Sinopsis
For centuries extremely toxic chemicals have been used in wars, conflicts, terrorists’, extremists’ and dictators’ activities, malicious poisonings, and executions. One of the earliest forms of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) were natural toxins from plants or animals, which were used to coat arrowheads, commonly referred to as ‘‘arrow poisons’’. Ancient use of some CWAs and riot control agents (RCAs) dates back to the 5th century BC, during the Peloponnesian War, when the Spartans used smoke from burning coal, sulfur, and pitch to temporarily incapacitate and confuse occupants of Athenian strongholds. The Spartans also used bombs made of sulfur and pitch to overcome the enemy. The Romans used irritant clouds to drive out adversaries from hidden dwellings. In the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci proposed the use of a powder
of arsenic sulfide as a chemical weapon. Modern use of CWAs and RCAs or incapacitating agents dates back to World War I (WWI).
With advancements in science and chemistry in the 19th century, the possibility of chemical warfare increased tremendously. The first full-scale use of chemical warfare agents began in April of 1915 when German troops launched a poison gas attack at Ypres, Belgium, using 168 tons of chlorine gas, killing about 5,000 Allied (British, French, and Canadian) soldiers. During WWI, the deployment of CWAs, including toxic gases (chlorine, phosgene, cyanide, and mustard), irritants, and vesicants in massive quantities (about 125,000 tons), resulted in about 90,000 fatalities and 1.3 million non-fatal casualties. The majority of the deaths in WWI were a result of exposure to chlorine and phosgene gases. During the Holocaust, the Nazis used carbon monoxide and the insecticide Zyklon-B, containing hydrogen cyanide, to kill several million people in extermination camps. Poison gases were also used during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943. Again, in November 1978, religious cult leader Jim Jones murdered over 900 men, women and children with cyanide.
