning.
- Acute effects include headache, sweating, nausea, vomiting, miosis, ocular pain, impaired visual acuity, lacrimation, bloodshot eyes, rhinorrhea, bronchorrhea, wheezing, respiratory failure, bradycardia, and atrioventricular block.
- Exposure to a large amount of vapor can cause loss of consciousness within seconds, followed by convulsions, respiratory failure, and death in a few minutes.
Treatment
- Treatment is similar to that of organophosphates.
- Victims should be immediately removed from the field and treatment commenced with autoinjector antidotes (atropine and oximes) such as the MARK I kit.
- Decontamination agents like 0.5% hypochlorite solution, M291 resin kit, G117H, and phosphotriesterase isolated from soil bacteria are available.
Paralytic Agents
- Hydrocyanic acid, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon monoxide are paralytic agents.
Hydrogen Cyanide
- Hydrogen cyanide is also known as prussic acid.
- It was used as a rodenticide and was later used as a chemical weapon in the Holocaust.
- Hydrogen cyanide works by binding to oxygen receptors in the body, preventing cells from utilizing oxygen.
- Inhalation of hydrogen cyanide causes dizziness, vomiting, headache, a fast heart rate/breathing, and weakness.
- Inhalation of large doses causes convulsions and respiratory failure until death.
History of Biowarfare
Pre-20th-century Use of Biological Weapons
- One of the first recorded uses of biological warfare occurred in 1347 when Mongol forces catapulted plague-infested bodies over the walls into the Black Sea port of Caffa.
- Some historians believe that ships from the besieged city returned to Italy with the plague, starting the Black Death pandemic that swept through Europe over the next four years, killing around 25 million people.
Biological Weapons in the World Wars
- During World War I, Germany initiated a clandestine program to infect horses and cattle owned by Allied armies on both the Western and Eastern fronts.
- The infectious agent for glanders was reportedly used.
- In 1915, Germany reportedly attempted to spread plague in St. Petersburg to weaken Russian resistance.
- The 1925 Geneva Protocol banned the use of biological and chemical weapons in war.
Japan
- Japan engaged in a massive and clandestine research, development, production, and testing program in biological warfare, violating the treaty's ban.
- Japan used biological weapons against Allied forces in China between 1937 and 1945.
- The Japanese experimented with infectious agents for bubonic plague, anthrax, typhus, smallpox, yellow fever, tularemia, hepatitis, cholera, gas gangrene, and glanders, among others.
Biological Weapons in the Cold War
- The Soviet Union and the United States, as well as their respective allies, embarked on large-scale biological warfare R&D and weapons production programs during the Cold War era.
- The Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) was signed in 1972 and entered into force in 1975.
- The Soviet Union conducted an aggressive clandestine biological warfare program despite signing and ratifying the treaty.
After the Demise of the Soviet Union
- After the demise of the Soviet Union, Russian President Boris Yeltsin confirmed that the Soviet Union had violated the BWC and committed to terminate what remained of the old Soviet biological weapons program.
- However, the problem of the potential transfer of information, technical assistance, production equipment, materials, and even finished biological weapons to states and groups outside the borders of the former Soviet Union remained.
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Description
Learn about Soman, a highly toxic and persistent chemical agent, its effects on the human body, and its differences from Sarin gas.
