Chemical warfare

Soldiers wearing gas masks

A Swedish Army soldier wearing a chemical agent protective suit (C-vätskeskydd) and protection mask (skyddsmask 90).

Chemical warfare means using chemical compounds in war to injure or kill people. The chemicals used for chemical warfare are poisonous.

Chemical warfare has been used since the Stone Age. Since 1899, several international laws have said that using chemical weapons is illegal. But chemical weapons have still been used in wars since then.

Definition

Chemical weapons are different than regular weapons (like bombs) or nuclear weapons because they do not explode. Some chemical weapons are meant to kill people; they do this by poisoning them. Other chemical weapons are meant to "incapacitate" people (make them unable to fight back). They do this by causing pain, injuries, or sickness.

Chemical warfare does not include using living organisms (like anthrax bacteria) to make people sick. That is called biological warfare.

However, some living organisms make toxins (poisons). These toxins are not alive. For example, botulinum toxin is made by a bacteria, and ricin is made by the castor oil plant. Because botulinum toxin and ricin are not alive, using them to make people sick is called chemical warfare. This is explained in the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The Convention also says that any toxic chemical is a chemical weapon unless it is used for legal reasons.

About 70 different chemicals have been used or stockpiled (saved up) as chemical warfare agents during the 20th century. The Chemical Weapons Convention says that all of these chemicals should be destroyed.

The Chemical Weapons Convention lists three different groups of chemicals. These are chemicals that are poisonous enough to be used as chemical weapons, or chemicals that may be used to make chemical weapons.

• Schedule 1 Substances (Chemicals): These chemicals can be used for nothing but chemical weapons (or for very few other things). Because of this, they may only be made or used for research; medicine; to make medications or antidotes; or for protective reasons (for example, to test chemical weapons sensors, which can tell when a chemical weapon is nearby, or to test protective clothing). Examples include nerve agents, ricin, lewisite and mustard gas. If a country makes over 100 grams of any of these chemicals, the country must report this to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). A country may have a stockpile of no more than one ton of these chemicals.
• Schedule 2 Substances: These chemicals have some specific uses other than chemical warfare, but not many. For example, dimethyl methylphosphonate can be used to make sarin. But it is also used as a flame retardant. Another example is Thiodiglycol, which can be used to make mustard gas. But is also widely used as to make inks.
• Schedule 3 Substances: These chemicals have many uses other than chemical warfare. One example is phosgene. It can be used as a chemical weapon, but it is also an important chemical used to make plastics. Another example is chloropicrin, which has also been used as a chemical weapon, but is also used as a fumigant (for example, to kill insects in a house). The OPCW must be told of, and may inspect, any company that makes more than 30 tons of these chemicals in a year.

Technology

Chemical warfare technology timeline

	Chemical Weapons Used	How Were They Used?	How Did People Try to Protect Themselves?	How Did People Recognize the Weapon?
1914	Chlorine Chloropicrin Phosgene Mustard gas	The chemicals were spread by wind	Gas masks Gauze that had been urinated on	Smell
1918	Lewisite	Chemical shells (projectiles filled with chemicals)	Gas mask Rosin oil clothing	Smell of geraniums (a type of flower)
1920s		Projectiles with central bursters	CC-2 protective clothing
1930s	G-series nerve agents	Bombs dropped from airplanes		Blister agent detectors Color change paper
1940s		Missiles filled with chemicals warheads Spray tanks	Protective ointment (mustard) Collective protection Gas mask with Whetlerite
1950s
1960s	V-series nerve agents	Aerodynamic	Gas mask w/ water supply	Nerve gas alarm
1970s
1980s		Binary weapons (once fired, two chemicals inside mix to make the chemical weapon)	Improved gas masks (better protection, fit, and comfort)	Laser detection
1990s	Novichok nerve agents

History

Although crude chemical warfare has been employed in many parts of the world for thousands of years, "modern" chemical warfare began during World War I - see Chemical weapons in World War I.

Initially, only well-known commercially available chemicals and their variants were used. These included chlorine and phosgene gas. The methods used to disperse these agents during battle were relatively unrefined and inefficient. Even so, casualties could be heavy, due to the mainly static troop positions which were characteristic features of trench warfare.

Germany, the first side to employ chemical warfare on the battlefield, simply opened canisters of chlorine upwind of the opposing side and let the prevailing winds do the dissemination. Soon after, the French modified artillery munitions to contain phosgene – a much more effective method that became the principal means of delivery.

Since the development of modern chemical warfare in World War I, nations have pursued research and development on chemical weapons that falls into four major categories: new and more deadly agents; more efficient methods of delivering agents to the target (dissemination); more reliable means of defense against chemical weapons; and more sensitive and accurate means of detecting chemical agents. Germany was the first to produce chemical agents.

Use in antiquity

The first form of chemical warfare was in the form of poisoned arrows, and spear-tips, during the Stone age. These were dipped in poison (like that from snakes or scorpions. Sometimes poisonous plants were used. The Ancient Chinese used various forms of poisonous smokes, when they besieged a city. Ancient Greeks used a form of burning wood, pitch, and sulphur.

World War One

Poison gas was first used in World War One. France was the first country to make this type of gas. However, Germany was the first to use it in battle on March 15th, 1915, when they used tear gas against France. It was included in some of the new, deadly weapons of World War One.

The three types of gas used in World War One were chlorine gas (tear gas), phosgene gas, and mustard gas. Tear gas made a person cough and go blind very fast. Phosgene caused a person to cough and choke much worse than tear gas. Mustard gas was the worst gas because it almost impossible to protect against. It caused sores on the outside and inside of the body.

Modern use

They were not used very much in World War II, apart by the Japanese army during the invasion of China. This was because, everybody was afraid that the other side would use weapons like theirs. Also, chemical weapons were not easy to use. The time taken to use them, slowed the advance of one's own troops. The raw materials for producing chemical weapons were not easy to get. This was because World War II was fought in areas which were not connected well by railroads.

During the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq used chemical weapons, but not Iran. Many people believe that Iraq used chemical weapons against Kurdish people.

United States has been an active user of chemical weapons like Agent Orange even after World War II. However, when UN formed a working group in 1980 that works for making the number of chemical weapons in the world less, On April 4, 1984 the President of United States, Ronald Reagan called for a worldwide ban on chemical weapons. After this, negotiations between various countries started. The Chemical Weapons Convention was signed in 1993 and came into effect in 1997. Experts believe that 70,000 metric tons of chemical weapons are known to be present totally in this world. Out of this, 8000 metric tons have been destroyed in the past few years. By 2003, United States had destroyed 23% of its total chemical weapons. Other countries like India, South Korea and Russia are destroying chemical weapons under the CWC. Libya is also destroying its weapons in the last few years.

It has been reported that many other countries like People's Republic of China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Serbia and Montenegro have chemical weapons.

Laws about chemical weapons

According to international law, it is wrong to use chemical weapons. There are many rules that ban the production, import and use of chemical weapons. Of these the most important is the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

Chemical agents

The main types of agents used in chemical warfare are:

• Nerve agents
• Mustard agents
• Hydrogen cyanide-based agents
• botulinum
• Arsines
• Toxins
• Tear gases
• pepper spray
• Incapacitating agents such as
  • Psychotomimetic agents
• Potential chemical warfare agents

If we use chemicals (like Agent Orange or glyphosate) to destroy plants, sometimes human beings may be affected by side-effects. But, we will not call it chemical warfare. Chemical warfare covers only direct attacks on human life.