1. Chemical Weapons
Weapons of Mass Destruction, Chemical Weapons, Biological Weapons
(Nukes get their own lesson)

2. What do you know ALREADY?
What happened in Syria last week?
Besides Sarin gas, can you name another chemical weapon?
Do you know of any other time when a chemical weapon was used?
Can you name a Biological weapon?
Do you know of a time when a biological weapon was used?
Do you know what a “Dirty Bomb” is?
Have you ever heard of VX? Ricin? Anthrax?

3. A brief reminder of what’s going on in syria
Updated version:

4. What Just Happened in Syria last week
At least 80 people have been killed in a suspected chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun in NW Syria.
The opposition and Western powers said it was a Syrian government air strike
The Syrian military denied using any chemical agents
Syria’s ally Russia said an air strike hit a rebel depot full of chemical munitions

5. What Happened?
Witnesses say warplanes attacked Khan Sheikhoun early on April 4, when many people were asleep
Victims experienced symptoms including redness of the eyes, foaming from the mouth, constricted pupils, blue facial skin and lips, severe shortness of breath and asphyxiation
At least 84 people were killed, including 27 children and 19 women
Another 546 people were injured

6. It’s Being Investigated
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is currently investigating the matter
The OPCW will not be able to confirm anything until samples are tested at an accredited laboratory
But a doctor who treated some of the casualties believes it was the nerve agent Sarin
He noted that when the most serious cases were given an antidote for Sarin poisoning their conditions became stable and they survived

7. The Syrian Government says…
“It was their own chemical stockpile blowing up!”
The Syrian military categorically denied the use of "any chemical or toxic substance" in Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday, adding that the military "has never used them, anytime, anywhere, and will not do so in the future."
Russia said the Syrian air force did actually strike Khan Sheikhoun that night, but that the target had been "a large terrorist ammunition depot" on its eastern outskirts. They said this depot had a chemical weapon stockpile. (There’s no proof of this.)
“We would never do that!”

8. But…they’ve probably done this before
Reputable sources say that government helicopters dropped chlorine bombs on rebel-held areas of Aleppo on at least eight occasions between last winter, killing nine civilians
In 2013 there were chemical attacks in areas of Syria.
Estimates of the death toll range from at least ,729
The attack was the deadliest use of chemical weapons since the Iran–Iraq War
The rebels, the Arab League, and the EU blamed the government

9. They were supposed to get rid of it all
After the 2013 attacks, the U.N. Security Council ordered Syria to account for and destroy its chemical weapons stockpile
Assad's government disclosed it had some 1,300 tons of chemical weapons, including sarin, VX nerve agent and mustard gas.
In 2014 OPCW said the entire stockpile had been removed and destroyed.

10. What is Sarin? Sarin is highly toxic - 20 times as deadly as cyanide
Sarin inhibits the action of a certain enzyme, which deactivates signals that cause human nerve cells to fire
The heart and other muscles spasm
Sufficient exposure can lead to death via asphyxiation within minutes
Sarin is almost impossible to detect because it is a clear, colourless and tasteless liquid that has no odour in its purest form
It can also evaporate and spread through the air

11. What is a chemical weapon?
A chemical agent is a substance, intended for use in military operations, that uses chemicals to kill, seriously injure or incapacitate people
Chemical weapons can be widely dispersed in gas, liquid and solid forms

12. They’re prohibited
The 1925 Geneva Protocol was the first international law to prohibit the use of poisonous gas as a weapon of war.
The 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention took it a step further and asked signatories to stop producing chemical weapons and to safely destroy existing stockpiles of chemical arsenals.
Both the United States and Russia, the two countries with the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons, signed the convention and are still in the process of destroying their arsenals -- a slow, careful containment process that must be overseen by the OPCW.
Syria, North Korea, Egypt and Angola are the only countries that have not yet signed this treaty. Israel and Myanmar (Burma) have signed the treaty but have not ratified it.

13. Who Has Them? Albania (in the past) North Korea China (probable)
Egypt (probable)
India (in the past)
Iran
Iraq (they may not have destroyed their whole stockpile)
Israel (they may not have destroyed it)
Japan
Libya (in the past)
Myanmar (probable)
North Korea
Pakistan (probable)
Russia
Serbia (former Yugoslavia)
Sudan (possible)
Syria
Taiwan (possible)
USA

14. The Types of Chemical Weapons

15. 1. Blister Agent
a chemical compound that causes severe skin, eye and mucosal pain and irritation.
They are named for their ability to cause severe chemical burns
Mustard gas is in this category
Victims who survive exposure to these has a higher chance of getting cancer later
Mustard gas has been used against: Italy against Ethiopia, Iraq against the Kurds, Sudan in their civil war, and of course in WW1

16. 2. Blood Agent
a toxic chemical agent that affects the body by being absorbed into the blood.
Blood agents are fast-acting, potentially lethal poisons that typically manifest at room temperature as volatile colorless gases with a faint odor.
They are either cyanide- or arsenic-based.

17. 3. Choking agent
AKA a pulmonary agent, is a chemical weapon agent designed to impede a victim's ability to breathe.
Ex: chlorine gas, phosgene
They operate by causing a build-up of fluids in the lungs, which then leads to suffocation.
Inhalation of these agents cause burning of the throat, coughing, vomiting, headache, pain in chest, tightness in chest, and respiratory and circulatory failure.

18. 4. Nerve agent
Nerve agents are a class of phosphorus-containing organic chemicals that disrupt the mechanisms by which nerves transfer messages to organs.
Sarin gas and VX are in this category
•VX is the most potent of all nerve agents, and is one of the deadliest chemicals ever created by man.
A victim can be subjected to as little as 10mg and be dead within 15 minutes.
This is what was used to assassinated Kim Jong-un’s brother

19. Other chemical weapon attacks

20. Sarin gas in tokyo
The 1995 Tokyo subway sarin attack was an act of domestic terrorism
Done by members of a doomsday cult
In 5 coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on three lines of the Tokyo subway during the rush hour, killing 12 people, severely injuring 50 and causing temporary vision problems for nearly 5,000 others.

21. Chemical attack on The Kurds
The Halabja chemical attack was a massacre against the Kurdish people – a genocide
Happened in March 1988, during the closing days of the Iran–Iraq War
The attack killed between 3,200- 5,000 people and injured 7, ,000 more, most of them civilians.
Thousands more died of complications, diseases, and birth defects in the years after the attack
It is believed that Iraqi forces used multiple chemical agents during the attack, including (mustard gas) and nerve agents

22. Other Weapons of mass destruction

23. Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD)
a chemical, biological or nuclear weapon capable of causing widespread death and destruction.
The term was first used in 1937 in reference to the aerial bombardment of Guernica, Spain
After the September 11, 2001 attacks and the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, an increased fear of nonconventional weapons took hold in many countries.
The fear reached a crescendo with the 2002 alleged existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that became the primary justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
However, American forces found none in Iraq.

24. Biological weapons
is a bacterium, virus, protozoan, parasite, or fungus that can be used purposefully as a weapon in bioterrorism or biological warfare
Some have the capability of person-to-person transmission via a spray
Examples: anthrax, ricin, small pox, etc

25. The Biological Weapons Convention (1972) is an international treaty banning the use or stockpiling of bio-agents; as of February there were 171 state signatories.
Bio-agents are, however, widely studied for defensive purposes under various biosafety levels and within biocontainment facilities throughout the world.
Who has them: China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Taiwan

26. Historical biological warfare
In 1346, the bodies of Mongol warriors of the Golden Horde who had died of plague were thrown over the walls of the besieged Crimean city of Kaffa.
During WW2 the UK developed its own biological weapons but never used them
Japan used biological weapons against the Chinese in several military campaigns.
In 1940, the Japanese Army Air Force bombed Ningbo with ceramic bombs full of fleas carrying the bubonic plague.
Many of these operations were ineffective due to inefficient delivery systems, although up to 400,000 people may have died

27. Smallpox blankets
The British Army used smallpox against Native Americans during the Siege of Fort Pitt in 1763.
The British gave them a gift of some blankets and linens – they were from a smallpox infirmary
Hundreds of people died

28. Anthrax in the mail
These attacks happened over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks.
Letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two Democratic U.S. Senators
5 people died and 17 others were infected
The main suspect committed suicide

29. What is ricin?
is a highly toxic, naturally occurring lectin (a carbohydrate-binding protein) produced in the seeds of the castor oil plant
A dose of purified ricin powder the size of a few grains of table salt can kill an adult human
Ricin is very poisonous if inhaled, injected, or ingested. It can also be poisonous if dust contacts the eyes or if it is absorbed through damaged skin
Symptoms can take 2-5 days to appear

30. Ricin Attacks
In 1978, the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was assassinated by Bulgarian secret police who surreptitiously shot him on a London street with a modified umbrella using compressed gas to fire a tiny pellet contaminated with ricin into his leg.
He died in a hospital a few days later
The prime suspects were the Bulgarian secret police: Markov had defected from Bulgaria and had subsequently written books that were highly critical of the Bulgarian communist regime.
However, it was believed at the time that Bulgaria would not have been able to produce the pellet, so it was believed that the KGB had supplied it.

31. Radiological weapons
any weapon that is designed to spread radioactive material with the intent to kill and cause disruption
“Dirty bomb” uses conventional explosives to spread radioactive material, most commonly the spent fuels from nuclear power plants or radioactive medical waste
These are not nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons involve a complex nuclear-fission reaction and are thousands of times more devastating.
They are nothing more than some kind of contaminated material that is rigged with conventional explosives.
A dirty bomb has never been detonated

32. WMD Video
“Weapons of Mass Destruction”, 16 min
“Can chemical and biological weapons save lives?” 15 min