Biological weapons have recently considered terrorist weapons and banned by several international conventions, although it is suspected that the United States and Russia retain abundant stocks of these agents in their laboratories. The supposed presence in arsenals Iraqi biological weapons was one of the causes of the war in Iraq .
Use modern war
Weight for weight, biological weapons are from 150 to 200 times more effective than chemical: a few milligrams are enough to cause lethal effects on the body.
to spread the biological agent can be sprayed an aqueous solution or powder ipersottile containing the virus, the bacterium or toxin, the particles in each case must be very small, in order to penetrate the human lungs in depth and start the infection. This mode is ideal for airborne.
agents can be brought on goals by human hand or launched by means of aerial dispersal, or uploaded to bombs , missiles and bullets' s artillery .
We note the following modes of action:
- inhalation
- for contamination of food and water for contamination of
- chips due to the explosion of bombs and bullets (in the case of tetanotossina and toxin gas gangrene), especially if they were loaded into bombs like "fragmentation", or "A saturation-deployment".
Bacteria and viruses
Among bacteria, one of the most terrible and deadly is that of ' anthrax : causes a disease that usually affects animals, but occasionally can infect the 'man inhaled, causing pneumonia rapidly fatal. Its spores have the advantage of persistence in the soil (even tens of years) and last long in the external environment (they are destroyed by a temperature of 121 ° C during the time of 15 minutes, at normal atmospheric pressure). Because of their high resistance to external agents, the spores can be sprayed in aerosol through special bullets.
less resistant microorganisms, such as typhoid ( Salmonella typhi ) and cholera (Vibrio cholerae ), and polio virus ( poliovirus ) and the 'viral hepatitis ( Hepatovirus ) may also be disposed of, or contamination by spraying targeted, causing serious clinical forms, such gastroenteritis, hepatitis, paralysis.
The doctrine of employment provided for their use for the poisoning of large quantities of food and water supply reservoirs. Their field of application of choice is the bombardment of the back, which would cause the complete paralysis of the supply to the front lines. If you become aware, however, used against the front lines, will cause total chaos in the evacuation of the injured. An epidemic of this kind could be very difficult to control and backfire at all times against the same users (effect "boomerang").
Toxins Toxins are products of metabolism bacterial, fungal, algal and plant. Can be properly disposed of in various ways, not excluding the use of intercontinental missiles head toxic. For the relative ease of production, these weapons are commonly called "the atomic-poor."
The botulinum toxin causes flaccid paralysis in voluntary skeletal muscles, while the tetanus toxin causes spastic paralysis of that muscle. The first act when given orally, and the other by injection . In both cases, death occurs by asphyxiation paralysis of respiratory muscles, perfectly preserved in a state of consciousness . These toxins are produced industrially today thanks to techniques' genetic engineering and molecular biology . Thirty grams of these poisons are theoretically able to kill the entire human population, but their weakness is the lack of heat resistance.
Lethal toxin is also the effect of certain fungi of the genus Fusarium ; common in the target in the form of fine powder, the so-called "yellow rain", is inhaled and cause rapid necrosis of the skin and mucous , bleeding on ' digestive and what respiratory , is toxic to the liver and for kidney , resulting in blocking of liver and kidney). The red bone marrow , marrow is depressed, with effects similar to those of ionizing radiation .
The same applies to the toxins of fungi of the genus Amanita and Cortinarius . Toxins amanitin and falloidina are deadly because it blocks the ' ribosomal RNA, in doing so protein synthesis and cell death. Kidney, liver and intestine are devastated by the action of toxins of ' Amanita phalloides , 's Amanita verna and of' Amanita virosa . Lethal toxin is also the action of Cortinarius orellanus . All these toxins are heat stable, ie do not degrade with the heat during cooking, for which they maintain their power the same toxic. For the man
the toxic dose of these toxins is equal to 1 milligram per kilogram of body weight and nothing is worth the lavage , because they pass the barrier offered by the free gastric juice not give rise to the reflection of vomiting, do not induce a sense of nausea and act just after intestinal absorption, once discharged into the blood after 48 - 72 hours after ingestion the only effective defense, provided it is implemented on time, is the plasmapheresis.
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