The Chemical and Bacteriological War

Bacteriological warfare: the bombs without a voice. "When they hit the ground there was
no explosion, no shrapnel or flares, only the
shuddering hiss of gas and a strange smell ... like garlic.

At dawn on March 16, 1988, airplanes of the Iraqi Air Force attacked with mute bombs Halabja and other villages controlled by Kurdish separatists in the wild mountains of the north of the country. The bombing lasted only six minutes, but when the roar of the engines died down, hundreds of monstrously swollen corpses - speckled with blood on their ears and nostrils - scattered through the streets. The exact number of deaths was never known. Only that they were the victims of one of the most silent, perverse and terrible forms of killing that mankind has invented: the chemical-bacteriological war.

Shocking inventions such as sarin gas, VX nerve gas, mustard gas, botulinum toxins or anthrax. Sarin, for example, is made from two harmless components used in agriculture, costs little money, can be produced with a few test tubes in a bathroom, requires elementary technology and in its pure form is 500 times more deadly that the hydrocyanic, the substance used to execute condemned to death in the gas chamber.

As a result of the accelerated progress of chemical knowledge that took place in the second half of the nineteenth century, the "silent war" became a threatening possibility.

During the First World War, German troops were the first to use gases (chlorine) in combat. The gas was released silently from cylindrical vessels, and formed clouds that floated in the direction of enemy positions. The first attack that took place on April 22, 1915, caused 20,000 casualties, 5,000 of them fatal. The English response appeared six months later.- In July 1917, the Germans began to use another form of chemical attack, using "mustard gas" grenades. - When the conflict ended, the toxic gases had caused 1,300,000 casualties , of which 92,000 had been fatal. To obtain these results, the nations that intervened in the war used a total of 124,000 tons of gases.
They are usually called gases, although most are liquids that act like dew.

The weakest chemical weapons are the "tear gas"
provoke a burning sensation in the eyes, abundant tearing, difficulty in breathing, tightness in the chest, nausea, desire to vomit, runny nose and involuntary closing of the eyelids.

The "vomitive" gases cause more serious effects. - prepared during the First World War. Its effects are serious, and may persist for more than 20 minutes after the victim has inhaled it. Even more irritating and toxic are the "stinging agents", so called because the affected individuals have the feeling of having been flagellated with horticultural leaves. These gases combine their irritant effects with high toxicity.

Equally terrible are the "asphyxiating agents", generally lethal gases that act through the lungs. Its initial effects are similar to that of the antimanifestaciones and vomitive gases, but after periods of apparent recovery appear the fatal effects. The inhalation of "phosgene" (very irritating gas, mixture of chlorine and carbon oxide) causes the blood to enter the lungs covering the delicate membrane that allows the absorption of oxygen by the alveoli; as a consequence, the victim does not receive his dose of oxygen. On the other hand, the loss of plasma makes the blood more concentrated, which forces the heart to make greater efforts to pump it. Since oxygen is at that moment lacking, death occurs either by suffocation or by heart collapse.

The "vesicants" produce extremely painful pustules that can reach several centimeters in diameter. - The best known example is the "mustard gas called" king of gases ".- Some of its effects are similar to those produced by" phosgene " In addition, it causes eye injuries that are so severe that they often cause blindness.All delicate areas of the nose, throat and lungs are severely affected, and their action on the reproductive system of blood cells reaches cause death The worst thing is that it can be absorbed through the skin.

The "paralyzing" affect the nerves that control the muscles and inhibit the organic enzymes that eliminate the substances formed by nerve impulses And through the skin, the isolated use of gas mask does not offer enough protection. - To avoid its effects it is necessary to cover all the body with clothes specially created for it.