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THE SPECTER OF
POISON
GASWARFARE
D
O YOU REALIZE
j ust how
dangerous t h is wor ld's
present state of affai rs is?
T he world is once again face–
to-face with a mass ive bu ildup of
poison gas weapons.
The U.S. Defense Depar tment
seeks dramatic million-dollar-lev–
el increases in chemical war–
mak i ng capacity. T he Soviet
Union may be using chemical
weapons in Afghanistan, accord–
ing to Western news sources.
France reta ins significant stocks
of poison gas. All t h is wh ile
chemica l warfare d isarmament
talks bog down in Geneva.
New -style Ner ve Gas
The new generation of poison gas
is not old-style Wor ld War 1
mustard gas.
It
is far
more
dead–
ly.
lt
is nerve gas. J ust a drop–
land ing on you r skin- will ki li.
Nerve gas promises a paralyz-
June / July 1980
by
Jeff Calkins
ing, su ffocating death. The new
generation of nerve gases- "sar–
in," "sornan," and "VX"-attack
the c hemicals in your nervous
system that transmit messages to
a nd from your brai n . This nerve
breakdown, in turn, causes, in the
words of t he
Scientific American,
"intense sweating, filling of the
bronchial passages with mucus,
bronchial constriction, dimming
of vision, uncontrollable vomiting
and d efecation, convulsions and
finally paralysis and respiratory
fai lure . .. . I f the dose is only
marg ina lly let ha l or i f it is
received t hrough t he skin, howev–
er, it may take up to severa!
hours for the victim to die."
Ominously, poison gas poses a
special d ead ly threat to civi lians.
The
Scienti.fic American
estimates
that clouds of nerve gas can kili
unprotected civilians more t han 13
miles downwind. And up to 26
miles downwind people would face
terr ible nerve damage, though per–
haps not death.
Supe rpow er Competition
Each of the world's superpowers
maintains awesome stocks of
deadly nerve gas. The United
States has three million a r tillery
shells of sarin a nd VX, severa!
thousand bombs of sarin, as well
as hu ndreds of thousa nds of
nerve-gas Jand mines. When you
include the weight of the shells,
America has 150,000
tons
of poi–
son gas- two t hirds of it new
generation nerve gas.
We do not know for certain
bow much poison gas the Soviet
Union now possesses. Western
mi litary officia ls, believe, howev–
er, that they have many times the
American stockpi le.
Moreover, t he crisis in Af–
(Continued on page 40)
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