HWN Suggests

Chlorine: the gas of war crimes

The use of any chemical weapon is appalling. The indiscriminate nature of poison gas and the harrowing effects produced in the human body seems especially callous and inhumane. Chlorine can attack the body in a number of ways producing devastating chemical burns. A complex series of chemical reactions is involved as chlorine reacts with fats, proteins and other material of the body. Most of the damage is thought to be caused by the reaction with moisture in the body to produce acids. The human body contains a lot of water (we are all between two thirds and three quarters water).

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Articles of Interest

Effects of Two Chlorine Gas Attacks on Hospital Admission and Clinical Outcomes in Kafr Zita, Syria

Our results demonstrated that even in low-resource humanitarian settings the survival rate for chlorine gas exposed patients is fair, particularly if basic symptomatic treatment is performed with oxygen, bronchodilators, and corticosteroids.

Gas in The Great War

Chlorine is a diatomic gas, about two and a half times denser than air, pale green in color and with an odor which was described as a ‘mix of pineapple and pepper’. It can react with water in the lungs to form hydrochloric acid, which is destructive of tissue and can quickly lead to death, or, at least, permanent lung tissue damage and disability. At lower concentrations, if it does not reach the lungs, per se, it can cause coughing, vomiting, and eye irritation.

Gas: the greatest terror of the Great War

Haber, with the resources of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Berlin, needed to find a suitable lethal gas. Chlorine was eventually chosen, for a number of key reasons. Chlorine is two and a half times denser than air so it stays close to the ground when released and it also sinks into trenches, shell holes and bunkers.