Biomedical subjects

A Hay

Publications and source records attributed to A Hay.

112 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

PubMedDate not supplied

Old dogs or new tricks: chemical warfare at the millennium.

There were about 50,000 deaths from chemical agents in the First World War and 7,000 deaths in the Kurdish population of Iraq from mustard gas and nerve agents. Signatories to the 1925 Geneva Protocol forswore first use of chemical warfare, but were allowed to maintain stockpiles, and there were no sanctions against use. The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which entered into force in 1997, establishes timetables for declaration of current and past CW activity and destruction of stocks. The Convention allows inspection of suspect sites. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has been established to give effect to the CWC, which, as of June 1999, has 125 States Parties. Progress in reporting and destroying CW agents is described. It is essential that participation in the CWC becomes universal, but until this is the case monitoring by other agencies will be needed.

Chemical Warfare↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Surviving the impossible: the long march from Srebrenica. An investigation of the possible use of chemical warfare agents.

In July 1995 about 15,000 people attempted to walk from the enclave of Srebrenica to free territory in Bosnia. Two-thirds were captured or killed. Many of the remainder experienced hallucinations on the march, leading them to believe they were the victims of chemical weapons. This paper reports extended structured interviews with 35 survivors, including three doctors, carried out a year later on behalf of Human Right Watch. The literature on the likeliest CW agent, 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate (BZ), and on stress as a cause of hallucinations, is reviewed. While CW exposure cannot be ruled out, it is concluded that the hallucinations can be ascribed to the consequence of multiple stresses--artillery attacks, exhaustion due to lack of sleep, starvation, thirst and the effects of drinking unpurified water.

Bosnia and Herzegovina↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Simulants, stimulants and diseases: the evolution of the United States biological warfare programme, 1945-60.

Details about the US biological programme have largely been based on information in the open literature. More revealing aspects of the programme are now available through documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. Annual reports of the activities of the US Army Chemical Corps from 1945 to 1959 have revealed significant increases in activity in biological warfare research. The Corps research activity progressed from work on anthrax in 1941, through anti-crop agents in the mid-1940s, to a wider range of animal, plant and human diseases by 1960. A number of disease organisms were investigated sufficiently to permit some standardisation and manufacture of munitions.

Biological Warfare↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A magic sword or a big itch: an historical look at the United States biological weapons programme.

In the late 1950s interest in entomological warfare increased, and literature describing the US biological warfare programmes on the use of the mosquito Aedes aegypti, the vector for transmitting yellow fever, has now been released. Yellow fever was considered as a suitable disease to use in southern regions of the former Soviet Union. The US destroyed its biological weapon stockpiles in the early 1970s. In addition to its offensive biological warfare programme, the US conducted extensive trials to assess its own vulnerability to biological attack. These trials and a later series of threat analyses indicate that biological agents could, indeed, affect large areas of the US if the attackers were allowed to proceed unmolested. Some of the threat analyses present highly questionable scenarios.

Biological Warfare↗