Since yesterday 22ndApril, large-scale use of chemical weapons to combat war has been a constant feature of warfare since 100. 100 years ago, the world’s greatest minds in chemistry and one Nobel Laureate used their scientific knowledge to create humanity’s first WMD. It was a hundred years ago that poison gas was released. This gave the world a new weapon for mass destruction and changed the course of World War I. Although humans have attacked each other using gases since ancient Greece, the chemical weapons available back then weren’t powerful enough to qualify as weapons of mass destruction. The gas cylinders that were used to attack the enemy with poison gas in WWI. Image: Wikimedia. Chlorine gas, 22 March, 1915. The first chlorine gas attack on 22April, 1915, caught everyone by surprise because it was so effective. The number of injuries and deaths caused by the weapon was shocking to even Fritz Haber (1868-1934), the German chemist. Fritz suggested using chlorine gas to combat Allied troops. Fritz was responsible for the weapon’s development and was present at the frontlines to oversee the installation of five ,730 gas cylinders on a four-mile stretch of road near the Belgian trenches. After that, he waited several weeks on the frontlines until the wind had just the right temperature. C&EN’s Sarah Everts stated that the weapon was weakened by the unpredictability of the wind. The chlorine gas had to be blown from the cylinders on the German side into the trenches of the Allies. The German High Command was skeptical at first, but then they became enthusiastic when it came time to allow poison gas to be used as a weapon. Ms. Everts quotes Andrew Ede from the University of Alberta. He said that the German High Command saw the first chlorine attack, at best, as an experiment and, at worst, as a stunt. Haber only managed to convince one Western Front commander to use chlorine gas as a chemical weapons six months after WWI began. The initial attack resulted in the death of over 1 ,100 soldier and the injury to several thousand others. This was when the skeptical attitude turned to wild enthusiasm. Fritz Haber (a Jew) was the scientist who created the first chemical weapon to mass destruction. He would later lose many of his relatives, who had been gased during WWII at Nazi concentration camps. The chemical arms race began. This was the first major use of chemical weapons in warfare. Scientists from both sides had already evaluated 3 ,000 chemicals by the close of the First World War. Fivety-five of these chemicals were tested on the field. The battlefield was spared from chemical weapons in WWI, which caused less than 1% death and about 7% casualties. However, its psychological effect was much greater. It made soldiers and commanders fearful. Saddam Hussein directed the use poison gas on thousands of Iraqi Kurds. Both sides quickly developed protective gas masks with a range of neutralizing agents. While poison gas wasn’t a significant killer on First World War battlefields it set the precedent for large-scale chemical use to kill. It has been used to kill millions of civilians and soldiers worldwide over the past 100 decades, including many who were held in German WWII concentration camps, some members of Haber’s family (he was Jewish), and commuters in Tokyo. There have also been protestors in Syria and thousands of Iraqis living under Saddam Hussein. C&EN. Reference: “100 years of chemical weapons.” Video: Dawn of Chemical Warfare
