Airborne Disease: Including Chemical and Biological Warfare

[Chemical and biological warfare].

History of chemical and biological warfare agents.

Chemical and biological warfare agents constitute a low-probability, but high-impact risk both to the military and to the civilian population. The use of hazardous materials of chemical or biological origin as weapons and for homicide has been documented since ancient times. The first use of chemicals in terms of weapons of mass destruction goes back to World War I, when on April 22, 1915 large...

[Decontamination of chemical and biological warfare agents].

Chemical and biological warfare agents (CBWA's) are diverse in nature; volatile acute low-molecular-weight toxic compounds, chemical warfare agents (CWA's, gaseous choking and blood agents, volatile nerve gases and blister agents, nonvolatile vomit agents and lacrymators), biological toxins (nonvolatile low-molecular-weight toxins, proteinous toxins) and microbes (bacteria, viruses, rickettsiae...

Smallpox and biological warfare: a disease revisited.

T his is the second article in a series of papers addressing issues related to biological warfare and bioterrorism. As outlined in the historical review of biological warfare (1), smallpox is one of the most devastating diseases that could potentially be used as a biological weapon. In fact, smallpox was for many centuries devastating to mankind. However, the remarkable efforts of the World Hea...

Medical Threat and Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Warfare

a. Since World War II, the Soviet Union has represented the principal threat to the national security interests of the US. During this period, the military capability of the Soviet Armed Forces grew enormously. Starting in the later years of the 1980's, the international security environment has undergone rapid, fundamental, and revolutionary changes. The Soviet Union has disintegrated with the...