Lewisite

commercially available for first responders in contending with a blister agent incident. Weaponized blister agent was born in war; the threat of usage by terrorists or an accidental release, requires that first responders be knowledgeable and equipped to perform their mission if encountering a blister agent incident. Vesicants, commonly known as blister agents, are categorized into three groups: Sulphur mustards, nitrogen mustards and lewisite. Sulphur mustards are, as the name implies. Sulphur based and include mustard gas of the type first used during World War I and, most recently during the Iran-Iraq War (OSHA n.d.). Not widely known, is that mustard gas bombs were used by Egyptian troops against royalist troops in North Yemen during the 1963-1967 war (Medscape 2016). Nitrogen mustards are similar to their mustard based cousins, except being based on nitrogen. Lewisite, was an early type of arsenic based blister agent developed during World War I, but not used in that conflict and rendered obsolete by 1940 by the British created anti-Lewisite medicine Dimercaprol. These agents are oily and act by way of contact with the skin and inhalation. These agents can be encountered as a heavier than air vapor or a liquid with an odor of mustard, onion, garlic, or horseradish. The chemical compound causes severe skin, mucosal and eye irritation and the chemical burns produce painful, fluid-filled blisters on the victims. Exposure to vapors commonly results in effects to the…

Speech In January 1944, a 17-year-old Navy seaman named Nathan Schnurman volunteered to test protective clothing for the Navy. He was told that it was safe he was just Following orders, he wore a gas mask and special clothes and was escorted into a 10-foot by 10-foot chamber, which was then locked from the outside. Sulfur mustard and Lewisite, poisonous gasses used in chemical weapons, were released into the chamber and for one hour each day for five days, the seaman sat in this noxious vapor,…

Blistering agents are one of the most commonly used chemical weapon. These blistering agents consist of sulfur mustard, nitrogen mustard, lewisite and phosgene oxime (“Blister Agents”, 2017). According to “Blister Agents” (2017), “Blister agents were first tested in combat in 1917 by Germany and have been used in several conflicts since, notable in the Iran-Iran War (1980-88)” (p. 1). According to “Blister Agents,” (2017), “Mustard agent was first used as a CW (chemical weapon) agent during the…

gas to breathe. The inhumanness of the Nazis is shown in the fact they tricked and packed naked people who were thinking they were going to receive a shower before getting work, then suffocating to death with others. While the purpose of the Nazi’s gas chambers were to rid of the unwanted people in the state, the Americans gassed for the experimentation of product testing in the 1940’s. As noted by War Is Crime, the United States “tested the effectiveness of gas masks and protective clothing by…

injured (Morgan). Other choking gases that were used in WW1 include diphosgene (trychloromethyl chloroformate), chloropicrin (trichloronitromethane) was discovered in 1848 and was used by the Russians, ethyldichloroasine (DICK), and perfluoroisobutylene (PFIB) 10 times more lethal than phosgene and was also prepared by Russia (Morgan). These types of gas were used in both WW1 and WW2 and were classified as being “unconventional” because they don’t rely on a force to injure or kill. Some of the…

“confidence in the treaty requires trust.” In a situation of high stress or lack of trust “nations may conclude that the risks of abiding by a treaty that others may be violating undetected are simply not worth it.” This resultant discretion leaves room for signatory countries to either covertly or openly defy the parts or the entire agreement, and countries. Practice and Implications As a consequence of the high degree of latitude in the protocol, countries have both openly and covertly…