What do chemical weapons do

The treatment of the erythema, blisters and denuded areas is identical with that for similar mustard lesions. Burns severe enough to cause shock and systemic poisoning are life-threatening. Even if the patient survives the acute effects, the prognosis must be guarded for several weeks. In low concentrations, phosgene oxime severely irritates the eyes and respiratory organs. In high concentrations, it also attacks the skin.

A few milligrams applied to the skin cause severe irritation, intense pain, and subsequently a necrotizing wound. Very few compounds are as painful and destructive to the tissues. Phosgene oxime also affects the eyes, causing corneal lesions and blindness and may affect the respiratory tract causing pulmonary edema.

The action on the skin is immediate: phosgene oxime provokes irritation resembling that caused by a stinging nettle. A few milligrams cause intense pain which radiates from the point of application, within a minute the affected area turns white and is surrounded by a zone of erythema skin reddening which resembles a wagon wheel in appearance.

In 1 hour the area becomes swollen, and within 24 hours, the lesion turns yellow and blisters appear. Recovery takes 1 to 3 months. Chemical agents which attack lung tissue, primarily causing pulmonary edema, are classed as lung damaging agents. To this group belong:. The toxic action of phosgene is typical of a certain group of lung damaging agents.

Phosgene is the most dangerous member of this group and the only one considered likely to be used in the future. Phosgene is a colorless gas under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure. Its boiling point is 8. Its vapor density is 3. It may therefore remain for long periods of time in trenches and other low lying areas.

In low concentrations it has a smell resembling new mown hay. The outstanding feature of phosgene poisoning is massive pulmonary edema. With exposure to very high concentrations death may occur within several hours; in most fatal cases pulmonary edema reaches a maximum in 12 hours followed by death in hours.

If the casualty survives, resolution commences within 48 hours and, in the absence of complicating infection, there may be little or no residual damage. During and immediately after exposure, there is likely to be coughing, choking, a feeling of tightness in the chest, nausea, and occasionally vomiting, headache and lachrymation.

The presence or absence of these symptoms is of little value in immediate prognosis. Some patients with severe coughs fail to develop serious lung injury, while others with little sign of early respiratory tract irritation develop fatal pulmonary edema. A period follows during which abnormal chest signs are absent and the patient may be symptom-free. This interval commonly lasts 2 to 24 hours but may be shorter.

It is terminated by the signs and symptoms of pulmonary edema. These begin with cough occasionally substernally painful , dyspnea, rapid shallow breathing and cyanosis. Nausea and vomiting may appear. As the edema progresses, discomfort, apprehension and dyspnea increase and frothy sputum develops.

The patient may develop shock-like symptoms, with pale, clammy skin, low blood pressure and feeble, rapid heartbeat. During the acute phase, casualties may have minimal signs and symptoms and the prognosis should be guarded. This includes any key component of a binary or multicomponent chemical system.

For the purpose of implementing this Convention, precursors which have been identified for the application of verification measures are listed in Schedules contained in the Annex on Chemicals.

Dual-use describes chemicals or equipment that can be used for peaceful civilian and commercial purposes, but can also be used in the creation of weapons or as weapons. The prohibition of the use of herbicides as a method of warfare is recognised in the CWC Preamble.

However, herbicides are not defined specifically in the Convention. Herbicides that are intentionally used to harm humans or animals through chemical action on life processes could be considered a chemical weapon under the general purpose criteria.

Central Nervous System acting chemicals, which are sometimes referred to as incapacitating Chemical Agents ICAs , are not defined or mentioned by name in the Convention. The general purpose criterion still holds to the extent that chemicals considered CNS-acting meet the definition of toxic chemicals. Depiction of the soman conjugate of acetylcholinesterase. Nerve agents like soman inhibit the normal actions of acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme crucial to nervous systems Protein Data Bank Structure 2WFZ.

Toxins are toxic chemicals produced by living organisms. These are considered as both chemical and biological weapons when used in violation of the Convention.

Toxins are covered by the CWC because they are chemicals that can have chemical weapons applications, and fall under the definitions listed above for chemical weapons and toxic chemicals. It is possible to synthesis many types of toxins in laboratories without harvesting the organisms that produce them in nature. Moreover, a number of toxins are also synthetic dual-use chemicals, meaning that under the CWC they can be produced in the quantities required for legitimate activities.

There are two toxins explicitly listed in Schedule 1, these are ricin produced in nature in the seeds of the castor bean plant and saxitoxin produced in nature by cyanobacteria. Those weapons that fall into the second category of old chemical weapons are to be destroyed in accordance with the same conditions as other chemical weapons, though the time limits and the order of destruction can be changed, subject to approval by the Executive Council.

Guidelines for determining whether weapons in this category have deteriorated enough to be unusable, however, have yet to be decided, though efforts to do so are ongoing. Categorisation of such weapons therefore remains problematic. Abandoned Chemical Weapons are chemical weapons, including old chemical weapons, abandoned by a State after 1 January on the territory of another State without the consent of the latter. Inflicting injury mainly on the respiratory tract, choking agents irritate the nose, throat, and especially the lungs.

When inhaled, these agents cause alveoli, air sacs in the lungs, to secrete fluid, essentially drowning those affected. One of the most common chemical weapon agents, these oily substances act via inhalation and contact, affecting the eyes, respiratory tract, and skin, first as an irritant and then as a cell poison.

Exposure to blister agents cause large and often life-threatening skin blisters which resemble severe burns, and often results in blindness and permanent damage to the respiratory system. Although casualties are high, deaths represent a small percentage. Effects Burns skin, mucous membranes and eyes; blisters skin, windpipe, and lungs. These agents mainly inhibit the ability of cells to use oxygen, effectively causing the body to suffocate. Some blood agents may also affect the ability of blood cells to transfer oxygen.

Blood agents are distributed via the blood and generally enter the body through inhalation. While a welcome step, the Protocol had a number of significant shortcomings, including the fact that it did not prohibit the development, production or stockpiling of chemical weapons.

Also problematic was the fact that many States that ratified the Protocol reserved the right to use prohibited weapons against States that were not party to the Protocol or as retaliation in kind if chemical weapons were used against them. Poison gasses were used during World War II in Nazi concentration camps and in Asia, although chemical weapons were not used on European battlefields. The Cold War period saw significant development, manufacture and stockpiling of chemical weapons.

By the s and 80s, an estimated 25 States were developing chemical weapons capabilities. But since the end of World War II, chemical weapons have reportedly been used in only a few cases, notably by Iraq in the s against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The CWC is the first disarmament agreement negotiated within a multilateral framework that provides for the elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction under universally applied international control.