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Biological and Chemical Warfare 1
Biological and Chemical Warfare
Your NameYour School or course
Biological and Chemical Warfare 2
INTRODUCTION
Biological and chemical warfare has been the subject of recent debate
in the last few decades, but actually has a history of thousands of years. As
early as the sixth century B.C.E. warriors using such weaponry has been
used against enemies. The two things are actually different, but are often
spoken of interchangeably. (CBWInfo.com (2001)).
Biological warfare, sometimes called bio-warfare is the use of biological
pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and toxins obtained from living
organisms to harm or kill. It has indeed a long history from poisoned arrows
of ancient times down to the bio-weapons of recent decades.
The ancient playwright Sophocles wrote about the character
Philoctetes being shot by a poisoned arrow while he was traveling to the
Trojan War. Maybe this was just a myth, or a frequently told legend passed
down through the years, but like many legends, it very likely had some truth
to it in history. The words “toxin” and “toxic” are derived from Greek word
toxikon or arrow. Herodotus, the Greek historian in the fifth century B.C.E.
described archers that used a mixure of decomposed snake venom and
other ingredients to make poison for their arrows. (CBWInfo.com (2001)).
Chemical warfare is the use of chemical substances with toxic effects
to incapacitate, injure or kill. During the 20th century alone, over 70
Biological and Chemical Warfare 3
chemicals have either been utilized or stored as some chemical weapons
agent. These weapons differ greatly from conventional weapons because
they do not depend on an explosive force or mechanical damage to the
body.
The United Nations considers all chemical weapons as weapons of mass
destruction and the Chemical Weapons convention of 1993 forbids producing
or stockpiling any toxic chemical unless used for non-prohibited purposes.
Non-living toxins which were produced by a living organism is also
considered a chemical weapon. Examples of these are ricin and botulinum
toxin.
Even though the history of biological and chemical warfare is centuries old it
is recently become a subject of great debate and extreme concern in any
combat situation.
I. Biological Warfare
During the Peloponnesian War against Athens, the Spartan soldiers
poisoned the city’s wells creating an epidemic killing thousands. Eventually,
Sparta was the victor in the war but history took a dim view of their tactics.
Since that time, biological warfare agents have been used only in isolated
incidents, and usually by countries who have been known to employ
underhanded tactics in combat. Propaganda against such bio-tactics have
Biological and Chemical Warfare 4
cast aspersions that possibly obscures the actual science or the root cause of
the weapons. (Warner R, (translator), Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War)
For instance, no one can know for sure, but recent reports have
suggested that the disease spread from the tainted wells in Athens was
caused by the ebola virus. Possibly, the African soldiers brought in to assist
in the war, brought the virus with them, and it had nothing to do with
Spartan warfare at all. History may never really know what the actual
organism was that decimated Athens. (Ramirez A, Was The Plague of Athens Really
Ebola?)
In the 1346, in what is now Ukraine, the Tartar army attacked the
walled city of Kaffa using a gruesome form of biological warfare. Since the
very deadly bubonic plague had affected some of the Tartar troops, they
flung the dead bodies of the plague victims over the walls in the hopes of
starting an epidemic in the city. It worked. The disease is actually spread by
the fleas which are found on rats and between the plague ridden bodies, rats
and fleas, the citizens soon fled the city and left it for the Tartars. Spreading
extremely quickly, by 1350, the plague was hitting the cities of Europe,
probably due to traders who inadvertently transported the plague as they
went from city to city. The bubonic plague wreaked havoc on Europe killing
millions.
Bodies of plague victims were also used in 1710 when the Russian
Army catapulted disease ridden corpses into the city of Reval, Estonia. The
Biological and Chemical Warfare 5
tactic was again successful but due in great part because people just
panicked and fled.
During the French and Indian Wars in America (1754 to 1767) was the
first time a biological warfare agent was used on the continent. One of the
British commanders devised a plan to “size down” the number of Native
Americans that were not sympathetic to the British. Since there was a
smallpox epidemic in Fort Pitt, the blankets, and other “infected” items laden
with debris from the infected smallpox patients, were gathered and saved.
Later, one of the British officers gave some of the items to the Indians who
had been invited into the Fort. Like the Trojan Horse, smallpox sneaked into
the Native American tribes and an epidemic erupted. (Sipe CH. The Indian Wars
of Pennsylvania)
Germany could have the dubious credit of initiating the modern era of
biological warfare during World War I. The German scientists, on behalf of
the Army developed biological weapons specifically—anthrax, glanders,
cholera and a type of fungus. Among other things, the Germans infected
mules with glanders and tried to also infect the horses of the French calvalry.
Sheep were infected with anthrax and then shipped into Russia. Prior to the
United States getting into World War I, covert activities by the Germans
attempted to contaminate animal feed and infected horses intended for the
America.
Biological and Chemical Warfare 6
In 1925, there was an attempt to control the use of biological elements
in war but it turned out not to be quite effective. It was called the Geneva
Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiting, Poisonous or
Other Gases and Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. The Protocol actually
prohibited bio-weapons but only the use, not the production or possession of
the weapons and there was no provision to do inspections at all. The United
States did not ratify this Protocol until 1975. (Heller, MAJ(P) Charles E., U.S. Army.
(September 1984))
Japan conducted biological warfare during World War II, although it is
not widely known. The most extensive use of bio-weapons by Japan was the
research and deployment that took place in Manchuria in the 1930’s clear
until the end of World War II. Japan called this program Unit 731, and
employed over 3000 scientists. Various experiments conducted on prisoners
of war involved exposing them in various ways to horrific diseases—bacterial
dysentery, cholera, and the bubonic plague. Over 10,000 prisoners either
died from the diseases, or were infected then killed so that their bodies could
be autopsied.
In addition, biological warfare agents were released in 11 cities in
China. Some had their water supply contaminated, some their food. In other
cases, the Japanese collected bubonic infected fleas and dropped them over
Chinese cities from planes. Some epidemics in the targeted cities were
Biological and Chemical Warfare 7
reported, but the wartime conditions did not allow for accurate data
collection.
The British initiated a biological warfare program around anthrax. As a
test, they used the anthrax spores in a bomb and the target was Gruinard
Island near Scotland. Several bombs were dropped on the island
experimenting on the best dispersal method. Unfortunately, in 1943, sheep
and cattle near the Scottish coast began coming down with anthrax.
Although many tries were made, the island was never totally
decontaminated to this day.
Like Japan, the Nazi’s also used biological warfare on human subjects.
Prisoners were forcibly infected with a wide variety of diseases in order to
study the disease, but also to develop vaccines and drugs for the Germans.
The latter reason was the one told to the public as the sole reason for the
infection of the innocent prisoners, which was supposed to sound less
inhumane.
(http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/chemical_warfare_and_world_war_t.htm
The War Reserve Service which was a U.S. civilian agency began work
on an offensive biological warfare program in 1942. It had some facilities
located at Camp Detrick, Maryland, and others in Indiana, Utah, and
Mississippi. This was much less than a full fledged military operation
Biological and Chemical Warfare 8
although the Maryland facility produced more than 5000 anthrax “bombs.”
(http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/chemical_warfare_and_world_war_t.htm
A new production facility was constructed during the Korean War
(1950-1953) for bio-warfare. It had more than adequate safety meansures
for the protection of the staff and the surrounding population and their
livestock. In addition, a program to develop proper vaccines, and anti-serum
agents was begun in 1953. (US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious
Disease.)
The era known as the Cold War was intense with both propaganda and
the “arms race” like no other time in history. The U.S.S.R. accused the U.S.
of employing “germ” warfare during the Korean Conflict in the early 1950’s.
This accusation was made at the United Nations General Assembly and
caused the direction of the entire U.S. program to change. The program
used the “Surrogate Biological Agents” that were supposedly not poisonous
to human beings. The chemicals were used to simulate the unleashing of
toxic organisms such as the bio-warfare or chemical warfare substances.
A secret U.S. government program in the 1960’s took the step of
spraying bacteria in several U.S. cities. In San Francisco, one man died and
others fell very ill with infection. In 1966, in New York, the bacteria was
sprayed into the city’s subway system. It was ostensibly done to gauge the
vulnerability of the subway to bio or chemical warfare from outside sources.
This declassified material came out in the 1988 book “Clouds of Secrecy” by
Biological and Chemical Warfare 9
Leonard Cole. Another episode closely resembling the U.S. test happened in
1995 in Tokyo when sarin (nerve gas) was released in the subway tunnels by
a Japanese cult group.
Also in the decade of the 60’s, in Vietnam, the Communist Viet Cong
put spikes of bamboo in pits and contaminated the spikes with human feces.
Whoever stepped into the pit would not only be impaled upon the spikes but
contract a virulent infection from the wound. The Soviet Union was accused
of dropping mycotoxins into Cambodia, Laos, and Afghanistan, but no proof
ever surfaced.
Right here in the United States, the first documented bio-terrorist
attack was in 1984 in Oregon when the Rashneeshee “cult” contaminated
the salad bars in 10 different restaurants, which caused over 750 cases of
salmonella poisoning to restaurant patrons.
II. Chemical Warfare
Types of Chemical Weapon Agents
Chemical weaponry appear in many different forms and have very
different effects on the human body. The major types of chemical weapons
according to their effects are:
Choking agents and lung toxicants (chlorine, diphosgene, etc.)
Cyanides
Biological and Chemical Warfare 10
Vomiting agents (adamsite)
Incapacitating agents (anticholinergic compounds)
Nerve agents (sarin, soman, tabun, etc.)
Lacrimating agents (pepper gas, etc.)
Vesicting or blistering agents (lewisite, etc.)
Other chemicals are similar to Chemical Weapons but technical not
considered as such because they are not immediately toxic to human beings.
For instance, agent orange that was used during the War in Vietnam was a
defoliant but has arguably affected not only those that dispensed the
chemical but people who came in contact with the chemical after the
defoliation. Incendiary or explosive chemicals (such as napalm or dynamite)
are another chemical in the similar family because their destructive effects
are primarily due to fire or explosive force, and not direct chemical action on
the human body, although direct contact on the human body can be very
harmful.
Since ancient times, there is evidence that there has existed various
forms of chemical warfare. Early Chinese manuscripts speak of using toxic
smoke made by burning wood dipped in tar and sulfur. The Chinese were
clearly the originators of chemical warfare. Old Chinese writings contain
different “recipes” for various noxious chemicals to be used on enemies.
(CBWInfo.com (2001)).
Biological and Chemical Warfare 11
Recent findings have uncovered chemical weapons are at least 2000
years old as well. A British researcher found the first physical evidence of a
battle at a Roman fortress in 256 A.D. where at least 20 of the soldiers
buried there died from poison gas. This proof has brought to life what was
formerly just written in manuscripts and texts. Persians were trying to lay
siege to the city, and in order to do this they used bellows to pump lethal
fumes obtained by burning sulfur crystals and bitumen, a tarlike substance
into tunnels under the walls where the Romans were hiding. According to
the writings, they only stopped blowing the smoke when they heard no more
screams.
Romans routinely poisoned the wells of cities they were taking over,
especially in Asia. Plutarch, the historian, told of mounds of gypsum powder
piled up by Roman troops near Spanish rebels. When the wind blew, the
dust irritated the enemies’ eyes, and throats, making it more likely they
would surrender. In 332 B.C. the people of the city of Tyre threw basins of
burning sand towards the troops of Alexander the Great, creating the same
effect as phosphorus coming down from the sky.
WWI
In World War I, Germany released chlorine gas in Belgium in 1915.
Chlorine gas burns the throat and the lungs and can be fatal. It was the
first time a weapon such as this was used in modern times and the soldiers
Biological and Chemical Warfare 12
panicked and were not at all prepared to defend themselves against it.
Mustard gas, which is really a liquid, was unleashed by the Germans, in
what was called “cloud tactics” which was mainly a general release of the
substance which hovered close to the ground. That chemical attacks and
burns the skin, eyes and lungs. Although the chemical weapons killed
or permanently injured tens of thousands of soldiers, they were of
little military significance because they often drifted back and also
affected those who released the chemicals. (Heller, MAJ(P) Charles E., U.S.
Army. (September 1984)).
Thousands of Allied troops were either wounded or killed in the chlorine
and mustard gas attacks. The Allies eventually also developed toxic
chemical agents by the end of the war, but more importantly they also were
tailoring their defenses to consider the possibility of chemical weapons. In
1917 a new forms of release, by artillery munitions and mortar, was being
used to deliver a huge amount of chemical agent, making the “hit and miss”
cloud system obsolete. As World War I was coming to an end, chemicals
were being used rampantly over the battlefields. At the end of the war it
was estimated that over 125,000 tons of chemical warfare agents had been
used, killing over 100,000 people and causing over 1 million casualties.
(Heller, MAJ(P) Charles E., U.S. Army. (September 1984)).
WWII
Biological and Chemical Warfare 13
Even with the devastating results of the chemicals used in the war, and
the public’s horror at the knowledge of it, the development and use of
chemical weapons continued. Prior to the full scale outbreak of World War II,
Mussolini’s Italian troops used chemical warfare against the Ethiopians in
1935 and 1936. In its war against China, Japan used chemical agents.
During World War II, both the Allied countries and the Axis developed
chemical weapons almost continuously, but due to the problem of attaining
an effective delivery system neither the Allies nor the Axis used them.
Between 1962 and 1970, the United States dropped 14 million gallons
of agent orange, a herbicide over the country of Vietnam. The idea was to
defoliate the forests so that the enemy soldiers, the Viet Cong, could be
readily seen and taken out. Approximately 10% of the entire land area of
south Vietnam was sprayed with agent orange. It was actually a blend of
two herbicides, and contained dioxin. The use of this dioxin was the largest
ever in history. The effects of the agent orange were sudden killing huge
amounts of forests, and tainting waterways and grasslands. (US Army Medical
Research Institute of Infectious Disease.)
The effects of the chemical on humans, became even more important,
especially the resulting health problems cropping up with the soldiers who
were serving at the time. Over 3 million soldiers either were involved in
dispensing the agent orange, or on the ground, exposed to its effects. The
Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to
Biological and Chemical Warfare 14
Herbicides of the U.S. Institute of Medicine, dioxin causes the skin disease
chloracne, and three types of cancers: soft-tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma, and Hodgkin's disease. The Committee also linked agent orange
to respiratory cancer, prostate cancer, plus an elevated risk of spina bifida
and other birth defects among the children of veterans who were exposed to
the chemicals.
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/chemical_warfare_and_world_war_t.htm
Egypt used chemical weapons in its attacks against North Yemen in the
60’s; and also used extensively between 1983-1988 in the Iran-Iraq War.
Iraq was actually the worst offender, using mustard gas and nerve agents
caused Iran to agree to a treaty in August of 1988. Iraq, unbelievably,
released nerve gas on its own population, killing over 5,000 Kurds in the area
of Halabja in 1988. By its actions, Iraq caused other nations to more
forcefully work towards the complete prohibition of chemical weapons, by
organizing the Chemical Weapons Convention.
After the attacks on September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda released the
information that they were working on radiological, biological, and chemical
weapons. A large number of videotapes was shown on television in 2002,
including the killing of dogs by the use of a type of nerve agent.
Also in 2002, Chechen terrorists held a theater full of people hostage in
Moscow. The Russian special forces used a aerosolized poison as an assault
Biological and Chemical Warfare 15
on the terrorists. All of the 42 hostage takers and 119 of the hostages died
as a result of the gas agent. (Danzig R, Berkowsky)
Dispersion Methods of Chemical Weapons
Thermal dissemination is the use of explosives to spread a chemical
agent this particular technique was originated in the 1920’s and was
considered an improvement over the previous methods. It remains the main
way of disseminating chemical agents to this day. Most devices consist of a
bomb or some kind of a shell that contains a booster and the target agent.
Thermal dissemination devices are not all that efficient. Much of the agent
burns up in the blast and another large part just falls to the ground. Also the
size of the particles are varied because it cannot easily be controlled.
Aerodynamic dissemination
Aerodynamic dissemination is the non-explosive delivery of a chemical agent
from an aircraft, allowing the force of the air itself to disseminate the agent.
This type of dispersion is the most recent major development, originating in
the mid-1960s. This method eliminates the explosive effects and supposedly
makes the particle size more uniform. Of course, the altitude, wind and
other factors can influence the dissemination of the particles. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/chemical_warfare_and_world_war_t.htm
Sociopolitical Climate of Chemical Warfare
Biological and Chemical Warfare 16
China has studied and developed chemical weapons for centuries,
however, the use of chemical warfare has usually been viewed with disgust
and disdain in the western countries. Prior to 1915, the use of poisons as
weapons was not really governmental protocol but rather isolated decisions
in a battle or siege. But there have been, throughout history, wide ranging
attempts to implement poison chemicals in several wars. Generally,
however the development and study of the chemical weapons was all the
further it went.
References
Biological and Chemical Warfare 17
CBWInfo.com (2001). [A Brief History of Chemical and Biological Weapons: Ancient Times to the 19th Century]. Retrieved Nov. 24,
Heller, MAJ(P) Charles E., U.S. Army. (September 1984). [Chemical Warfare in World War I: The American Experience, 1917 - 1918].
Warner R, (translator), Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, 431 B.C.E., New York NY, Viking Penguin, 1972
Ramirez A, Was The Plague of Athens Really Ebola? New York Times, Sunday, August 18, 1996
Mayor A. Dirty Tricks in Ancient Warfare. Mil Hist Quart. 1997:10, 1: 37
Sipe CH. The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania. Harrisburg: Telegraph Press; 1929
Witcover J. Sabotage at Black Tam: Imperial Germany’s Secret War in America, 1914 – 1917. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill; 1989
The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, Geneva Switzerland, June 17, 1925
Danzig R, Berkowsky PB.Why should we be concerned about biological warfare?.JAMA.Aug 61997;278(5):431-2
Ferguson JR.Biological weapons and US law.JAMA.Aug 61997;278(5):357-60.[Medline].
US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease.Medical Management of Biological Casualties Handbook.4th ed.Frederick, Md: Fort Detrick:2000.
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/preparedness/bt_public_history.shtm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/chemical_warfare_and_world_war_t.htm