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The History Of Blood Agents And Their Presences In Industry.

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The History of Blood Agents and their Presences in Industry
SSG Sanders, Charles A.
17 February 2017
SLC 001-017

World War I was known as the chemist war because a lot of the modern day chemical weapons were developed, improved and employed during this time. Blood agents got their start a few centuries early, but did not see tactical use until the first Great War. In this paper I will discuss the origin and types of blood agents. Hydrogen cyanide is the most effective of the blood agents and is the most prominently used therefor we will discuss it in more detail. Blood agents make up a small portion of the chemical weapons known throughout the world but are in great abundance in the manufacture world, so it is …show more content…

The term blood agent comes from World War I, when most of the agents at the time produced localized effects, cyanide when inhaled triggered systematic effects thought to be transported by the blood, which coined the term “blood agent.” When in reality cyanide is any compound that contains carbon and nitrogen with a triple bound. It inhibits enzymes inside the body by bonding with the iron present in cells. This prevents intercellular oxygen utilization and causes the cells to die. The heart and brain are affected the most because they require a lot of oxygen. The most effective means of delivery is cyanide in confined spaces to capture the gas to prevent evaporation. Cyanide is also present in human tissue in small amounts and the body natural metabolizes it through enzyme in the urinary tract. This makes it unique among chemical agents because of its practical rate of detox it requires a greater length of exposure.

If exposed to cyanide with in the first 15 seconds rapid breathing will begin and within 30 seconds convulsions can begin. After two to three minutes respiratory activity stops, and cardiac activity cease around six to eight minutes of inhalation at high concentrations. Small amounts result in similar symptoms for example rapid breathing, restlessness, dizziness, weakness, headache, nausea, and rapid heart rate. Small amounts rarely result in death. If exposed the best thing to

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