Essay on History of Chemistry: Chemical Weapons

Poison Gas/Chemical Warfare usage, while not harming physical structures preventing the collateral damage of homes and buildings, causes a high casualty rate in all living things. It is indescriminate and robs life equally be they related or not to a target of military or strategic importance. Gas usage has been widely considered uncivilized, but the French resorted to its usage in August, 1914 during the first World War in an attempt to rout the Germans. Unfortunately, the Germans were the first to give gas warfare serious development and it became used extensively before the war was over. On the battlefield it prooved effective in eliminating hostile threats in an inhumane way, but this does not make it morally acceptable. In more recent times ISIS has been reported to using Poison Gas in Syria against both military and civilians in an indescriminate manner. This sort of attack ignores international laws as well as inhumanely cause widespread harm. In this day and age, this sort of attack is unnecessary and is why it was outlawed in the first place even back during the first World War.

Chemical weapons have been used throughout history to gain tactical advantages over enemies in armed conflicts. There is evidence that civilizations up to thousands of years ago engaged in the poisoning of water supplies or the use of toxic smoke in sieges. More recently, with the rise of industrialization and formalized scientific study, chemicals were developed with the intention of using them in war. The development of chemical weapons was already of international concern in 1899, when a peace conference at The Hague resulted in a treaty prohibiting the use of “asphyxiating and deleterious gases.” The international ban on chemical weapons was disregarded in World War 1, with various chloride containing compounds being attached to grenades and artillery shells. While the immediate effects of exposure to many chemical weapons are severe, few chemical weapons have been used that cause a lasting environmental impact. Nerve agents, for instance, have the potential to leak into the environment, but low-dose exposure by civilians in areas isolated from combat is rare. One of the most widely used classes of chemical weapons is a set of herbicides nicknamed the “Rainbow Herbicides.” These herbicides have been shown to have caused widespread ecological damage, and the health effects of their use can still be measured today.

Chemical warfare, while horrible, proved to be unwieldy and unpredictable, and relatively easy to counter. After some limited successes against unprepared opponents, the use of chemical gas had very little tactical benefit; the recognition of this limited utility is that after widespread use in 1915 - except for the short-lived effects of the introduction of mustard gas in 1917 - gas was abandoned by both sides as an effective tactic.

Armies started to use gas in WWI. Two of the most common gases were chlorine and mustard. Many were killed using these gases. Chemical weapons were extremely effective during WWI. By the end of WWI, 1,250,000 gas casualties occurred. Of these, 91,000 were fatalities. Chemical technology continued to be used in WWII, which killed even more. It killed so many people that chemical war was banned and considered inhumane. In 1968, the Chemical Warfare Convention occurred, banning the use of gas and stockpiling chemical weapons. Even though they were banned, the early ideas of gas technology and chemical warfare were advanced and were recently used in the Middle East. Chemical weapons were used by the Syrian government against the Syrian population. This presents another example of the impact of WWI technology on modern times. Despite being widely recognized as horrific, efficient chemical weapons remain a temptation to some governments

Many new technology started to arise. The weapons are the ones in which developed even more. Such as the machine guns, the guns were the most destructive weapon. The most popular one was the Gatling gun. What made the gun convenient was that they had the ability to carry it around and if was an effective addition to their weapons. The poison gas was another new technology which made war even more miserable. Both sides thought that the use of poison gas would allow them to break

One of the many advancements made during the duration of World War I was that of poisonous gasses. These gasses were considered “uncivilized” before the beginning of the first World War. However, they were deemed necessary to overcome the standoff between the Allied forces and the Central Powers. The French army was the first to use such a weapon in 1914, but the Germans were the first to use poisonous gasses on a large scale. The German’s first recorded use of

However, they were cumbersome, the gases were hard to detect, and there were malfunctions so large scale casualties were still common. Phosgene for instance had no effects for hours after exposure and victims would not know they were exposed. One attack on February 21, 1916 against French and British soldiers with Phosgene resulted in 750,000 casualties (#Hutchinson, 2003). Additionally, certain chemicals could not be detected easily.

However, the stalemate fighting that resulted from the nature of trench warfare made chemical warfare a necessity if one wanted to gain ground. Both sides used tear gas in the early years of the war, but it wasn’t long before German forces introduced poisonous chlorine gas. The effects of this gas were severe; it destroyed the respiratory systems of those affected and made breathing difficult. Another dangerous chemical introduced by German forces was mustard gas, which caused blistering both internally and externally. Before long, Allied forces had replicated the German’s mustard gas and its use became widespread on the Western Front.

At the Battle of Ypres, the Germans released a cloud of chlorine gas that moved slowly toward the Allies trench (Simkin). The French were completely unprepared so many climbed out of the trench and ran away. German chemist Fritz Haber developed the gas for use in war. The Chlorine gas causes wheezing, coughing, and fluid build up in the lungs leading to a painful death of asphyxiation (White). Arthur Guy Empey said, “There's a sort of greenish, yellow cloud rolling along the ground out in front, it's coming ---” “German gas is heavier than air and soon fills the trenches and dugouts.” “Out of our crew of six, we lost two killed and two wounded.” (Empey) Other gasses like mustard gas and phosgene were used. Mustard gas was not used to kill people however it severely maimed them. Mustard gas caused large blisters on contact and blindness. Phosgene worked very similarly to chlorine gas, however, it was invisible allowing it to remain undetected (CDC). Chemical warfare has since been banned around the world. Barbed wire also changed the course of

First use of chemical gas as a weapon was in the Battle of Ypres, the British were incredibly unprepared. The country was militarily vulnerable and did not like it.

The Germans marked an epoch with chemical warfare during World War I. The horror that opposing countries experienced when being exposed to the merciless gas forced them to begin to concoct their own weapons, so they could compete with the Germans and their allies. David Cook, author of Chemical Warfare: World War I, explains the purpose of chemical weapons during the war was to cause enemy casualties, enfeeble the opposing troops’ ability to retaliate, briefly block the land that they are no longer able to defend in order to escape, and create chaos in the enemy’s lines. Chemical warfare allowed attackers using this weapon to have a major advantage over their enemies, resulting in the successful execution of missions and casualties with its toxicity. The strength and versatility was not the only cause of chaos during the introduction of chemical weapons by the Germans during World War I; twenty-six countries had made an agreement previous to the war to prohibit the use of asphyxiating or deleterious gases (“Hague Peace Conferences (1899 and

Of the five types of WMD’s that I have chosen to highlight for this assignment, three fall under Biological warfare, while the other two fall under chemical warfare.

The fact that we cannot use chemical weapons is a very bad thing. We could have used these weapons in the Vietnam War. With all the tall grass and dense forests, our soldiers were not prepared for the close up combat. If we had used the chemical agents in that forest, we could have eliminated hidden enemy forces and we would have saved many American soldiers’ lives.

There are many types of chemical agents that can be used for a variety of effects. Most are not meant to be lethal, but most chemicals at high concentrations can be lethal.

Chemical weapons are toxic gases, which use in the wars such as World War 1. Chemical weapons used in First World War and they killed a lot of people even children. In addition, chemical weapons are unless color, so people can’t see them. Also, most of people who died through the First World War were civilians. Therefore, who were responsible about them? In addition, people who survived had dangerous and permanent diseases such as cancer, asthma … etc. Even people’s genes effected by these toxic gases and they cause a lot of genetic problems that appeared in a second generation. Even soldiers who were pushed to this war. Then, they died or effected who were responsible about their families. In addition chemical weapons burned a lot of trees and they changed plant characteristics. Also, these gases can react with others to change air and weather characteristics. Therefore, chemical weapons effect on our