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...

The large-scale use of chemical warfare agents first occurred during World War I (the "chemists' war"), and was thereafter repeated at irregular intervals, most recently during the Iran-Iraq conflict of the 1980s. There was consequently a possibility that chemical weapons might be used in the Gulf war. The threat posed by terrorist groups became evident in 1994-95, when Japanese civilians were ...

Sulfur mustard (SM) is a chemical warfare agent leading to severe blistering of skin and mucosal surfaces, and as a long-term effect, to an increased risk for malignancies. At the molecular level, SM acts as a bifunctional alkylating agent, leading to DNA mono-adducts and di-adducts. This review is focussed on the role of poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation in the cell and tissue responses to SM-induced dam...

In the present work we studied the incidence of fetal deaths among conceptions whose fathers or both parents were survivors of chemical warfare attacks by Iraq. We showed that there was significant correlation between frequency of fetal deaths among conceptions which eventuated after exposure of the parents to gas bombs compared to the frequency of fetal deaths among the control group. Thi...

With chemical warfare becoming an imminent threat, medical systems need to be prepared to treat the resultant mass casualties. Medical preparedness should not be limited to the triage and logistics of mass casualties and first-line treatment, but should include knowledge and training covering the whole medical spectrum. In view of the unique characteristics of chemical warfare casualties the us...

background: sulfur mustard (sm) has been considered as a carcinogen in the laboratory studies. however, its carcinogenic effects on human beings were not well discussed. the main purpose of our study is to assess carcinogenesis of sm following acute and/or chronic exposures in human beings. methods: the valid scientific english and persian databases including pubmed, web of science, scopus, ira...

the main aim in this study was to collect the experiences of iranian researchers about sulfur mustard (sm) and provide a guideline for the prevention of abuse for this dangerous agent. we searched valid national and international databases using related key words in the two languages. we found 193 articles which had been published in medical journals. among them, 25 articles had some implicatio...