Chemical and biological warfare preparing to meet the threat.

Preparing for a chemical incident.

vol 10 no 10 march 2003 emergency nurse 23 Since the terrorist attack on the US on September 11 2001 and the increasing prevalence of global terrorist activity including threats to the UK, attention has focused on the threat of chemical and biological warfare. Before the attack, bioterrorism had occupied only a small part of the UK public consciousness and threats to civilians from hazardous ma...

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...

The Defense Threat Reduction Agency: a note on the United States' approach to the threat of chemical and biological warfare.

Protein biotoxins of military significance.

There is a spectrum of several threat agents, ranging from nerve agents and mustard agents to natural substances, such as biotoxins and new, synthetic, bioactive molecules produced by the chemical industry, to the classical biological warfare agents. The new, emerging threat agents are biotoxins produced by animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria. Many types of organisms produce substances that ar...

Biomaterials for mediation of chemical and biological warfare agents.

Recent events have emphasized the threat from chemical and biological warfare agents. Within the efforts to counter this threat, the biocatalytic destruction and sensing of chemical and biological weapons has become an important area of focus. The specificity and high catalytic rates of biological catalysts make them appropriate for decommissioning nerve agent stockpiles, counteracting nerve ag...