Handbook of Toxicology of Chemical Warfare Agents

While chemical warfare agents have been used in military conflict for decades, it is only in the last two decades that increased attention has been paid to the acute and chronic health effects associated with exposure to these agents. The subsequent reports of ill-defined illnesses in the veterans of the Gulf War of 1991, followed by the 1995 sarin terrorist attack in the Japanese subway system, focused attention on the capacity of deliberate or accidental exposure to chemical warfare agents, resulting in significant human death and subsequent disability. Epidemiological studies of chemical warfare agents have suffered problems in determining exposure. Other than epidemiological investigations following the Japanese terrorist event, little objective epidemiological evidence is available. In this chapter, the major studies that have been conducted on populations exposed to the chemical warfare agents are discussed and methodological issues summarized.