What's being burned and how nasty is it?

This story was published Mon, Aug 9, 2004

By the Herald staff

VX nerve gas

The Centers for Disease Control considers VX one of the most toxic and fastest-acting chemical warfare agents.

It can be fatal if inhaled or absorbed through the eyes and skin. When it's liquid, a drop can be lethal. It can kill within 15 minutes.

VX makes up slightly less than 10 percent of the depot's 3,722 tons of chemical agents.

Exposure to VX vapor can lead to symptoms within seconds. Exposure to liquid VX, which can take days to evaporate, results in symptoms within 18 hours.

VX, developed in Britain in 1952 during pesticide research, interferes with the central nervous system, causing twitching and convulsions. Exposure can cause eye problems, breathing difficulties, diarrhea, headaches and vomiting.

Iraq appeared to have VX in the late '80s and possibly in the early '90s, and is cited as one reason the United States invaded last year.

Sarin

Sarin nerve gas, also known as GB, was invented in 1938 by Germans doing pesticide research. Sarin kills and harms people in much the same way as VX, although the lethal doses must be greater.

It is perhaps best known as the chemical used by Japanese terrorists to kill 19 people and injure 5,500.

The doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo hit the Japanese city of Matsumoto with a sarin gas attack in 1994. The next year, the cult punctured packages of liquid sarin, which evaporates easily, in the Tokyo subway system.

There is speculation the Iraqi military used it against the Iranians and Kurds in the '80s.

About 27 percent of the chemical agent stored at Umatilla is sarin.

Mustard gas

Mustard agent makes up 63 percent of chemical agents at Umatilla.

Historically, it has been the most often used poisonous gas, although it's less likely to kill people than sarin or VX. However, it can linger longer than nerve gases, which dissipate more quickly.

If inhaled, its effects may not show up for two to six hours. Symptoms include a runny nose, dry coughing, trouble breathing, hoarseness, blistering and bleeding in the lungs and coughing up blood.

It can penetrate the skin within two minutes to cause swelling and blisters in up to 24 hours. After one to two hours in the eyes, the gas causes irritation, increases sensitivity to light and can start destroying tissue.

 

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