Ww1 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.

Frist of all, in the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans introduced the first use of poisonous gas. When poison gas first introduced it was a popular weapon choice and would be the weapon to change the outcome of the war. The Germans surprisingly attack the Allies, where the used lethal chloride gas against them. The gas was deadly and killed over one thousand soldiers. (1) It also allowed a significant advanced for the Germans in the war. The gas usage continued to grow throughout the war. In the end, many Allied countries started chemical weapons research. Gas warfare became common but effective actions were used to protect the troops. After World War 1, poison was use for a while but in today’s war it is no longer allowed. Instead of poisonous gas, chemical warfare is used. Chemical weapons come in a variety of forms and are used for several different techniques.

“Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Soviet Union and the United Kingdom were among many countries that investigated how to wage biological war.” (pg. 38) Some of these countries have biological weapons programs and even some biological weapons have been used in the past. A Russian program “known to the Soviets as “the Concern Bioreparat”, supposedly a series of laboratories and plants that manufactured vaccines and other medicinal products, was in fact a vast network of secret cities, production plants of Moscow’s germ effort. Bioreparat studied and perfected germs as weapons. President Richard Nixon’s administration became the “world’s leading advocate for a treaty banning germ warfare. Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention- prohibited the possession of deadly biological agents except for research…for vaccines, detection and protective gear. It was the world’s first treaty to ban an entire class of weapons.” (pg. 63) April 1979, an explosion at a secret military base near Soviet city of Sverdlovsk, sent a cloud of Bacillus anthracis fanning over a nearby village, leaving thousands dead. Although the Soviets, had signed the treaty, they denied allegations that this was “nothing more nefarious than tainted meat.” (pg. 77) During the Gulf War, for example, biological weapons developed by Iraq posed a threat and they might, if fact still pose a threat. While US went in search of nuclear

Agent Orange Hazardous Chemical Essay Intro: Between the years 1961 and 1972, 2.4 million American soldiers were exposed to a Vietnam war tactic that left numerous people both terminally and physically ill in America and Vietnam. This war tactic was known as an herbicide called agent orange, named for the orange stripe that was painted on its 55 gallon barrels that it was stored in. An herbicide is a substance that is toxin to plants and is used to destroy unwanted vegetation.

One of the new weapons used in WWI was poison gas. Poison gas was first used by the french in 1914, they used them to fight against the germans. After the french the germans started to study it and we the first to use it in a big scale. They used chlorine gas caused irritation and aggressive sneezing. There are many types of poisonous gas like chlorine gas, phosgene (causes violent coughing, choking and eventually death), and Mustard gas (nearly odorless chemical that causes internal and external blisters for hours). The total amount of casualties for poison gases are 1,240,853 people and total deaths are 91,198 people.

At the beginning of World War I, the use of chemical weapons was still very much taboo. Not only did mankind have a universal aversion to the use of poison but there was also the 1899 Hague Convention Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land that prohibited "poison or poisoned weapons" as permissible in war (#Tucker, 2006).

In all wars after and including World War I, on 9/11, and on many more instances the gas mask saved many lives. The first version of the gas mask was used to save a group of miners from a collapsing steel mine under Lake Erie. The first gas attack on January 31, 1915 caused a great demand for the gas masks. The gas mask sparked the beginning of chemical warfare because it was then safer to use dangerous chemicals. Over time the gas mask had many changes to it. It originally was not very safe, only consisting of a hood worn over the face and two tubes, one to breath in from and one to exhale from. The tube to inhale from reached all the way to the ground on the original model but as time went along, the gas mask began to become more compact.

World War I was made even worse by the work of industrial chemists. Soldiers from Ypres, Belgium would claim that a shimmering cloud appeared around their feet and a strange peppery smell in the air in 1917. This gave it its well-known name. Within a day, they have shown signs of severe itching that were caused by dreadful blisters and other wounds. Some stated to be coughing up body fluid. Near the end of the war, it instilled terror across the battlefield. Leaving up to 10,000 people dead and more injured. Mustard gas was created in 1822, but it wasn’t well-known as harmful till 1860.

The countries were not justified for their use of chemical weapons in World War I because of its mass destruction of humans and to the environment. Although it did help weaken the enemy, there were many other weapons that could have been used. The addition of chemical weapons only made it easier for more soldiers to be unreasonably killed in large numbers. Even if the soldiers did survive, they would develop cancers and many health problems. Because the wind can carry the remnants of the gases, it could travel back to the the area where it came from or possibly into civilian life. Either way, everyone was at risk of inhaling the gases, not just the enemy. Furthermore, the use of chemical weapons caused damage to the environment, contaminating

Throughout history different terrorist groups have used a variety of methods to attack innocent civilians and infrastructures. Groups such as Aum Shinirikyo, Al Qaeda, ISIS, and other domestic terrorists have been known to attack innocent communities by using IEDs, chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons. Attacks, such as the Sarin Attack in Tokyo in 1995, is a prime example in which a terrorist group, Aum Shinirikyo, used a chemical nerve agent to attack citizens in Japanese subway. These chemical attacks as well as other WMDs pose unique threats for first responders. It is important to consider these threats as well as the time, location, number of anticipated causalities, and the type of chemical agent used when responding to a chemical attack. It is the responsibility of officials on a local, state, and federal level to facilitate not only the initial response in a chemical attack but also the recovery and cleanup efforts weeks after.

The first World war chemical weapons were used then outlawed for combat. “Unlike when the U.S. was the only nuclear power and first used the technology against Japan without fear of reciprocation” ( The Ch.1 The Dangers). As a country we didn’t know the effects of a bomb on a living city, but now we know the consequences. Now what

There are many repercussions to not having a biological weapon. If we cannot reinstate chemical warfare, we will continue to lose many soldiers’ lives. Having chemical weapons is like when we came out with the UCAV. The UCAV stands for unmanned combat aerial vehicle. The UCAV got rid of the loss of lives in the air. It made bombing targets easier. With chemical weapons, we could eliminate thousands of war related deaths. If

War, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is “A state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state” (citation). War truly does bring out the worst of in the people involved, because in war the objective is to kill or capture enough of the opposing sides’ soldiers to show that your side is superior. Both sides will take any measures necessary to win, a few examples of this being Mustard gas, Ricin, Agent Orange, and Sarin . When guns and other weapons will not cut it, that’s when in the mind of the governments that chemical warfare became necessary . Since these four chemicals and many more have been used throughout history, the Chemical Warfare Convention banned all forms of chemical weapons, due to the lasting effects of the chemicals on both nations and individuals of those nations. The way the CWC defines a chemical weapon is a toxic chemical or its precursor that can cause death, injury, temporary incapacitation or sensory irritation through its chemical action.

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

Chemical weapons originated in early World War I. They were simple grenades or mortars filled with common chemicals. These specialized grenades were popularized by the Germans and then were seen used by even the Allied Forces. They were popularized by their area of effect and useful in the trench warfare.