Chemical Warfare

The development, production, and deployment of war gases such as chlorine, phosgene, and mustard created a new and complex public health threat that endangered not only soldiers and civilians on the battlefield but also chemical workers on the homefront involved in the large-scale manufacturing processes. The main reason for the effectiveness of the first chlorine attack was that the troops on the receiving end did not know what they were facing. As the green-tinged cloud washed over them and the chemical began taking effect, panic struck, resulting in many soldiers either running away or dropping down into the trenches. Both options proved fatal for many. By withdrawing with the movement of the cloud, many prolonged their exposure to the gas. …show more content…
Responding to the sound of a specific whistle, clanging alarm bell, or shout, soldiers would move with all due speed to put on their masks or hoods. Far from embracing gas masks as a life-saving technology, soldiers felt emasculated and claustrophobic in them. As one soldier noted the tragic effects of these chemical weapon, “The mask makes you feel only half a man. The air you breathe has been filtered of all save a few chemical substances. A man doesn’t live on what passes through the filter—he merely exists” (Winter). Additionally, the use of chemical weapons in World War I spurred the American chemical industry, transforming it into a major industry even before the the entry of the United States into the war. The expansion of research brought in an array of specialists from chemistry, physics, and engineering and, increasingly, from medicine, biology, and physiology, further blurring ethical demarcations in medical research. During the last years of the war, it promoted an annihilation myth: the belief that the populations of cities could be wiped out by airplanes delivering chemical bombs against urban centers, showing how chemical weapons have planted a seed of fear and paranoia in the public’s minds which cannot be taken