[A Navy Vet]

Is Mustard gas considered a WMD?

[Frank_Discussion]

I should think so. Nasty, nasty stuff.

[js1138]

Is Mustard gas considered a WMD?

Iraq considers it a crowd control agent.

[The Turbanator]

Mustard gas=chemical weapon=WMD
YES!

[Caipirabob]

A HORRID Chemical blister-agent. I think it should be counted among them. Slow, painful pathetic death on contact. It might not kill you, but after a heavy exposure you'd wish it had.

If I recall death typically occurred from the blisters which formed in the lungs burst and the victim drowned.

[Caipirabob]

EEEEP!

Mustard Gas (Yperite) was first used by the German Army in September 1917. The most lethal of all the poisonous chemicals used during the war, it was almost odourless and took twelve hours to take effect. Yperite was so powerful that only small amounts had to be added to high explosive shells to be effective. Once in the soil, mustard gas remained active for several weeks.

The skin of victims of mustard gas blistered, the eyes became very sore and they began to vomit. Mustard gas caused internal and external bleeding and attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane. This was extremely painful and most soldiers had to be strapped to their beds. It usually took a person four or five weeks to die of mustard gas poisoning. One nurse, Vera Brittain, wrote: "I wish those people who talk about going on with this war whatever it costs could see the soldiers suffering from mustard gas poisoning. Great mustard-coloured blisters, blind eyes, all sticky and stuck together, always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying that their throats are closing and they know they will choke."

More here

[demlosers]

YES

[kcvl]

Mustard gas is the common name given to 1,1-thiobis(2-chloroethane), a chemical warfare agent that is believed to have first been used near Ypres in Flanders on 12th July 1917. Its chemical formula is Cl-CH2-CH2-S-CH2-CH2-Cl

Its other names include H, yprite, sulfur mustard and Kampstoff Lost, but the name mustard gas became more widely used, because the impure "agent quality" is said to have an odour similar to that of mustard, garlic or horseradish. (8) When pure, it is in fact both odourless and colourless. (6)

It was synthesised much earlier than its first reported use, by a man named Frederick Guthrie in 1860, who reacted ethylene with Cl2, and noticed the toxic effects it had on his own skin. (1) The effects of mustard gas exposure include the reddening and blistering of skin, and, if inhaled, will also cause blistering to the lining of the lungs, causing chronic impairment, or at worst, death. Exposure to high concentrations will attack the corneas of the eyes, eventually rendering the victim blind. (6)

Any area of the body which is moist is particularly susceptible to attack by mustard gas, because although it is only slightly soluble in water, which makes it difficult to wash off, hydrolysis (the splitting of a compund by water) is rapid, and occurs freely.

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

Of course mustard gas is a WMD. Just ask those vets from WWI who got dosed and crippled by it in the trenches (if there are any left).