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Nerve agent: Difference between revisions
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== History == | == History == | ||
[[File:Example.jpg|left|thumb|150px|description]] | [[File:Example.jpg|left|thumb|150px|description]] | ||
In 1934, a relatively unknown German chemist by the name of Gerhard Schrader was tasked by Ig Farben, a German chemical industry to improve upon preexisting insecticides. While the chemist and his team were developing more effective pesticides, they accidentally found that one of the more potent chemicals they had created had toxic effects on humans. Around two years later the deadly phosphorous insecticide was produced under the name of tabun. This was the first substance to be later recognized as a nerve agent. | |||
Between 1942 and 1945 approximately 12,000 tons of the agent was produced. During World War 2 the Germans secretly developed massive quantities of tabun, and other nerve agents such as sarin and soman, also developed by Schrader. Contrary to popular belief, German military forces never utilized these chemical munitions during the war. In the days leading up to the end of WW2 the Allies discovered the stockpiles, destroyed many of the factories that developed the agents, seized the remaining agents, and began to develop and experiment upon their own chemical agents.<ref>Nerve Agents. Fas.org. Web. Accessed 19 May 2013. Unknown Author.</ref> | |||
A factory for production of the new CW agent was built and a total of 12 000 tonnes of tabun were produced during the years 1942-1945. At the end of the war the Allies seized large quantities of this nerve agent. Up to the end of the war, Schrader and his co-workers synthesized about 2 000 new organo-phosphorus compounds, including sarin (1938). The third of the "classic" nerve agents, soman, was first produced in 1944. These three nerve agents are known as G agents in the American nomenclature. The manufacture of sarin never started properly and up to 1945 only about 0.5 tonne of this nerve agent was produced in a pilot plant. | |||
Immediately after the war, research was mainly concentrated on studies of the mechanisms of the nerve agents in order to discover more effective forms of protection against these new CW agents. The results of these efforts led, however, not only to better forms of protection but also to new types of agents closely related to the earlier ones. | |||
By the mid-1950's a group of more stable nerve agents had been developed, known as the V-agents in the American nomenclature. They are approximately ten-fold more poisonous than sarin and are thus among the most toxic substances ever synthesized. | |||
The first publication of these substances appeared in 1955. The authors, R. Ghosh and J.F. Newman, described one of the substances, known as Amiton, as being particularly effective against mites. At this time, intensive research was being devoted to the organo-phosphorus insecticides both in Europe and in the United States. At least three chemical firms appear to have independently discovered the remarkable toxicity of these phosphorus compounds during the years 1952-53. Surprisingly enough, some of these substances were available on the market as pesticides. Nonetheless, they were soon withdrawn owing to their considerable toxicity also to mammals. | |||
In the United States, the choice fell in 1958 on a substance known by its code name VX as suitable as a CW agent of persistent type. Full-scale production of VX started in April 1961 but its structure was not published until 1972. | |||
== Video == | == Video == | ||
