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A chemical weapon ( CW) is a specialized Ammunition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as a weapon "or its precursor that can cause death, injury, temporary incapacitation or sensory irritation through its chemical action. Munitions or other delivery devices designed to deliver chemical weapons, whether filled or unfilled, are also considered weapons themselves."
Chemical weapons are classified as weapons of mass destruction (WMD), though they are distinct from , biological weapons, and radiological weapons. All may be used in warfare and are known by the military acronym NBC (for nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare). Weapons of mass destruction are distinct from conventional weapons, which are primarily effective due to their explosive, Kinetic energy, or incendiary potential. Chemical weapons can be widely dispersed in gas, liquid and solid forms, and may easily afflict others than the intended targets. Nerve gas, tear gas, and pepper spray are three modern examples of chemical weapons.
Lethal unitary chemical agents and munitions are extremely volatile and they constitute a class of hazardous chemical weapons that have been by many nations. Unitary agents are effective on their own and do not require mixing with other agents. The most dangerous of these are (GA, Sarin, Soman, and VX) and vesicant (blister) agents, which include formulations of sulfur mustard such as H, HT, and HD. They all are liquids at normal room temperature, but become gaseous when released. Widely used during the World War I, the effects of so-called mustard gas, phosgene gas, and others caused lung searing, blindness, death and maiming.
During WW-II the Nazi regime used a commercial hydrogen cyanide blood agent trade-named Zyklon B to commit industrialised genocide against Jews and other targeted populations in large gas chambers.Longerich, Peter (2010). Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. . The Holocaust resulted in the largest death toll to chemical weapons in history.From Cooperation to Complicity: Degussa in the Third Reich, Peter Hayes, 2004, pp 2, 272,
, CS gas and pepper spray remain in common use for policing and riot control; CS and pepper spray are considered non-lethal weapons. Under the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993), there is a legally binding, worldwide ban on the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors. However, large stockpiles of chemical weapons continue to exist, usually justified as a precaution against possible use by an aggressor. Continued storage of these chemical weapons is a hazard, as many of the weapons are now more than 50 years old, raising risks significantly.
A lethal agent is designed to injure, incapacitate, or kill an opposing force, or deny unhindered use of a particular area of terrain. are used to quickly kill vegetation and deny its use for cover and concealment. Chemical warfare can also be used against agriculture and livestock to promote hunger and starvation. Chemical payloads can be delivered by remote controlled container release, aircraft, or rocket. Protection against chemical weapons includes proper equipment, training, and decontamination measures.
The interwar period saw occasional use of chemical weapons, mainly by multiple European colonial forces to put down rebellions. The Italians also used poison gas during their 1936 invasion of Ethiopia."Chemical Weapons" in Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia, 2d ed. (eds. David H. Shinn & Thomas P. Ofcansky: Scarecrow Press, 2013). In Nazi Germany, much research went into developing new chemical weapons, such as potent .Corum, James S., The Roots of Blitzkrieg, University Press of Kansas, USA, 1992, pp.106-107. However, chemical weapons saw little battlefield use in World War II. Both sides were prepared to use such weapons, but the Allied powers never did, and the Axis used them only very sparingly. The reason for the lack of use by the Nazis, despite the considerable efforts that had gone into developing new varieties, might have been a lack of technical ability or fears that the Allies would retaliate with their own chemical weapons. Those fears were not unfounded: the Allies made comprehensive plans for defensive and retaliatory use of chemical weapons, and stockpiled large quantities.Paxman and Harris: Churchill's plans 'to drench Germany with poison gas' and anthrax - Robert Harris and Jeremy Paxman, p132-35.Callum Borchers, Sean Spicer takes his questionable claims to a new level in Hitler-Assad comparison, The Washington Post (April 11, 2017). Japanese forces used them more widely, though only against their Asian enemies, as they also feared that using it on Western powers would result in retaliation. Chemical weapons were frequently used against Kuomintang and Chinese communist troops.Yuki Tanaka, Poison Gas, the Story Japan Would Like to Forget, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, October 1988, p. 16-17 However, the Nazis did extensively use poison gas against civilians in the Holocaust. Vast quantities of Zyklon B gas and carbon monoxide were used in the gas chambers of Nazi extermination camps, resulting in the overwhelming majority of some three million deaths. This remains the deadliest use of poison gas in history.Patrick Coffey, American Arsenal: A Century of Weapon Technology and Strategy (Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 152-54.James J. Wirtz, "Weapons of Mass Destruction" in Contemporary Security Studies (4th ed.), ed. Alan Collins, Contemporary Security Studies (Oxford University Press, 2016), p. 302.
The post-war era has seen limited, though devastating, use of chemical weapons. Some 100,000 Iranian troops were casualties of Iraqi chemical weapons during the Iran–Iraq War. Iraq used mustard gas and nerve agents against its own civilians in the 1988 Halabja chemical attack. On this day: 1988: Thousands die in Halabja gas attack, BBC News (March 16, 1988). The Cuban intervention in Angola saw limited use of . (2025). 9781431401857, Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd. ISBN 9781431401857 The Syrian government has used sarin, chlorine, and mustard gas in the Syrian civil war generally against civilians. Syria Used Chlorine in Bombs Against Civilians, Report Says, The New York Times, Rick Gladstone, August 24, 2016 retrieved August 25, 2016. Terrorist groups have also used chemical weapons, notably in the Tokyo subway sarin attack and the Matsumoto incident.Seto, Yasuo. " The Sarin Gas Attack in Japan and the Related Forensic Investigation." The Sarin Gas Attack in Japan and the Related Forensic Investigation. Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, June 1, 2001. Web. February 24, 2017. See also chemical terrorism.
The Washington Naval Treaty, signed February 6, 1922, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, aimed at banning chemical warfare but did not succeed because France rejected it. The subsequent failure to include chemical warfare has contributed to the resultant increase in stockpiles.
The Geneva Protocol, officially known as the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, is an International treaty prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons in international armed conflicts. It was signed at Geneva June 17, 1925, and entered into force on February 8, 1928. 133 nations are listed as state parties to the treaty. Ukraine is the newest signatory, acceding August 7, 2003.
This treaty states that chemical and biological weapons are "justly condemned by the general opinion of the civilised world". And while the treaty prohibits the use of chemical and biological weapons, it does not address the production, storage, or transfer of these weapons. Treaties that followed the Geneva Protocol did address those omissions and have been enacted.
The OPCW administers the terms of the CWC to 192 signatories, which represents 98% of the global population. , 66,368 of 72,525 metric tonnes, (92% of chemical weapon stockpiles), have been verified as destroyed. The OPCW has conducted 6,327 inspections at 235 chemical weapon-related sites and 2,255 industrial sites. These inspections have affected the sovereign territory of 86 States Parties since April 1997. Worldwide, 4,732 industrial facilities are subject to inspection under provisions of the CWC.
Higher temperatures are a bigger concern because the possibility of an explosion increases as the temperatures rise. A fire at one of these facilities would endanger the surrounding community as well as the personnel at the installations. Perhaps more so for the community having much less access to protective equipment and specialized training. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory conducted a study to assess capabilities and costs for protecting civilian populations during related emergencies, and the effectiveness of expedient, in-place shelters.
The majority of these chemical munitions were dumped into the sea while contained in simple wooden crates, leading to a rapid proliferation of chemicals. Chemical Weapons being disposed in the ocean during the 20th century is not unique to the Baltic Sea, and other heavily contaminated areas where disposal occurred are the European, Japanese, Russian, and United States coasts. These chemical weapons dumped in the ocean pose a continual environmental and human health risk, and chemical agents and breakdown products from said agents have recently been identified in ocean sediment near historical dumping sites. When chemical weapons are dumped or otherwise improperly disposed of, the chemical agents are quickly distributed over a wide range. The long term impacts of this wide-scale distribution are unknown, but known to be negative. In the Vietnam War of 1955–1975, a chemical weapon called Agent Orange was widely used by United States forces. The United States utilized Agent Orange as a type of 'tactical herbicide', aiming to destroy foliage and plant life to ease military access. This usage of Agent Orange has left lasting impacts that are still observable today in the environment, causing disease, Birth defect, and Deformity.
Historically, chemical munitions have been disposed of by land burial, open burning, and ocean dumping (referred to as Operation CHASE). However, in 1969, the National Research Council (NRC) recommended that ocean dumping be discontinued. The Army then began a study of disposal technologies, including the assessment of incineration as well as chemical neutralization methods. In 1982, that study culminated in the selection of incineration technology, which is now incorporated into what is known as the baseline system. Construction of the Johnston Atoll Chemical Agent Disposal System (JACADS) began in 1985.
This was to be a full-scale prototype facility using the baseline system. The prototype was a success but there were still many concerns about CONUS operations. To address growing public concern over incineration, Congress, in 1992, directed the Army to evaluate alternative disposal approaches that might be "significantly safer", more cost effective, and which could be completed within the established time frame. The Army was directed to report to Congress on potential alternative technologies by the end of 1993, and to include in that report: "any recommendations that the National Academy of Sciences makes ..." In June 2007, the disposal program achieved the milestone of reaching 45% destruction of the chemical weapon stockpile. The Chemical Materials Agency (CMA) releases regular updates to the public regarding the status of the disposal program. On July 7, 2023, the program completed destruction of all declared chemical weapons.
An unintended chemical weapon release occurred at the port of Bari. A Nazi Germany attack on the evening of December 2, 1943, damaged U.S. vessels in the harbour and the resultant release from their hulls of mustard gas inflicted a total of 628 casualties.
The U.S. Government was highly criticized for exposing American service members to chemical agents while testing the effects of exposure. These tests were often performed without the consent or prior knowledge of the soldiers affected. Australian service personnel were also exposed as a result of the "Brook Island trials" carried out by the British Government to determine the likely consequences of chemical warfare in tropical conditions; little was known of such possibilities at that time.
Some chemical agents are designed to produce mind-altering changes, rendering the victim unable to perform their assigned mission. These are classified as incapacitating agents, and lethality is not a factor of their effectiveness.
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