Warning: some details may be disturbing
There hasn’t been this much news about chemical weapons since Saddam Hussein didn’t have them after all.
First it was the Skripals, father and daughter, apparently poisoned by some kind of nerve agent in Britain. More recently, it has been Syrian civilians, hundreds of them, including children and elderly.
In both cases, the perpetrator hasn’t been conclusively proven. The U.K. holds Russia responsible for the attack on the Skripals, possibly as revenge for his having betrayed his own government by providing secret information to British Intelligence.
Similarly, the western nations blame Syria’s ruler, Bashar Al Assad, for the poison gas attacks on civilians in a suburb of Damascus, one of the last stands of Syrian rebels.
In all this finger-pointing, I see very few media commentators examining the nature of the weapons themselves.
So here’s a brief history — Chemical Weapons 101, perhaps.
In one sense, chemical weapons have always existed. Even primitive tribes in the Amazon coated the tips of their spears and arrows with natural poisons.
Modern chemical warfare began in the First World War, when German armies released chlorine gas so that favourable winds would carry it across Allied trenches. Soldiers who didn’t die suffered lifelong damage to their lungs.
Both sides, apparently, also used mustard gas against opposing forces. And other chemical weapons such as prussic acid, phosgene, and diphosgene.
The shock and horror about these chemical weapons resulted in their use being banned by all countries after World War I.
But, that didn’t stop countries from developing increasingly toxic weapons.
The second generation of chemical weapons was developed mainly in the western world — since the losers in World War II no longer had the capabilities of doing so.
In the 1950s, the U.S., Sweden, and Britain created what were called the V-gases, commonly known as Sarin, Soman, and Tabun.
The poison itself is an oily liquid, soluble in water, that can be sprayed or smeared on its victims. The poison penetrates through the lungs or the skin. Depending on the dose, it can act within minutes, or less commonly, in four to six hours.
When the U.K. renounced chemical weapons in 1968, the secret formula for VX was passed to the U.S. A small amount that escaped from the U.S. army testing ground in Utah killed 3,000 sheep grazing 27 miles away.
VX may have been used in the Iran-Iraq war. In a gang war in Japan. And to assassinate the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia.
But, that’s only the second generation of chemical weapons.
The third generation was developed in Russia, during the Cold War period.
Previous chemical weapons had been “unitary.” That is, they had to be fully prepared for use in a secure laboratory. Russia developed “binary” chemical weapons — two chemicals that do not react to produce their lethal effects until mixed. The two components can safely be transported separately; they may even be available as common agricultural pesticides.
Russian propaganda claims they are the most deadly nerve agents ever created, as much as ten times more potent than VX.
The Novichok poison used on Sergei and Yulia Skripal is one of these binary products. Current suspicions say that it may have been used as a powder, placed on a doorknob, where the binary components would be activated by the pressure and moisture of a hand gripping that doorknob.
In the world of lethal toxins, Novichok is the new kid on the block. In Russian, novichok means “newcomer.”
Nerve gases get their name because their primary effect is on the central nervous system. The pupils of the eyes constrict to pinpoints. Victims see haloes, circles, flashing lights. The gut contracts; victims lose control of their bladders and bowels. They may vomit; they may foam at the mouth. Larger muscles go into spasms.
Not surprisingly, victims of nerve gases are sometimes assumed to be having epileptic seizures.
Atropine injections can counteract the poisons, if administered soon enough and often enough. That may be why the Skripals are now recovering; the British medical system was able to act within minutes. The Syrian victims are not so lucky — if there were supplies of atropine at all, there would certainly not be enough to treat an entire community.
Nerve poisons are horrifying. Even more horrifying is that there are people who spend all day, every working day, working to make these toxic weapons even more deadly.
And there are governments that pay them to do it. In our name. With our tax dollars. Jim Taylor is an Okanagan Centre author and freelance journalist. He can be reached at rewrite@shaw.ca. This column appears Saturdays.