1. Chapter on Chemistry and Warfare

2. Figure 2: The use of "Greek fire"
Credit: Bridgeman Art Library

3. Chapter Learning Objectives
By the end of the chapter, you will recognize that
The ability to produce weapons that specifically target living organisms is closely tied to recent advances in chemistry.
Chemical weapons are classified according to mode of action, including lung irritants (such as chlorine gas), vesciants (such as mustard gas), respiratory poisons (such as cyanide), and nerve agents (such as VX).

4. Chapter Learning Objectives (cont)
Biological weapons, which are derived from living organisms, include viruses, bacteria, and toxic compounds found in nature.
Paradoxically, the same advances in our understanding of infectious agents that have led to decreases in deaths from infectious disease have led to refinement of biological weapons.

5. Chapter Outline Early Use of Chemistry in Warfare Black Powder
An explosive mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur developed by the Chinese in the 10th century. An alternate source of potassium nitrate is found in bird droppings.
High Explosives
Exemplified by nitroglycerine or trinitrotoluene (TNT), which contains internal nitro groups (-NO2) that rapidly oxidize the rest of the molecule
Detonation results in a volume expansion because of a rapid release of heat and gaseous products.

6. High Explosives, which decompose entirely to gaseous products in a process called detonation.
NO2
NO2
NO2
NO2
Nitroglycerine
2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT)

7. Factors Affecting Volume of a Gas

8. Figure 4: Fritz Haber(left, with Albert Einstein),a pioneer of gas warfare
Fritz Haber (left) with Albert Einstein. Haber, who pioneered gas warfare, said on receiving his Nobel Prize, “In no future war will the military be able to ignore poison gas. It is a higher form of killing.”
Credit: AIP Emilio Segre Visual Archives

9. Chapter Outline Early Use of Chemistry in Warfare (cont)
Harassing Agents
Compounds such as teargas that temporarily incapacitate, rather than kill, the target
The first step towards lethal chemical warfare in World War I

10. Chapter Outline Chemical Warfare Agents Definition Classes
Chemical substances, whether gaseous, liquid, or solid, which are used because of their direct toxic effects on humans, animals, or plants
Classes
Classified by their mode of action: lung irritants, vesicants, respiratory poisons, nerve agents, hallucinogens, and herbicides

11. Table 1: Types of Chemical Warfare Agents Classes of Chemical Weapons
Chemical weapons are molecules that have selectively toxic effects on a living target.

12. Chapter Outline Chemical Warfare Agents (cont) Lung Irritants
Damage lung tissue directly or via reaction to produce a corrosive compound
Exemplified by chlorine gas (Cl2)
Cl2 is a powerful oxidizing agent and also reacts with H2O in the lungs to form hypochlorous acid (HOCl), which oxidizes cellular molecules.
Lung irritants, or choking agents, damage cells within the bronchial passages, leading to leakage of fluid into the lungs

13. Table 2: Examples of Lung Irritants

14. Action of Hypochlorous Acid (HOCl)

15. Figure 6: Chlorine gas attack in World War I
Credit: Corbis

16. Figure 7: Early Allied gas masks, known as P-helmets
Credit: Corbis

17. Chapter Outline Chemical Warfare Agents (cont) Vesicants
Produce painful blisters within any exposed tissue
Exemplified by mustard gas
Use of mustard gas in warfare led to the discovery that related compounds are useful anticancer drugs because they damage DNA
Vesicants, which include mustard gas, produce painful burns and blisters within any exposed tissue.

18. Action of Nitrogen Mustard

19. Chapter Outline Chemical Warfare Agents (cont) Respiratory Poisons
Interfere with oxygen use at the molecular level
Exemplified by cyanide
Cyanide leads to rapid death by inhibiting cytochrome oxidase, an enzyme essential for ATP production during cellular respiration.
Respiratory poisons block an organism’s use of oxygen at the cellular level.

20. Action of Cyanide
Inactivates an enzyme essential for production of ATP through aerobic metabolism.

21. Chapter Outline Chemical Warfare Agents (cont) Nerve Agents
Inactivate the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, which is essential for muscle contraction. The result is rapid death by respiratory paralysis.
Exemplified by VX a new compound ideal for total destruction of a battlefield.
Atropine acts as an antidote for nerve agents by blocking the acetylcholine receptor.
Nerve agents block the normal transmission of nerve impulses from the brain to the muscles, leading to uncontrolled muscle contraction, convulsions, and respiratory paralysis.

22. Table 3: Organophosphorus Nerve Gases

23. Figure 11: Nicholas Cage handling VX gas in The Rock
In the movie The Rock (1996), biochemist Stanley Goodspeed is called in to help save San Francisco from a commando attack with VX gas. During his mission, he is exposed to the deadly chemical but fortunately is prepared with a syringe of atropine.
Credit: Zuma Press

24. Action of Atropine
Atropine blocks the receptor for acetylcholine (ACh) so that no messages can be received by the muscle, thereby blocking the effects of a nerve agent.

25. Experimental drugs may be factors in Gulf War syndrome
Credit: Corbis

26. Chapter Outline Chemical Warfare Agents (cont)
Hallucinogens are compounds that cause an individual to experience things that not real.
Harassing agents that induce delusions and hallucinations
Exemplified by LSD
Herbicides are compound that are selectively toxic to plants.
Selectively toxic to plants
Exemplified by Agent Orange

27. Table 4: Chemical Agents Used and Estimated Effects in World War I
Credit: Data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI),
The Rise of CB Weapons, Vol. 1. Stockholm: SIPRI, 1971.

28. Figure 14: In Europe, cleaning up explosives from both world wars continues
Credit: Zuma Press

29. Table 5: Reported Cases of Post-World War II Use of Chemical Weapons

30. Chapter Outline Biological Warfare Agents Definition Early Examples
Living organisms such as bacteria or toxic material derived from them, which are intended to cause disease or death in humans, animals, or plants
Early Examples
Disease-infected cadavers, blankets, and clothing
Arrow poisons
Biological weapons are disease-causing agents such as bacteria and viruses or their toxic products

31. Chapter Outline Biological Warfare Agents (cont)
Types of Modern Bioweapons
Bacteria: e.g., Bacillus anthracis, used by unknown parties to perpetrate the 2001 anthrax attacks.
Viruses: e.g., variola, which causes smallpox and may be an emerging threat because individuals are no longer vaccinated against it.
Toxins: e.g., botulinum toxin, produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum; lethal at doses of 1 ng/kg.

32. Figure 17: The arrow poison frog of South America
Credit: Corbis

33. Figure 19: The marine organisms Palythoa
Credit: Corbis

34. Table 6: Types of Biological Warfare Agents

35. Figure 23: One castor bean seed can kill a child; eight can kill an adult
Credit: Peter Arnold

36. Weaponized Anthrax

37. Chapter Outline Biological Weapons Programs Unit 731 (Japan)
The world’s first biological warfare compound, World War II
Porton Down (Great Britain)
Chemical (and later biological) weapons facility constructed in response to Germany’s chlorine attack in World War I

38. Chapter Outline Biological Weapons Programs (cont)
Camp Detrick (U.S.A.)
Site of World War II “cloud chamber” experiments on both test animals and human volunteers that demonstrated the viability of biological bombs to spread disease
Biopreparat (Soviet Union)
A massive effort that encompassed over forty research and production facilities across the country and led to a deadly outbreak of anthrax following an accidental release of B. anthracis

39. Table 7: Timeline of Bioterror Events

40. Figure 28a: Growing microbes in the lab takes days
Credit: Courtesy of Julie Millard

41. Figure 28b: New microbe tests include handheld devices like this
Credit: Courtesy, Tetracore Inc.

42. Key Words Black powder High explosives Harassing agents
Chemical weapons
Lung irritants
Vesicants
Respiratory poisons
Nerve agents
Hallucinogens
Herbicides
Biological weapons
Biological toxins