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Questions and Answers
What was the main purpose of the biological warfare R&D and weapons production programs during the Cold War era?
What was the outcome of the Biological Weapons Convention signed in 1972?
What was the main difference between the United States and the Soviet Union's compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention?
What was the reason the Soviet Union was able to flout the Biological Weapons Convention without being detected?
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What did Russian President Boris Yeltsin commit to after the demise of the Soviet Union?
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What was the main concern after the demise of the Soviet Union?
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What did the United States and the former Soviet republics commit to after the demise of the Soviet Union?
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What was the source of financing for the effort to contain the spread of biological warfare capabilities?
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What was the main reason for the Soviet Union's clandestine biological warfare program?
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What was the outcome of the Soviet Union's violation of the Biological Weapons Convention?
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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 the toxic properties and characteristics of soman and sarin, highly dangerous chemical agents. Understand their volatility, persistence, and absorption methods.
