Super toxin among the deadliest

KUALA LUMPUR: VX, the chemical used in the airport murder Kim Jong Nam, is one of the deadliest chemical weapons created by humans. Just 10mg of the nerve agent, or a single drop, is enough to kill in minutes, experts say.

With the texture and feel of engine oil, VX was first produced in the UK in the 1950s. It can cause convulsions, loss of consciousness, paralysis and respiratory failure in minutes.

Its only known use is as a chemical warfare agent: VX is classified as a weapon of mass destruction by the UN.

“You can think of VX as being a pesticide on steroids, this is an extraordinarily toxic substance. Roughly 1/100th of a gram, a third of a drop, on someone’s skin, will kill them,” said Bruce Bennet, defense researcher at Califor nia-based Rand Corporation.

VX and other nerve agents were believed to have been used in chemical warfare during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. In 2015, traces of VX and sarin – another nerve agent – were found at a military research site in Syria that had not been declared to the global chemical weapons watchdog.

Sarin gas was used in Syria, killing hundreds in deadly attacks in 2013, and by members of a Japanese doomsday cult in their deadly 1995 attack on a Tokyo subway.

But VX is known to be much more potent than sarin and other nerve agents because of its persistency. Sarin evaporates from the skin surface but VX does not.

The chemical is hard to produce but a few countries are known to make it and remain in possession of it. The US and Russia still have some VX stockpile.

South Korean analysts have identified sarin and VX as the focus of a North Korean chemical weapons programme. Pyongyang has denied that.

Symptoms after contact with VX in vapour form will appear within a few seconds, and within a few minutes to up to 18 hours after exposure to the liquid form, said John Allum of forensic science firm Hawkins.

VX is considered to be much more toxic by entry through the skin and somewhat more toxic by inhalation. – Reuters