Mustard gas orsulfur mustard are names commonly used for theorganosulfurchemical compoundbis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide, which has the chemical structure S(CH2CH2Cl)2, as well as otherspecies. In the wider sense, compounds with the substituents−SCH2CH2X or −N(CH2CH2X)2 are known assulfur mustards ornitrogen mustards, respectively, where X = Cl or Br. Such compounds are potentalkylating agents, making mustard gas acutely and severely toxic.[3] Mustard gas is acarcinogen.[3] There is no preventive agent against mustard gas, with protection depending entirely on skin and airways protection, and noantidote exists for mustard poisoning.[4]
Also known as mustard agents, this family of compounds comprises infamouscytotoxins andblister agents with a long history of use aschemical weapons.[4] The namemustard gas is technically incorrect; the substances, whendispersed, are often not gases but a fine mist of liquid droplets that can be readily absorbed through the skin and by inhalation.[3] The skin can be affected by contact with either the liquid or vapor. The rate of penetration into skin is proportional to dose, temperature and humidity.[3]
Sulfur mustards are viscous liquids at room temperature and have an odor resemblingmustard plants,garlic, orhorseradish, hence the name.[3][4] When pure, they are colorless, but when used in impure forms, such as in warfare, they are usuallyyellow-brown. Mustard gases formblisters on exposed skin and in the lungs, often resulting in prolonged illness ending in death.[4]
The name of mustard gas derived from its yellow color,smell of mustard, and burning sensation on eyes.[5] The term was first used in 1917 duringWorld War I when Germans used the poison in combat.[5]
Soldier with moderate mustard agent burns sustained duringWorld War I showing characteristicbullae on the neck, armpit, and hands
Mustard gases have powerfulblistering effects on victims. They are alsocarcinogenic andmutagenicalkylating agents.[3] Their highlipophilicity accelerates their absorption into the body.[2] Because mustard agents often do not elicit immediate symptoms, contaminated areas may appear normal.[4] Within 24 hours of exposure, victims experience intenseitching and skin irritation. If this irritation goes untreated, blisters filled withpus can form wherever the agent contacted the skin.[4] Aschemical burns, these are severely debilitating.[3] Mustard gas can have the effect of turning a patient's skin different colors due to melanogenesis.[10][4]
If the victim's eyes were exposed, then they become sore, starting withconjunctivitis (also known as pink eye), after which the eyelids swell, resulting in temporary blindness. Extreme ocular exposure to mustard gas vapors may result incorneal ulceration, anterior chamber scarring, andneovascularization.[11][12][13][14] In these severe and infrequent cases,corneal transplantation has been used as a treatment.[15] If inhaled in high concentrations, mustard agents cause bleeding and blistering within therespiratory system, damagingmucous membranes and causingpulmonary edema.[4] Depending on the level of contamination, mustard agent burns can vary betweenfirst andsecond degree burns. They can also be as severe, disfiguring, and dangerous asthird degree burns. Some 80% of sulfur mustard in contact with the skin evaporates, while 10% stays in the skin and 10% is absorbed and circulated in the blood.[3]
The carcinogenic and mutagenic effects of exposure to mustard gas increase the risk of developingcancer later in life.[3] In a study of patients 25 years after wartime exposure to chemical weaponry, c-DNA microarray profiling indicated that 122 genes were significantly mutated in the lungs and airways of mustard gas victims. Those genes all correspond to functions commonly affected by mustard gas exposure, includingapoptosis, inflammation, and stress responses.[16] The long-term ocular complications include burning, tearing, itching,photophobia,presbyopia, pain, and foreign-body sensations.[4][17][18]
Typical appearance ofbullae on an arm caused by vesicant burns
Symptoms of exposure have been extensively documented. There is a considerable amount of information about the effects of exposure to sulfur mustard in humans and animals from the last century from wartime exposures and laboratory testing. Substantial information in the original documents is not readily available. There are numerous reviews of the literature that include early data as well as recent information.[19]
In a rinse-wipe-rinse sequence, skin is decontaminated of mustard gas by washing with liquid soap and water, or an absorbent powder.[4] The eyes should be thoroughly rinsed using saline or clean water. A topical analgesic is used to relieve skin pain during decontamination.[4] For skin lesions, topical treatments, such ascalamine lotion, steroids, and oralantihistamines are used to relieve itching.[4] Larger blisters are irrigated repeatedly with saline or soapy water, then treated with an antibiotic and petroleum gauze.[4]
Mustard agent burns do not heal quickly and (as with other types of burns) present a risk ofsepsis caused bypathogens such asStaphylococcus aureus andPseudomonas aeruginosa. The mechanisms behind mustard gas's effect on endothelial cells are still being studied, but recent studies have shown that high levels of exposure can induce high rates of bothnecrosis andapoptosis. In vitro tests have shown that at low concentrations of mustard gas, where apoptosis is the predominant result of exposure, pretreatment with 50 mMN-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) was able to decrease the rate of apoptosis. NAC protectsactin filaments from reorganization by mustard gas, demonstrating that actin filaments play a large role in the severe burns observed in victims.[20]
A British nurse treating soldiers with mustard agent burns duringWorld War I commented:[21]
They cannot be bandaged or touched. We cover them with a tent of propped-up sheets. Gas burns must be agonizing because usually the other cases do not complain, even with the worst wounds, but gas cases are invariably beyond endurance and they cannot help crying out.
Mustard gas alkylating an amino group via conversion to a sulfonium ion (2-chloroethylthiiranium)
Sulfur mustards readily eliminatechloride ions by intramolecularnucleophilic substitution to form cyclicsulfonium ions. These very reactive intermediates tend to permanentlyalkylatenucleotides inDNA strands, which can prevent cellular division, leading toprogrammed cell death.[2] Alternatively, if cell death is not immediate, the damaged DNA can lead to the development of cancer.[2]Oxidative stress is another pathology involved in mustard gas toxicity.[22]
Various compounds with the structural subgroup BC2H4X, where X is anyleaving group and B is aLewis base, have a common name of mustard. Such compounds can form cyclic"onium" ions (sulfonium,ammonium, etc.) that are goodalkylating agents. These compounds include bis(2-haloethyl)ethers (oxygen mustards), the (2-haloethyl)amines (nitrogen mustards), andsesquimustard, which has two α-chloroethyl thioether groups (ClC2H4S−) connected by an ethylene bridge (−C2H4−). These compounds have a similar ability to alkylate DNA, but their physical properties vary.
Lewisite (top row) and mustard gas (bottom row) test withconcentrations from 0.01% to 0.06%
In its history, various types and mixtures of mustard gas have been employed. These include:
H – Also known asHS ("Hun Stuff") orLevinstein mustard. This is named after the inventor of the "quick but dirty"Levinstein Process for manufacture,[23][24] reacting dryethylene withdisulfur dichloride under controlled conditions. Undistilled mustard gas contains 20–30% impurities, which means it does not store as well as HD. Also, as it decomposes, it increases invapor pressure, making the munition it is contained in likely to split, especially along a seam, releasing the agent to the atmosphere.[1]
HD – CodenamedPyro by the British, andDistilled Mustard by the US.[1]Distilled mustard of 95% or higher purity. The term "mustard gas" usually refers to this variety of mustard.
HT – CodenamedRuncol by the British, andMustard T- mixture by the US.[1] A mixture of 60% HD mustard and 40%O-mustard, a related vesicant with lowerfreezing point, lowervolatility and similar vesicant characteristics.
HL – A blend of distilled mustard (HD) andlewisite (L), originally intended for use in winter conditions due to its lower freezing point compared to the pure substances. The lewisite component of HL was used as a form ofantifreeze.[25]
HQ – A blend of distilled mustard (HD) and sesquimustard (Q).[26]
Yellow Cross – any of several blends containing sulfur mustard.[27] Named for the yellow cross painted on artillery shells.[10]
Mustard gases were possibly developed as early as 1822 byCésar-Mansuète Despretz (1798–1863).[28] Despretz described the reaction ofsulfur dichloride andethylene but never made mention of any irritating properties of the reaction product. In 1854, another French chemist, Alfred Riche (1829–1908), repeated this procedure, also without describing any adverse physiological properties. In 1860, the British scientistFrederick Guthrie synthesized and characterized the mustard agent compound and noted its irritating properties, especially in tasting.[29] Also in 1860, chemistAlbert Niemann, known as a pioneer incocaine chemistry, repeated the reaction, and recorded blister-forming properties. In 1886,Viktor Meyer published a paper describing a synthesis that produced good yields. He combined2-chloroethanol withaqueouspotassium sulfide, and then treated the resultingthiodiglycol withphosphorus trichloride. The purity of this compound was much higher and consequently the adverse health effects upon exposure were much more severe. These symptoms presented themselves in his assistant, and in order to rule out the possibility that his assistant was suffering from a mental illness (psychosomatic symptoms), Meyer had this compound tested on laboratoryrabbits, most of which died. In 1913, the English chemistHans Thacher Clarke (known for theEschweiler-Clarke reaction) replaced the phosphorus trichloride withhydrochloric acid in Meyer's formulation while working withEmil Fischer inBerlin. Clarke was hospitalized for two months for burns after one of his flasks broke. According to Meyer, Fischer's report on this accident to theGerman Chemical Society sent theGerman Empire on the road to chemical weapons.[30]
Mustard gas was firstused in World War I by the German army against British and Canadian soldiers nearYpres, Belgium, on July 12, 1917,[32] and later also against theFrench Second Army.Yperite is "a name used by the French, because the compound was first used at Ypres."[33] The Allies used mustard gas for the first time on November 1917 atCambrai, France, after the armies had captured a stockpile of German mustard shells. It took the British more than a year to develop their own mustard agent weapon, with production of the chemicals centred onAvonmouth Docks (the only option available to the British was the Despretz–Niemann–Guthrie process).[34][35]
Mustard gas was originally assigned the name LOST, after the scientists Wilhelm Lommel andWilhelm Steinkopf, who developed a method of large-scale production for theImperial German Army in 1916.[36]
Mustard gas was dispersed as anaerosol in a mixture with other chemicals, giving it a yellow-brown color. Mustard agent has also been dispersed in such munitions asaerial bombs,land mines,mortar rounds,artillery shells, androckets.[1] Exposure to mustard agent was lethal in about 1% of cases. Its effectiveness was as anincapacitating agent. The early countermeasures against mustard agent were relatively ineffective, since a soldier wearing agas mask was not protected against absorbing it through his skin and being blistered. A common countermeasure was using a urine-soaked mask or facecloth to prevent or reduce injury, a readily available remedy attested by soldiers in documentaries (e.g.,They Shall Not Grow Old in 2018) and others (such as forward aid nurses) interviewed between 1947 and 1981 by the British Broadcasting Corporation for various World War One history programs; however, the effectiveness of this measure is unclear.
Mustard gas can remain in the ground for weeks, and it continues to cause ill effects. If mustard agent contaminates one's clothing and equipment while cold, then other people with whom they share an enclosed space could become poisoned as contaminated items warm up enough material to become an airborne toxic agent. An example of this was depicted in a British and Canadian documentary about life in the trenches, particularly once the "sousterrain" (subways and berthing areas underground) were completed in Belgium and France. Towards the end of World War I, mustard agent was used in high concentrations as anarea-denial weapon that forced troops to abandon heavily contaminated areas.
US Army World War II gas identification poster,c. 1941–1945
Since World War I, mustard gas has been used in several wars and other conflicts, usually against people who cannot retaliate in kind:[37]
The US military conducted experiments with chemical weapons like lewisite and mustard gas on Japanese American, Puerto Rican and African Americans in the US military in World War II to see how non-white races would react to being mustard gassed, with Rollin Edwards describing it as "It felt like you were on fire, guys started screaming and hollering and trying to break out. And then some of the guys fainted. And finally they opened the door and let us out, and the guys were just, they were in bad shape." and "It took all the skin off your hands. Your hands just rotted".[41]
After World War II, stockpiled mustard gas was dumped by South African military personnel under the command ofWilliam Bleloch offPort Elizabeth, resulting in several cases of burns among local trawler crews.[42]
The United States Government tested effectiveness on US Naval recruits in a laboratory setting at The Great Lakes Naval Base, June 3, 1945[43]
Possibly in Sudan against insurgents in thecivil war, in 1995 and 1997.[37]
In theIraq War, abandoned stockpiles of mustard gas shells were destroyed in the open air,[48] and were used against Coalition forces inroadside bombs.[49]
ByISIS forces againstKurdish forces in Iraq in August 2015.[50]
By ISIS against another rebel group in the town ofMare' in 2015.[51]
According to Syrian state media, by ISIS against theSyrian Army during the battle inDeir ez-Zor in 2016.[52]
The use of toxic gases or other chemicals, including mustard gas, during warfare is known aschemical warfare, and this kind of warfare was prohibited by theGeneva Protocol of 1925, and also by the laterChemical Weapons Convention of 1993. The latter agreement also prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, and sale of such weapons.
In September 2012, a US official stated that the rebel militant groupISIS was manufacturing and using mustard gas in Syria and Iraq, which was allegedly confirmed by the group's head of chemical weapons development, Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, who has since been captured.[53][54]
As early as 1919 it was known that mustard agent was a suppressor ofhematopoiesis.[55] In addition, autopsies performed on 75 soldiers who had died of mustard agent duringWorld War I were done by researchers from theUniversity of Pennsylvania who reported decreased counts ofwhite blood cells.[45] This led the American Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) to finance the biology and chemistry departments atYale University to conduct research on the use of chemical warfare during World War II.[45][56]
As a part of this effort, the group investigatednitrogen mustard as a therapy forHodgkin's lymphoma and other types oflymphoma andleukemia, and this compound was tried out on its first human patient in December 1942. The results of this study were not published until 1946, when they were declassified.[56] In a parallel track, after theair raid on Bari in December 1943, the doctors of the U.S. Army noted that white blood cell counts were reduced in their patients. Some years after World War II was over, the incident in Bari and the work of the Yale University group with nitrogen mustard converged, and this prompted a search for other similarchemical compounds. Due to its use in previous studies, the nitrogen mustard called "HN2" became the first cancerchemotherapy drug,chlormethine (also known as mechlorethamine, mustine) to be used. Chlormethine and other mustard gas molecules are still used to this day as an chemotherapy agent albeit they have largely been replaced with more safe chemotherapy drugs likecisplatin andcarboplatin.[57]
In the United States, storage and incineration of mustard gas and other chemical weapons were carried out by the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency.[58] Disposal projects at the two remaining American chemical weapons sites were carried out nearRichmond, Kentucky, andPueblo, Colorado. The last of the declared mustard weapons stockpile of the United States was destroyed on June 22, 2023 in Pueblo with other remaining chemical weapons being destroyed later in 2023.[59]
New detection techniques are being developed in order to detect the presence of mustard gas and its metabolites. The technology is portable and detects small quantities of the hazardous waste and its oxidized products, which are notorious for harming unsuspecting civilians. Theimmunochromatographic assay would eliminate the need for expensive, time-consuming lab tests and enable easy-to-read tests to protect civilians from sulfur-mustard dumping sites.[60]
In 1946, 10,000 drums of mustard gas (2,800 tonnes) stored at the production facility of Stormont Chemicals inCornwall, Ontario, Canada, were loaded onto 187 boxcars for the 900 miles (1,400 km) journey to be buried at sea on board a 400 foot (120 m) long barge 40 miles (64 km) south ofSable Island, southeast ofHalifax, at a depth of 600 fathoms (1,100 m). The dump location is 42 degrees, 50 minutes north by 60 degrees, 12 minutes west.[61]
A large British stockpile of old mustard agent that had been made and stored since World War I atM. S. Factory, Valley nearRhydymwyn inFlintshire, Wales, was destroyed in 1958.[62]
Most of the mustard gas found in Germany afterWorld War II was dumped into theBaltic Sea. Between 1966 and 2002, fishermen have found about 700 chemical weapons in the region ofBornholm, most of which contain mustard gas. One of the more frequently dumped weapons was "Sprühbüchse 37" (SprüBü37, Spray Can 37, 1937 being the year of its fielding with the German Army). These weapons contain mustard gas mixed with athickener, which gives it a tar-like viscosity. When the content of the SprüBü37 comes in contact with water, only the mustard gas in the outer layers of the lumps of viscous mustardhydrolyzes, leaving behind amber-colored residues that still contain most of the active mustard gas. On mechanically breaking these lumps (e.g., with the drag board of a fishing net or by the human hand) the enclosed mustard gas is still as active as it had been at the time the weapon was dumped. These lumps, when washed ashore, can be mistaken for amber, which can lead to severe health problems.Artillery shells containing mustard gas and other toxic ammunition from World War I (as well as conventional explosives) can still be found in France and Belgium. These were formerly disposed of by explosion undersea, but since the current environmental regulations prohibit this, theFrench government is building an automated factory to dispose of the accumulation of chemical shells.
In 1972, theU.S. Congress banned the practice of disposing of chemical weapons into the ocean by the United States. 29,000 tons of nerve and mustard agents had already been dumped into the ocean off the United States by theU.S. Army. According to a report created in 1998 by William Brankowitz, a deputy project manager in theU.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, the army created at least 26 chemical weapons dumping sites in the ocean offshore from at least 11 states on both theEast Coast and theWest Coast (inOperation CHASE,Operation Geranium, etc.). In addition, due to poor recordkeeping, about one-half of the sites have only their rough locations known.[63]
In June 1997, India declared its stock of chemical weapons of 1,044 tonnes (1,151 short tons) of mustard gas.[64][65] By the end of 2006, India had destroyed more than 75 percent of its chemical weapons/material stockpile and was granted extension for destroying the remaining stocks by April 2009 and was expected to achieve 100 percent destruction within that time frame.[64] India informed the United Nations in May 2009 that it had destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons in compliance with the international Chemical Weapons Convention. With this India has become the third country after South Korea and Albania to do so.[66][67] This was cross-checked by inspectors of the United Nations.
Producing or stockpiling mustard gas is prohibited by theChemical Weapons Convention. When the convention entered force in 1997, the parties declared worldwide stockpiles of 17,440 tonnes of mustard gas. As of December 2015, 86% of these stockpiles had been destroyed.[68]
A significant portion of the United States' mustard agentstockpile was stored at the Edgewood Area ofAberdeen Proving Ground inMaryland. Approximately 1,621 tons of mustard agents were stored in one-ton containers on the base under heavy guard. A chemical neutralization plant was built on the proving ground and neutralized the last of this stockpile in February 2005. This stockpile had priority because of the potential for quick reduction of risk to the community. The nearest schools were fitted with overpressurization machinery to protect the students and faculty in the event of a catastrophic explosion and fire at the site. These projects, as well as planning, equipment, and training assistance, were provided to the surrounding community as a part of the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP), a joint program of the Army and theFederal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).[69] Unexploded shells containing mustard gases and other chemical agents are still present in several test ranges in proximity to schools in the Edgewood area, but the smaller amounts of poison gas (4 to 14 pounds (1.8 to 6.4 kg)) present considerably lower risks. These remnants are being detected and excavated systematically for disposal. The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency oversaw disposal of several other chemical weapons stockpiles located across the United States in compliance with international chemical weapons treaties. These include the complete incineration of the chemical weapons stockpiled inAlabama,Arkansas,Indiana, andOregon. Earlier, this agency had also completed destruction of the chemical weapons stockpile located onJohnston Atoll located south ofHawaii in thePacific Ocean.[70] The largest mustard agent stockpile, at approximately 6,200short tons, was stored at theDeseret Chemical Depot in northernUtah. The incineration of this stockpile began in 2006. In May 2011, the last of the mustard agents in the stockpile were incinerated at the Deseret Chemical Depot, and the last artillery shells containing mustard gas were incinerated in January 2012.
In 2008, many emptyaerial bombs that contained mustard gas were found in an excavation at theMarrangaroo Army Base just west of Sydney, Australia.[71][72] In 2009, a mining survey nearChinchilla, Queensland, uncovered 144 105-millimeterhowitzer shells, some containing "Mustard H", that had been buried by the U.S. Army during World War II.[72][73]
In 2014, a collection of 200 bombs was found near theFlemish villages ofPassendale andMoorslede. The majority of the bombs were filled with mustard agents. The bombs were left over from the German army and were meant to be used in theBattle of Passchendaele in World War I. It was the largest collection of chemical weapons ever found in Belgium.[74]
A large amount of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, was found in a neighborhood ofWashington, D.C. The cleanup was completed in 2021.[75]
In 2002, an archaeologist at the Presidio Trust archaeology lab in San Francisco was exposed to mustard gas, which had been dug up at thePresidio of San Francisco, a former military base.[76]
In 2010, a clamming boat pulled up some oldartillery shells of World War I from theAtlantic Ocean south ofLong Island, New York. Multiple fishermen suffered from blistering and respiratory irritation severe enough to require hospitalization.[77]
The United States tested sulfur mustards and other chemical agents includingnitrogen mustards andlewisite on up to 60,000 servicemen during and after WWII. The experiments were classified secret and as withAgent Orange[broken anchor], claims for medical care and compensation were routinely denied, even after the WWII-era tests were declassified in 1993. TheDepartment of Veterans Affairs stated that it would contact 4,000 surviving test subjects but failed to do so, eventually only contacting 600. Skin cancer, severe eczema, leukemia, and chronic breathing problems plagued the test subjects, some of whom were as young as 19 at the time of the tests, until their deaths, but even those who had previously filed claims with the VA went without compensation.[81]
Concentrations of thiodiglycol in urine have been used to confirm a diagnosis of chemical poisoning in hospitalized victims. The presence in urine of 1,1'-sulfonylbismethylthioethane (SBMTE), a conjugation product with glutathione, is considered a more specific marker, since this metabolite is not found in specimens from unexposed persons. In one case, intact mustard gas was detected in postmortem fluids and tissues of a man who died one week post-exposure.[83]
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