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An Ex-Russian Spy Was Poisoned by a Nerve Agent—How Does It Work?

Molecularly, they are organophosphates. Physically, they are usually colorless liquids. And functionally, they all disable enzymes called acetylcholinesterase, which acts as an off switch in the nervous system...

All the normal bodily functions go into overdrive: sweating, vomiting, involuntary defecation, frothing at the mouth, convulsions. Eventually, the muscles can give out, leading to paralysis and suffocation. Antidotes are available for nerve agents, but they have to be delivered in time. At high enough doses, nerve agents can kill in minutes. At lower doses, the symptoms can resemble poisoning with pesticides—and this is not a coincidence.

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Featured

 Nerve Agents: What Are They and How Do They Work?

The first nerve agents were invented by accident in the 1930s when German researchers were trying to make cheaper and better alternatives to nicotine as insecticides.

 This Is What It's Like to Die of Nerve Gas Poisoning

If cruel, unusual, and barbaric punishment exists, death by nerve gas would certainly be it. Nerve agents are classified as organophosphates, and can be thought of as extremely potent and lethal insecticides, or humanicides

Articles of Interest

How to tweak drug-design software to create chemical weapons

Just ask the program to enhance, rather than reduce, toxicity.

Nerve Agent Used in Attack Was Developed in Soviet Union as a Weapon

Novichok class of compounds is potent and designed to be virtually undetectable.

The Nerve Agent Too Deadly to Use, Until Someone Did

For nearly three decades, since a Soviet whistle-blower told the world of its existence, the nerve agent Novichok has scared American weapons experts. The Pentagon sent teams to destroy abandoned laboratories that once produced the chemical, believed to be orders of magnitude more lethal than sarin or VX.

What do nerve agents do and how hard are they to make?

In pure form, all nerve agents are colourless organophosphorus liquids. They were found to be highly poisonous in the 1930s and became the dominant chemical weapons of the second world war. Once made, the substances are easy to disperse, either as liquids or aerosols, are highly toxic, and have rapid effects. Most are inhaled or, as is the case with VX, absorbed mostly through the skin, but in liquid form they can also be added to food and drink, which delays the onset of their effects.

What Is Novichok, the Poisoning Agent Used on Russia’s Alexei Navalny?

It is a deadly nerve agent developed in the Soviet Union and then Russia as a more potent and harder-to-detect alternative to VX and soman. Its existence was first revealed in the early 1990s by a dissident scientist as Moscow prepared to enter the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention to end the use and stockpiling of chemical weapons.

What is Novichok? A neurotoxicologist explains

To be clear, much of what is known about Novichok is conjecture. It is based on the limited information provided by two Russian chemists: one a defector and the other who accidentally poisoned himself with a Novichok compound and died, though not immediately. It is his delayed clinical symptoms which have been the basis for understanding about what can happen when death isn’t immediate.

What Russian Scientists Are Saying About Nerve Agents

“Your eyes grow narrow, you lose vision. Next is vomiting, breathing problems, and incessant convulsions.”

Resources

Novichok: the deadly story behind the nerve agent

About 20 different nerve agents have now been manufactured and all are listed, and restricted, under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Novichoks are an exception because they have never been declared...

This hazmat suit can block VX nerve agent and other deadly chemicals. Here’s how it’s built.

The suit is a sandwich of materials. The middle layer is roughly 1/8-inch-thick ­puncture-​­resistant polypropylene, and a coating on both sides includes dozens of plastic ­polymers. Each of those has its own protective responsibility, like stopping sarin gas.