Biological Warfare – College Essay Example

the Vietnam War; tear gas is also employed by civilian police forces to stop riots. The more deadly gases such as mustard gas and nerve gas has generally been condemned by most countries.

Such weapons do remain in some arsenals, but treaties have gotten rid of them.

There is evidence that Iraq used these weapons in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s and that allied troops may have been exposed to these gases during the Persian Gulf War of 1991. Various chemicals, such as Agent Orange, that alter the metabolism of plant and cause them to die have been employed in modern jungle warfare to reduce the enemy's cover and let troops march in without the fear of being ambushed. Later it was found that Agent Orange harmed everything that was near it. It killed plants, went into the human's lungs, and into streams and killed fish.

This was very devastating to the ecosystem. The Hague Conference of 1899 made an attempt to outlaw projectiles carrying poison gases; the agreement to this effect lasted only until W.W.I.

In Geneva in 1925 a League of Nations protocol against chemical and biological war was signed; it was not, however, ratified by the United States until 1975. The treaty outlaws the first use of such weapons in warfare, but nations generally reserve the right to use them in retaliation.

Agreements totally banning chemical warfare have proved difficult to achieve. A treaty totally banning biological warfare was drawn up by the Geneva Disarmament Conference in 1971 and approved by the United Nations General Assembly. Some 80 nations signed the Biological Weapons Convention, which the United States ratified

in 1974. This treaty is unique because it outlaws a whole class of weapons by most of the world. Its effectiveness, however, is still questionable; progress in genetic engineering has also complicated this issue.

At the Bush-Gorbachev summit in June 1990, a treaty was signed providing for both the United States and USSR to reduce stockpiles of chemical weapons.

In May 1991, 19 industrial nations--including the United States-commited to adopt controls on the export of 50 common chemicals used to manufacture these weapons. Anthrax is a contagious disease of warm-blooded animals, including humans, caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. One of the oldest known diseases, it was once epidemic and still appears in many world areas, but only rarely in the western and southern United States. It was the first disease for which the in the wrong organism was isolated, by 0.

J. Davaine in 1863, for which a pure culture was obtained, by Robert Koch in 1876, and for which an effective vaccine was developed, by Louis Pasteur in 1881. Animals got the disease from drinking water from contaminated dirt, in which the organism may live for years; from eating infected carcasses and feedstuffs; and from the bites of bloodsucking insects.

The disease, sometimes manifested by staggering, bloody discharge, convulsions, and suffocation, may be fatal almost immediately in particular cases and within three to five days in some cases. Death is caused by toxemia.

Preseasonal inoculations and antibiotics are effective. In humans, the disease appear's in both outside and inside forms, with a death rate of about 20 percent. The external form is contracted through cuts in the skin by those who

handle infected hides and carcasses and may be self-limiting, but often gets into the bloodstream, with fever and exhaustion. It is characterized by malignant pustules on exposed skin areas. The inside type is acquired by inhaling anthrax cells, as from animal hair and wool, which take over the lungs and sometimes the intestinal tract to cause lose blood.

It is speculated that an intestinal variety may be caused by consuming contaminated meat or milk.

Workers exposed to animal products, especially wool, are protected by vaccination. Penicillin is effective in treatment except in rapidly progressing cases. The worst outbreak of anthrax occurred in 1979, when a biological weapons plant in Sverdlovsk, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (present-day Yekaterinburg) released an aerosol form of the anthrax pathogen. The source of this exposure, which killed 66 people, was publicly denied until 1994. In conclusion, biological weaponry are very deadly and can kill 100's of millions of people without them knowing what's going on.

At least it doesn't destroy buildings. So when we drop the big one, later intelligent species can dig up entire buildings and dead bodies.