Sarin is now a weapon of the terrorist. Its acute effects are primarily due to unrestricted cholinergic activity at both muscarinic and nicotinic receptors. Treatment is based on the use of large doses of atropine and pralidoxime which may lead to practical problems of sufficient drug supplies for the average hospital. Ventilation may be necessary and present problems. Victim decontamination in...

Excitation energies, oscillator strengths, and vacuum-ultraviolet/deep-ultraviolet absorption spectra were calculated for nerve agents, such as sarin, soman, VX, tabun, mustard gas, and analogs. We used time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) methods that included B3LYP combined with basis sets of cc-pVDZ and cc-pVTZ, and ωB97XD with cc-pVTZ. The vertical ionization energies were also...