Enviro-Health Links - Chemical Warfare Agents
Overview
- Chemical and Biological Warfare (CBW)
Science Tracer Bullets Online, Library of Congress - Chemical and Biological Weapons: New Questions, New Answers
Hood E. Environmental Health Perspectives.
1999 Dec;107(12):931-932 - Chemical Categories
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Chemical Emergencies
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Chemical Terrorism
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor - Chemical Threat
Ready.gov - Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear Terrorism/Warfare: A bibliography (PDF, 2 MB)
Dudley Knox Library Naval Postgraduate School - Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for Chemical Agents
Noblis™ - Nerve Agents
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry - United States Chemical Weapons Convention Site
Bureau of Industry and Security, U.S. Department of Commerce - Weapons of Mass Destruction - the Terrorist Threat (PDF, 60 KB)
Congressional Research Service - World at Risk
Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism
Classes of Chemical Agents
Nerve Agents
- Health Effects
- Physostigmine cholinesterase inhibitors (reversible)
- Organophosphorus cholinesterase inhibitors (irreversible)
- Disable enzymes responsible for transmitting nerve impulses.
- Initial effects of organophosphorus agents occur within 1-10 minutes of exposure
- Death
-
- Within 15 minutes for Tabun, Sarin, and Soman
- From 4-42 hours for VX.
- Agents Include
- Tabun (NATO military designation, GA)
- Sarin (NATO military designation, GB)
- Soman (NATO military designation, GD)
- GF (Cyclohexyl methylphosphonofluoridate)
- VX (Methylphosphonothioic acid S-(2-(bis(1-methylethyl)amino)ethyl) O-ethyl ester)
- GE (Phosphonofluoridic acid, ethyl-, isopropyl ester)
- VE (Phosphonothioic acid, ethyl-, S-(2-(diethylamino)ethyl) O-ethyl ester)
- VG (Amiton)
- VM (Phosphonothioic acid, methyl-, S-(2-(diethylamino)ethyl) O-ethyl ester)
Blister/Vesicant Agents
- Health Effects
- Vesicants
-
- Skin blisters
- Damage eyes, mucous membranes, respiratory tract, and internal organs
- Initial effects rapid
- Mustard agents
-
- Destroy different substances within cells of living tissue
- Initial effects occur 12 to 24 hours after exposure.
- Symptoms variable
- Acute mortality low
- Death can occur from complications after lung injury.
- Agents Include
Blood Agents
- Health Effects
- Highly volatile
- Rapidly acting
- seizures
- respiratory failure
- cardiac arrest
- Agents Include
- Cyanogen chloride (CK)
- Hydrogen cyanide (AC)
Pulmonary Agents
- Health Effects
- Liquids dispersed in gas form
- Damage the respiratory tract and cause severe pulmonary edema in about four hours, leading to eventual death. Effects are variable
- Rapid or delayed depending on the specific agent.
- Agents Include
- Chlorine
- Chloropicrin (PS)
- Diphosgene (DP)
- Phosgene (CG)
Emergency Response & Treatment
- Biological and chemical terrorism: strategic plan for preparedness and response. Recommendations of the
CDC Strategic Planning Workgroup
2000 Apr 21;49(RR-4):1-14 - Case Definitions for Chemical Poisoning
MMWR Recomm Rep. 2005 Jan 14;4(RR01);1-24 - Chemical Warfare Agents (CWA) and Associated Health Guidelines
U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion & Preventive Medicine - Emergency Room Procedures in Chemical Hazard Emergencies
A Job Aid
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Field Management of Chemical Casualties Handbook (PDF, 435 KB)
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD) - Hazards of chemical weapons release during war: new perspectives.
Reutter S. Environ Health Perspect. 1999 Dec;107(12):985-90 - Medical Management Guidelines for Nerve Agents: Tabun (GA); Sarin (GB); Soman (GD); and VX
Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Medical Management of Chemical Casualties Handbook, 3rd Edition
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD)
Brookside Press - NATO Handbook on the Medical Aspects of NBC Defensive Operations
Departments of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force - Protecting Emergency Responders - Lessons Learned from Terrorist Attacks
RAND Corporation - Public health response to biological and chemical weapons: WHO guidance (2004)
World Health Organization - Textbook of Military Medicine: Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare
The Borden Institute, Office of the Surgeon General, Department of the Army
Counterterrorism & Preparedness
- Chemical, Biological, Radiological & Nuclear Defense Information Analysis Center
Battelle Memorial Institute, Department of Defense - Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program
FEMA.gov - Chemical Weapons Elimination
National Center for Environmental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Emergency Response Guidelines (PDF, 2.8 MB)
U.S. Department of Transportation – Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) - Chemical/Biological Defense
Noblis™ - Counterproliferation Center Chemical Page
U.S. Air Force - Emergency Management
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency - Guide for All-Hazard Emergency Operations Planning: State and Local Guide
Federal Emergency Management Administration - Recommendations for Protecting Human Health Against Potential Adverse Effects of Long-Term Exposure to
Low Doses of Chemical Warfare Agents
MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1988 Feb 12;37(5):72-4, 79
Law and Policy
- Chemical Weapons Convention: Issues for Congress. Update: February 25, 2003 (PDF, 100 KB)
Congressional Research Service - Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Weapons and Missiles: The Current Situation and Trends. Updated 20-Feb-2008 (PDF, 192 KB)
Congressional Research Service - Nuclear, Biological, Chemical, and Missile Proliferation Sanctions: Selected Current Law. Updated October 21, 2005 (PDF, 178KB)
Congressional Research Service
Searches from the National Library of Medicine
PubMed - Biomedical journal literature
- Chemical Warfare
- Hydroxocobalamin as a cyanide antidote
- Hydrogen cyanide
- Lewisite
- Mustard Gas
- Phosgene
- Ricin
- Sarin
- Soman
- Tabun
TOXLINE - special journal literature, technical reports and archival collections
Hazardous Substances Data Bank - Toxicology of potentially hazardous chemicals
ChemIDplus - Chemical identification and structure database
MedlinePlus - Consumer Health Information
Books
- Chemical and Biological Terrorism: Research and Development to Improve Civilian Medical Response.
Committee on R & D Needs for Improving Civilian Medical Response to Chemical and Biological Terrorism Incidents.
Available full-text online
Institute of Medicine, 1999 - Chemical and Biological Warfare: A Comprehensive Survey for the Concerned Citizen.
Croddy, Eric. New York, Springer-Verlag, c2002. - Explosives and Chemical Weapons Identification
James B Crippin Series: Forensic Science Techniques Volume: 2. CRC Press (August, 2005) - Jane's Chem-Bio Handbook: 3rd Edition
Jane's Information Group, c2005 - Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Terrorism: Emergency Response and Public Protection
by Mark E. Byrnes, David A. King, Philip M. Tierno
CRC Press (June 26, 2003) - Preparing for Terrorism: Tools for Evaluating the Metropolitan Medical Response System Program
Available full-text online.
Frederick J. Manning and Lewis Goldfrank, Editors,
Committee on Evaluation of the Metropolitan Medical Response System Program,
Board on Health Sciences Policy, 2002
Portals
- The Chemical-Biological Warfare Exposures Site
Force Health Protection and Readiness, Department of Defense - Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program
U.S. Army - Chemical Weapons Elimination
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism
- U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency
- U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense
Información en español
- Armas químicas y biológicas
FEMA.gov - Ataque químico
Listo.gov - Emergencias químicas
Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades - Exposición a sustancias químicas
Agencia para Sustancias Tóxicas y el Registro de Enfermedades - Emergencias químicas
MedlinePlus en español
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