Biological and Chemical Warfare 1

Biological and Chemical Warfare

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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.

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.

Chemical warfare is the use of chemical substances with toxic effects

to incapacitate, injure or kill. During the 20th century alone, over 70

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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

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cast aspersions that possibly obscures the actual science or the root cause of

the weapons.

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.

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

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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.

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.

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

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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.

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

dystery, 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

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

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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.

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

although the Maryland facility produced more than 5000 anthrax “bombs.”

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.

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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

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

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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

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.

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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.

Recent findings have uncovered chemical weapons are at least 2000

years old as well. A British researcher found the first physical evidene 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

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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

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.

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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.

WWII

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.

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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.

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

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.

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

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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

on the terrorists. All of the 42 hostage takers and 119 of the hostages died

as a result of the gas agent.

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

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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.

Sociopolitical Climate of Chemical Warfare

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.

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