Iraq’s Chemical Arms: Easily Concocted and Deadly

The chemical weapons stockpiled by Iraq can wreak havoc on the human body. Extremely toxic even when inhaled in relatively small amounts, chemical weapons unleash devastating effects ranging from severe eye, lung and skin burns to virtually immediate death.

Ironically, such weapons, which include nerve agents, cyanide and mustard gas, can be easily concocted in a makeshift laboratory using formulas from a chemistry textbook. Also, the dramatic effectiveness of chemical weaponry makes it almost impossible to effectively defend against, said Dr. Jane Orient, an internist at the University of Arizona.

Iraq is generally believed to have used nerve agents and mustard gas during the last years of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War and against Kurds in northern Iraq.

Mustard gas can burn and blisters whatever it touches, said Gregory A. Thompson, director of the Drug Information Service at the USC Medical Center. When inhaled in large enough quantities, however, it can cause death within 24 to 48 hours.

Victims’ blistered lungs fill with fluid and they essentially drown, he explained. For some others who survive initially, the gas can act as a poison, typically causing lethal damage to DNA--the blueprint of life--contained in cells. Victims die within four to six weeks as their immune systems become severely suppressed and fail to fight infection.

Cyanide, which is lethal in smaller doses than mustard gas, works by interfering with the transport of oxygen in the blood stream, and victims suffocate in a matter of minutes, Thompson said.

Nerve agents are probably the most feared of all chemical weapons because they are deadly even at extremely small doses, Thompson said.

“Inhalation of a drop of nerve agent the size of a pin point is a sufficient amount to kill,” he said. The agents essentially overstimulate the nervous system, leading to convulsions, blindness, unconsciousness and, ultimately, death from respiratory failure.

One type of nerve agent, VX, remains toxic for several weeks after it is dispersed into the environment, Thompson said.

Soldiers are able to protect themselves from chemical warfare by wearing gas masks and heavy, burdensome body gear. While offering sufficient protection against lethal chemicals, the bodysuits often prevent effective military combat, Orient said. Each U.S. soldier also carries three injectors of atropine, an antidote to nerve agents that can be self-administered through protective clothing.