mustard gas
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2008
mustard gas chemical compound used as a poison gas in World War I. The burning sensation it causes on contact with the skin is similar to that caused by oil from black mustard seeds. The compound is not a gas but a colorless, oily liquid with a somewhat sweet, agreeable odor; it boils at 217°C. A powerful vesicant, mustard gas causes severe blistering even in small quantities. Highly irritating to the eyes, it quickly causes conjunctivitis and blindness. If inhaled, it attacks the respiratory tract and lungs, causing pulmonary edema. Some effects of exposure to mustard gas are delayed up to 12 hr; death may result several days after exposure. Mustard gas was introduced by the Germans in warfare against the British at Ypres, Belgium, in July, 1917, and took a heavy toll of casualties. It is dispersed as an aerosol by a bursting shell. Chemically, mustard gas is a thioether, 2,2′-dichlorodiethyl sulfide, (ClCH 2 CH 2 ) 2 S. It can be prepared by reacting ethylene with sulfur monochloride, S 2 Cl 2 , or by other methods. Its vesicant property is readily destroyed either by oxidation or by chlorination (e.g., with bleaching powder).
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The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from HighBeam Research
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The VA's sorry, the army's silent. (Dept of Veteran's Affairs and World War II victims of mustard gas)(includes related information)
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; 3/1/1993; Freeman, Karen; 2687 words
; ... Health Sciences, acknowledged during a news conference that the tests had been offensive ... the veterans gathered at the NAS for the news conference at which the panel's findings ... Scudder returned home after attending the NAS news conference, he found three VA notices asking ...
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Bush makes mistake on amount of mustard gas
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; 4/15/2004; 225 words
; Bush makes mistake on amount of mustard gas Associated Press Thursday, April 15, 2004 Washington -- President Bush misspoke on a weapons issue Tuesday, telling the nation that 50 tons of mustard gas were found in Libya, twice the amount actually uncovered. The White House moved quickly Wednesday to
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Ocular injuries caused by mustard gas: Diagnosis, treatment, and medical defense
Military Medicine; 1/1/2001; Safarinejad, M R; 3298 words
; Sulfur mustard has been used as a vesicant chemical warfare agent. To investigate the ocular damage it causes, we studied the effects on chemical casualties in the Iran-Iraq War. The patient population consisted of more than 5,000 chemical casualties, both military and civilian. The range of ocular
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Getting Burned; A Look Back at the Navy's Mustard-Gas Experiments. It's Enough to Make You Sick
The Washington Post; 3/7/1993; Tracy Thompson; 3076 words
; The gas came boiling out of a pipe near the ceiling in the small, square room at the Naval Research Lab in Anacostia, and the men inside, wearing canvas suits and gas masks, watched it come. It was the winter of 1944, and the young recruits, some only 16, had volunteered to test "summer clothing"
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MUSTARD GAS DECISION DELAYED
Rocky Mountain News; 1/11/2002; News staff and wire reports; 51 words
; The Pentagon will take at least another month to decide the best way to destroy 2,600 tons of mustard gas stored at the Pueblo Chemical Depot, the military said Thursday. Originally, a decision on whether to incinerate the mustard gas and more than 780,000 projectiles or to use an alternative
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Sixty secret mustard gas sites uncovered
The Independent - London; 6/4/1996; Christopher Bellamy Defence Correspondent; 532 words
; More than 60 sites across Britain, officially declared "safe", have been contaminated by deadly mustard gas, which remains effective for decades . These sites are in addition to the eight sites officially declared by the Government under the Chemical Weapons Convention. Attempts to clean up the
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EPA APPROVES PLANT TO NEUTRALIZE MUSTARD GAS AT ABERDEEN ARMY BASE
Regulatory Intelligence Data; 3/3/1999; INDSTRY GROUP 99; 297 words
; 00-00-0000 ABERDEEN, Md. - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a permit to the U.S. Army Proving Ground in Aberdeen to construct a treatment plant to neutralize the chemical warfare agent HD, also known as mustard gas, which has been stockpiled at the site since World War I. EPA
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Mustard gas in Saudi Arabia
The Independent - London; 3/10/1997; 247 words
; A Czech army chemical specialist has revealed new information on how he detected traces of mustard gas while serving in the Gulf conflict. Lieutenant Colonel Jiri Aberle was a member of an anti-chemical weapons team sent to the Gulf at the behest of Saudi Arabia because of its specialist knowledge
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 "Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)")
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MUSTARD GAS DECISION DELAYED.(Local)
Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO); 1/11/2002; 59 words
; Byline: News staff and wire reports WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon will take at least another month to decide the best way to destroy 2,600 tons ...
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 "The Kentucky Post (Covington, KY)")
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MUSTARD GAS LEAK.(News)
The Kentucky Post (Covington, KY); 1/7/2003; 103 words
; RICHMOND -- An artillery shell was leaking mustard gas at the Blue Grass Army Depot on Monday, but Army officials said it posed no health hazard to the surrounding community. The leak was discovered by testing equipment in a storage igloo at 10:41 a.m. EST. The igloo houses 155-mm projectile shells
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Related entries from encyclopedias, dictionaries, and thesauruses
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Mustard Gas
Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security
Mustard Gas █ JUDYTH SASSOON Mustard gas is a substance used in chemical warfare. It is the popular ... 2-chloroethane) (chemical formula: Cl-CH2-CH2-S-CH2-CH2-Cl). Mustard gas has a number of other names by which it has been known over ...
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mustard gas
The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English
mus·tard gas • n. a colorless oily liquid ((ClCH 2 CH 2 ) 2 S) whose vapor is a powerful irritant and vesicant, used in chemical weapons.
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nitrogen mustard
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
... developed for military use (see poison gas ). Like mustard gas and lewisite, it is a vesicant (blistering ... lymphomas , and brain tumors. Nitrogen mustards cause mutations in the genetic material ... in their susceptibility to nitrogen mustards, with rapidly proliferating tumor and ... a ...
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poison gas
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
... produce blisters on all body surfaces (see lewisite ; mustard gas ); lacrimators ( tear gas ) produce severe eye irritation; sternutators (vomiting ... 19th cent. the possibility of the use of poison gas as a weapon was already envisaged and was viewed ...
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lewisite
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
, liquid chemical compound used as a poison gas . Like mustard gas and nitrogen mustard, it is a blistering agent; when inhaled, it is a powerful respiratory irritant. The absorption of lewisite, which penetrates ordinary ...
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