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. 2010 Jul;2(3):166-78.
doi: 10.4103/0975-7406.68498.

Chemical warfare agents

K Ganesan  1 , S K Raza, R Vijayaraghavan
Affiliations

Chemical warfare agents

K Ganesan et al. J Pharm Bioallied Sci. 2010 Jul.

Abstract

Among the Weapons of Mass Destruction, chemical warfare (CW) is probably one of the most brutal created by mankind in comparison with biological and nuclear warfare. Chemical weapons are inexpensive and are relatively easy to produce, even by small terrorist groups, to create mass casualties with small quantities. The characteristics of various CW agents, general information relevant to current physical as well as medical protection methods, detection equipment available and decontamination techniques are discussed in this review article. A brief note on Chemical Weapons Convention is also provided.

Keywords: Blister agents; chemical warfare; decontamination; detection; mustards; nerve agents; protection.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Chemical structure of nerve agents
Figure 2
Figure 2
Chemical structures of blister agents
Figure 3
Figure 3
Chemical structures of riot control agents
Figure 4
Figure 4
Chemical structures of psychomimetic agents
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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