Anthrax: A Deadly Biological Weapon Essay

What has been brought to light in recent years is the effects of these chemicals on the body’s immune response. By introducing these toxic chemicals into the body, the potency of the immune system is compromised. More commonly than not, the body’s magnificent defense system will kick in and destroy foreign invaders but all it can take is an overwhelming amount of chemicals to slow or even shut down the body’s response systems. A large amount of these types of chemicals introduced into the body at one time would be considered acute toxicity and could even cause death. Additionally, a small amount of these poisonous substances brought into the body over a long period would be considered chronic toxicity and can have detrimental effects on the body’s natural response (Hoernschemeyer 55-57). This information is startling enough to want to make a change from conventionally grown food to pesticide-free organic

Contaminated soil, air and water are agents for toxins and infections acquisition in exposed populations. Inappropriate disposal of hazardous (some chemicals) substances also affects the environment thus human beings. Chemicals are everywhere in the environment such as home, work, hospitals, even in food. Chemicals that are considered safe can become harmful if misused; for example, pesticides, detergents, ammonia and drugs. Unfortunately, some nuclear substances and chemicals used in healthcare also contribute in human health degradation.

A biological weapon is defined as “any of a number of disease-producing agents, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and toxins, that may be utilized as weapons against humans, animals or plants.” (Britannica Online Encyclopedia).

Imagine this: you wake up hours before your alarm sounds to find your entire neighborhood in chaos; people running, robbing banks and stores, and bodies are littering the once calm streets. Over the night, a government-run biological experiment dealing with germ weapons had been released, infecting, destroying, and causing panic across the globe. As a single, globalized society, we need to heighten our security against biological weapons and biological terror to prevent the endangerment of mankind. It would be most beneficial to our species if we did not try to use or experiment with biological weapons, seeing as they are engineered specifically to create social, economic, governmental, military, and general fear and disruption. Bioterror

Anthrax is a living bacteria that is actually found naturally in soil around the world. The disease is caused by Bacillus anthracis, a bacteria that affects almost all parts of the body. There are 4 major types of anthrax: Cutaneous, Inhalation, Gastrointestinal, and Injection. Symptoms of anthrax can occur anywhere between 1 day and 2 months of contracting the disease (Anthrax, 2014).

Anthrax is an infectious disease caused by gram-positive, rod-shaped bacteria known as Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax can be transmitted via airborne methods such as bioterrorism, where it is used as a weapon and released into the air to cause infection, or by breathing in anthrax spores from infected animal products such as wool. Humans can also become infected by direct contact, from handling infected animal products, or by vehicular transmission from eating undercooked meat from infected animals causing gastrointestinal anthrax. Anthrax is not passed from one person to another. (Arthur Schoenstadt, 2017).

These chemicals were ingested by animals causing the chemicals to enter the food chain. These chemicals are carried up from animal to animal and even make their way to humans causing damage genetically. These chemicals killed numerous species of animals and went on to harm humans as well. The idea that this chemical could be thought of as safe but ends of being so harmful is hard to believe, but once again shows how the ignorance of humanity gives humans a false sense of safety that is not actually in the real world.

The modern use of chemical weapons has been used since World War I. By using poisonous gas to inflict suffering and significant casualties. For example, chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas were used to inflict burns on the skin or as a choking agent. Since the time of World War I, chemical weapons have impacted more than a million deaths. But, there are weapons of mass destruction in place used by terrorists. Weapons of mass destruction include Nuclear, biological, radiological, and explosives. One weapon of mass destruction can destroy a whole city, killing millions and clearing all future generations by using a Nuclear weapon; the most dangerous weapon on earth. Even though, nuclear weapons have been only used twice in warfare of Hiroshima

In fact, the former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director James Woolsey has stated that creating a biological weapon is as easy as producing beer and that even a good chemistry high school student is capable of creating a biological weapon (Gerstein, 2010). Moreover, with the increase of natural viruses such as Ebola, terrorists could carry out a biological attack without the need of having to use any technology (Cenciarelli et al., 2015). They could simply travel to the country where a transmittable natural virus is occurring and they could get infected on purpose; then, all they have to do is travel back to their target location and intentionally spread the transmittable virus among large crowds of people (Cenciarelli et al.,

The deadliest neurotoxin I can find on the web is Tetanospasmin (other than botulinum which I already have learned about). I believe this is the deadliest toxin because it says that an ant weighs 1500 times more than the dose needed to kill an adult human. Two hundred nanograms is considered lethal, and that is a VERY small number. Tetanospasmin causes muscle spasms when it is found inside the body within the nervous system and it is produced by a bacterium called Clostridium Tetani. The reason it is deadly is because it binds to neurons permanently, and when it is bound it stops the neurotransmitters from being released from the neuron. A dose of Tetanospasmin is able to stop a neuron from releasing a neurotransmitter because it damages

Before the 20th century, the use of biological agents took three major forms, Deliberate contamination of food and water with poisonous or contagious material using of microbes, biological toxins, animals, or plants (living or dead) in a weapon system, using of biologically inoculated fabrics and persons. Now a day sophisticated bacteriological and virological techniques allowed the production of significant stockpiles of weaponized bio-agents such as; Anthrax, Brucella, Tularemia, Smallpox, Viral hemorrhagic fevers, Botulinum, Ricin, (Legvold, 2012).The most likely route of dissemination is an aerosolized release of 1-5mm particles. Other methods of dissemination include oral, intentional contamination of food/water supply, percutaneous,

After thoroughly reading this week’s material, the specific weapon I have chosen is a chemical compound such as sodium or potassium cyanides. I have chosen cyanides to be a potential weapon used, simply because it is a more discrete way to harm mass casualties. According to the CIA, “typical plots focus on poisoning foods or spreading the agent on surfaces to poison via skin contact” (CIA 2007).

Nelsen et al. (2014) presents and discusses what the authors believe to be the inconsistencies among the definitions of poisons, venoms, and toxins, as well as the conflation, or mixing, of these terms within the literature. The three primary classes of toxins, biological, anthropogenic, and environmental, are defined and distinguished so that the authors can further discern the biological toxins using their own classification scheme (Nelsen et al. 2014). Nelsen et al. (2014) presents the necessity of their three-class scheme, which they proposed due to the terminological inconsistencies within and among the literature on biological toxins. I think implementing a new term to detract from the misconstruction of existing toxicological definitions would be constructive, especially with the proposed corresponding binomial classification system. This review aims to discuss the breadth and functionality of the Nelsen et al. (2014) categorization of toxins.

Cyanide poisoning is caused by exposure to compounds that produce cyanide(CN−) ions. The cyanide ions interfere with cellular respiration and you can guess the rest.

There has only been one case of biological terrorism in the U.S., which has been exceedingly expensive and extensive to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “and arguably the toughest case in FBI history, the assembled reporters told” (Shachtman). There is no way of knowing when chemical or biological terrorism will be, but it will most likely make it accessible to terrorists everywhere when someone somehow creates the “weapon of mass disruption” and gets other terrorists wanting it for their own use. Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear terrorism should have restrictions put on the many, many amounts of chemicals or biological bacterium that can be made at home, or bought in from industrial material makers in mass production of matter already potent enough to be fatal to many individuals at once, and available in large quantities for a standard price for the potential capabilities of death it