WORLD WAR 1

WHAT IS IT?

• Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons
• It is very different from nuclear warfare and biological warfare
• It is different because biological warfare includes slower acting, spreading a disease through a population before the first signs are noticed
• Nuclear warfare is also different because when a bomb or missile that uses nuclear energy to cause an explosion.

WHAT CHEMICALS WERE THERE?

• Tear gas- irritates the nose eyes, mouth, and lungs. The effects were blindness, and may cause fluid buildup in the lungs
• Phosgene- throat and eye irritation, the effects depend on the exposure to it

MORE CHEMICALS ARE

• Chlorine- it causes nausea, vomiting, or a headache, and low levels of exposure causes breathing problems like acute wheezing attacks, chronic cough with phlegm, and asthma
• Mustard Gas- Mustard gas was used to lethal effect during World War I, and the gas masks didn’t have much protection it causes severe burning of the skin, eyes and respiratory trac

WHO USED IT?

• The Germans were the first to use phosgene on the battlefield
• Shortly after this became the main chemical weapon of the allies
• An example of using this was when Central Powers combined chlorine–phosgene attack by Germany, against British troops at Wieltje near Ypres, Belgium on 19 December 1915, 88 tons of the gas were released from cylinders causing 1069 casualties and 69 deaths.

WHAT WERE THE EFFECTS?

• A British observer at Ypres described French soldiers stumbling off the battlefield "blinded, coughing, chests heaving, faces an ugly purple color, lips speechless with agony,"
• The effects not only effected people but the land, mustard gas for example had a substantial amount of effect on the area of land where it was deployed.
• What happened was it increase the number and size of mitochondria in the fungal cells is accompanied by increase in dehydrogenases activity