Medical manual of chemical warfare, 1943 / War Office.

  • Great Britain. War Office.
Date:
1943
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical manual of chemical warfare, 1943 / War Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (c) ARSENIURETTED HYDROGEN (ARSINE).—This gas exerts its poisonous action only after absorption through the lungs into the body. It causes destruction of the red corpuscles in the blood, hemoglobinuria, jaundice and anemia, associated with damage to the kidneys and liver. ITI.— HARASSING (a) LACRIMATORS or “tear gases,” such as ethyliodoacetate (K.S.K.), bromobenzyl cyanide (B.B.C.), and chloracetophenone (C.A.P.). Even low con- centrations of the gases given off by these compounds will immediately irritate the eyes, causing profuse lacrimation and intense spasm of the eyelids —symptoms, however, which disappear on leaving the contaminated area. In very high concentrations they may act as lung irritants. . (0) NASAL IRRITANTS or “nose gases.”’ These are organic arsenical com- pounds such as diphenylamine-chlorarsine (D.M.) and diphenylcyanarsine (D.C.). These solid arsenicals, when suitably dispersed, produce clouds of minute particles which, if inhaled even in exceedingly low concentration, will give rise to acute physical distress with intense pain in the nose and chest, lacrimation, salivation and even vomiting. The symptoms, however, although alarming at the time, usually subside within an hour after removal from the gassed area. IV.—CoORROSIVES AND INCENDIARIES CoRROSIVES.—Such substances as chlorosulphonic acid (C.S.A.), titanium tetrachloride (F.M.) and a number of the chlorinated hydrocarbon series, are generally used to produce smoke screens. They are capable of causing corrosive burns and, like some of the inorganic acids, might possibly be employed offensively. INCENDIARIES.—Phosphorus (W.P.), which likewise provides smoke screens, is also a dangerous incendiary substance distributed in bomb, shell or grenade. Thermite and fuel oils are now familiar in the same rdle. V.—ACCIDENTAL (a) CARBON MONOXIDE.—This dangerous gas is frequently met with in the course of mining and tunnelling operations, in the interior of burning buildings, in tanks, pill-boxes and gun emplacements which are badly ventilated, and, generally, wherever combustion occurs in the absence of an adequate supply of oxygen. Thus it is found in confined spaces following the burst of a high-explosive shell, or when slow-combustion stoves, charcoal braziers or internal combustion engines are used in such spaces. It is present in ordinary illuminating gas, leakage of which may cause serious poisoning. The gas produces its insidious effects through its well-known interference with the respiratory functions of the blood. Ovdinary respirators give no protection. : (>) Nirrous ruMEs.—These gases are given off by burning cordite, or when detonation of nitro-explosives is incomplete. They act as powerful and very insidious lung irritants, with delayed symptoms resembling those of phosgene poisoning, and it is important to remember that they are often accompanied by carbon monoxide. Respirators generally afford partial pro- tection against nitrous fumes, but none against carbon monoxide. (c) Fumes which may be encountered in FIRE FIGHTING.—In addition to the risk of encountering carbon monoxide, and possibly nitrous fumes, when fighting fires in confined spaces in wartime, danger may also arise from the toxic gases evolved by fire-extinguishing chemicals. Apart from its possible toxicity, such an atmosphere may be seriously deficient in oxygen.