Biological and Chemical Threat Primer

[izzyscout21]

Ok guys, as part of our mission statement, we try to be versed and prepared for all sorts of contingencies.

With recent events, I think it would be prudent to have a discussion about various sorts of biological and chemical threats in order to have a better understanding of how to counter them. To that effect, the best way to combat against them is to have a general working knowledge of said threats.

It is with this in mind, I present the Biological and Chemical threat primer.

Hope you find this informative.

Questions are welcome.

Izzy

[izzyscout21]

Biological weapons use microorganisms and natural toxins to produce disease in humans, animals, or plants. Biological weapons can be derived from: bacteria (anthrax, plague, tularemia); viruses (smallpox, viral hemorrhagic fevers); rickettsia (Q fever and epidemic typhus); biological toxins botulinum toxin, staphylococcus enterotoxin B); and fungi (San Joaquin Valley fever, mycotoxins).

These agents can be deployed as biological weapons when paired with a delivery system, such as a missile or aerosol device. Generally, the danger associated with a particular pathogen can be measured by how effectively it kills (lethality); how easily it spreads (infectivity); and how likely it is to cause disease in an affected organism (virulence). However, other factors such as ease of dispersal, responsiveness to medical treatment, the availability of vaccines, the infective dose, and a pathogen’s ability to survive during dispersal or storage (stability) affect a pathogen’s suitability as a weapon.

For example, although anthrax cannot be transmitted from person-to-person and therefore will not continue to spread, it poses a serious threat because it can be dispersed as an aerosol and is difficult to treat. Pneumonic plague is highly lethal and contagious, but is generally treatable with modern medicines.

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Warring parties have used primitive biological weapons since the beginning of recorded history. In the 20^thcentury Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Iraq, Libya, and South Africa at one point possessed known biological weapons programs.

While these countries now participate in the BTWC, the treaty lacks mechanisms for verifying that countries are not engaged in banned activities. During World War I, Germany undertook limited biological attacks on military animals. More notoriously, Japan released plague and cholera infected fleas against Chinese civilians and soldiers during World War II.

Several countries have stockpiled biological weapons in significant quantities. Most egregiously, the Soviet Union violated the BTWC by maintaining the largest known offensive BW program into the 1990s. In addition to anti-crop and anti-livestock agents, this program produced Marburg, anthrax, smallpox, plague, botulinum toxin, tularemia, and Q fever.

The Soviets also genetically engineered strains resistant to antibiotics. In 2008, the U.S. Congressional Research Service listed China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Syria, and Taiwan, as commonly-discussed potential biological weapons countries, but without a clear standard of evidence and with varying degrees of certainty.

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Several non-state actors have developed or attempted to develop biological weapons. Over the past 25 years, the diffusion of technical know-how has dramatically increased the threat posed by bioterrorism.

The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo unsuccessfully attempted to weaponize botulinum toxin and anthrax in the mid-1990s. However, it later became known that the cult likely never had bacteria capable of producing botulinum toxin, and were working with a vaccine strain of anthrax that cannot cause human disease. In 2001, a series of anthrax-laced letters sent to several news agencies and two U.S. Senators killed five and sickened 17 others.

While the FBI identified Dr. Bruce Ivins, a senior biodefense researcher with decades of experience in anthrax research as the perpetrator, debate continues as to the strength of the evidence against him. The difficulties encountered in investigating the 2001 anthrax mailings (also known as the Amerithrax case), highlighted the limitations of microbial forensics. Attributing responsibility for biological attacks, absent a credible claim by the perpetrator, will continue to present challenges even with improved microbial forensics.

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Over the past 25 years the biotechnology revolution has made increasingly powerful technologies more widely available, and at lower costs. Many previously tedious and labor-intensive processes have been simplified or even automated, decreasing the personnel and financial requirements for a biological weapons program.

New technologies continue to broaden the scope of what is possible for both large-scale and more limited programs. For example, synthetic biology permits the human manufacture of genetic material for eradicated or controlled diseases. Also of significant concern are new methods that allow scientists to cross the properties of chemical and biological agents. Such techniques could be used to create novel agents that enable perpetrators to control their victims’ behavior. Historically, the USSR misused several advanced techniques. Soviet scientists engineered diseases to make them resistant to known medical treatments and also purportedly created “superbugs” by crossing the properties of highly lethal and contagious diseases.

From a public health perspective, both the emergence of new diseases and the natural evolution of pathogens are constantly changing the nature of the biological weapons threat. For example, emerging diseases such as Ebola have proven highly infectious, lethal, and beyond the control of contemporary medicine.

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Although chemical weapons receive significantly less attention than nuclear and biological threats, the historical record shows that chemical weapons are, by far, the most widely used and widely proliferated weapons of mass destruction. Chemical weapons use the toxic properties of chemicals to cause physical harm ranging from discomfort to death. Relatively small amounts of chemical weapons can inflict devastating psychological and physical effects.

The military value of chemical weapons is such that the United States and the Soviet Union stockpiled tens of thousands of tons during the Cold War. Countries traditionally have acquired chemical weapons before attempting to produce biological or nuclear weapons, because they are the least technologically demanding of the three. While 188 countries have joined the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and have agreed not to develop, produce, stockpile, or use chemical weapons, a handful of key countries—particularly in the Middle East—remain outside of the treaty.

Additionally, interest in chemical weapons by non-state actors continues to grow. The international community must therefore continue to work to prevent chemical weapons, and the technologies to produce them, from falling into the hands of terrorists.

[izzyscout21]

Chemical weapons use several different biochemical properties to debilitate or kill people, animals, and plants.

Blister agents (sulfur mustard, nitrogen mustard, and lewisite) cause skin, eye, and lung irritation. Victims eventually develop painful blisters on their bodies, but usually do not die.

Choking agents cause severe and painful breathing problems, leading to suffocation. Examples include chlorine gas, chloropicrin, diphosgene, and phosgene.

Blood agents such as hydrogen cyanide and cyanogen chloride stop blood from distributing needed oxygen throughout the body.

Nerve agents debilitate the nervous system, causing muscle contraction, loss of control over bodily functions, and death within minutes. The World War II-era agents (Tabun, SArin, Soman, and VX) remain the most widely proliferated. However, the Soviet Union also discovered, developed, tested, and produced Novichok agents – a new generation of nerve agents several times more toxic than the World War II-era agents.

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In warfare, chemical weapons have been used against opposing battlefield forces or dispersed to deny an enemy access to strategic areas. The introduction of chemical warheads and ballistic missiles has also expanded the list of potential targets of a chemical weapons attack to include civilian populations.

Combatants used 124,000 metric tons of chemical weapons (mostly phosgene and mustard), during World War I. During World War II, Italy used tear gas and mustard gas during the invasion in Ethiopia.

During the Japanese invasion of China, a Japanese covert chemical and biological weapons branch known as Unit 731 used a variety of chemical weapons, including tear gas, phosgene, mustard gas, and lewisite.

During the Cold War, conflicts in Korea, Afghanistan, and Vietnam involved only non-lethal riot control agents and defoliating agents.

Egypt used mustard gas and possibly nerve agents during the North Yemen Civil War.

During the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq employed blister agents and likely also used nerve agents against Iranian forces.

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Terrorist organizations seeking to cause death and injury, as well as mass panic and economic disruption, would find many attractive features in chemical weapons.

Very lethal weapons can be made with widely understood techniques and common equipment, and can be easily concealed until they are used.

In the mid-1990s, the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo released self-produced sarin on multiple occasions. The deadliest incident occurred when cult members released the nerve agent into the Tokyo subway on March 20, 1995. The scale of the Aum Shinrikyo chemical ambitions revealed that non-state actors are fully capable of organizing and financing chemical programs.

Because many chemicals commonly used in industry are themselves very toxic, terrorist organizations may also achieve their goals through the sabotage of chemical plants and shipments.

[izzyscout21]

Biological agents are organisms or toxins that can kill or incapacitate people, livestock and crops. A biological attack is the deliberate release of germs or other biological substances that can make you sick.

The three basic groups of biological agents that would likely be used as weapons are bacteria, viruses and toxins. Most biological agents are difficult to grow and maintain. Many break down quickly when exposed to sunlight and other environmental factors, while others, such as anthrax spores, are very long lived. Biological agents can be
dispersed by spraying them into the air, by infecting animals that carry the disease to humans and by contaminating food and water. Delivery methods include:

Aerosols - biological agents are dispersed into the air, forming a fine mist that may drift for miles. Inhaling the agent may cause disease in people or animals.

Animals - some diseases are spread by insects and animals, such as fleas, mice, flies, mosquitoes and livestock.

Food and water contamination - some pathogenic organisms and toxins may persist in food and water supplies. Most microbes can be killed, and toxins deactivated, by cooking food and boiling water. Most microbes are killed by boiling water for one minute, but some require longer. Follow official instructions.

Person-to-person - spread of a few infectious agents is also possible. Humans have been the source of infection for smallpox, plague, and the Lassa viruses.