What are Biological Weapons? – UNODA

Biological weapons disseminate disease-causing organisms or toxins to harm or kill humans, animals or plants.

They generally consist of two parts – a weaponized agent and a delivery mechanism. In addition to strategic or tactical military applications, biological weapons can be used for political assassinations, the infection of livestock or agricultural produce to cause food shortages and economic loss, the creation of environmental catastrophes, and the introduction of widespread illness, fear and mistrust among the public. 

Weaponized agent 

Almost any disease-causing organism (such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, prions or rickettsiae) or toxin (poisons derived from animals, plants or microorganisms, or similar substances produced synthetically) can be used in biological weapons. The agents can be enhanced from their natural state to make them more suitable for mass production, storage, and dissemination as weapons. Historical biological weapons programmes have included efforts to produce: aflatoxin; anthrax; botulinum toxin; foot-and-mouth disease; glanders; plague; Q fever; rice blast; ricin; Rocky Mountain spotted fever; smallpox; and tularaemia, among others.

Delivery mechanism 

Biological weapons delivery systems can take a variety of forms. Past programmes have constructed missiles, bombs, hand grenades and rockets to deliver biological weapons. A number of programmes also designed spray-tanks to be fitted to aircraft, cars, trucks and boats. There have also been documented efforts to develop delivery devices for assassinations or sabotage operations, including a variety of sprays, brushes and injection systems as well as means for contaminating food and clothing.  

Technological advances 

In addition to concerns that biological weapons could be developed or used by States, recent technological advances could increase the likelihood of these weapons being acquired or produced by non-state actors, including individuals or terrorist organizations. For more information about recent scientific and technological advances relevant to the Convention, please click here. The 20th century saw the use of biological weapons by individuals and groups committing criminal acts or targeted assassinations, biological warfare conducted by States, and the accidental release of pathogens from laboratories. There were also false accusations of biological weapons use, highlighting the difficulty in differentiating between naturally-occurring disease, accidents and deliberate use.  

Biological event 

In practice, should a suspicious disease event occur, it would be difficult to determine if it was caused by nature, an accident, sabotage, or an act of biological warfare or terrorism. Consequently, the response to a biological event, whether natural, accidental or deliberate, would involve the coordination of actors from many sectors who together possess the capability to determine the cause and attribute it to a specific source. Likewise, the preparedness for and prevention of such an event should also involve multi-sectoral coordination. For more information about preparing for and responding to disease outbreaks and biological weapons attacks, please see the frequently asked questions published by the World Health Organization. 

Spectrum of biological risks

International coordination 

Because of the wide spectrum of potential biological hazards, efforts to manage the risks should be multi-disciplinary, multi-sectoral, and above all, coordinated. As such, the BWC relies primarily on a network approach based on coordination with international, regional, and nongovernmental organizations and initiatives in order to address the interconnected nature of biological threats in a holistic manner. Under the framework of the BWC, improved coordination would provide positive externalities for managing disease, whatever the cause. Such an approach ensures that resources are used optimally to provide benefits for many. In this sense, for example, building capacities across sectors to monitor disease not only strengthens the ability to detect and respond to a biological attack, but it also provides States with the capacity to track and mitigate naturally occurring disease, thus vastly improving public health worldwide. 

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biological weapon, also called germ weapon, any of a number of disease-producing agents—such as bacteria, viruses, rickettsiae, fungi, toxins, or other biological agents—that may be utilized as weapons against humans, animals, or plants.

The direct use of infectious agents and poisons against enemy personnel is an ancient practice in warfare. Indeed, in many conflicts, diseases have been responsible for more deaths than all the employed combat arms combined, even when they have not consciously been used as weapons.

Biological weapons, like chemical weapons, radiological weapons, and nuclear weapons, are commonly referred to as weapons of mass destruction, although the term is not truly appropriate in the case of biological armaments. Lethal biological weapons may be capable of causing mass deaths, but they are incapable of mass destruction of infrastructure, buildings, or equipment. Nevertheless, because of the indiscriminate nature of these weapons—as well as the potential for starting widespread pandemics, the difficulty of controlling disease effects, and the simple fear that they inspire—most countries have agreed to ban the entire class.

As of 2013 a total of 180 states and Taiwan had signed the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and 170 of those states and Taiwan had signed and ratified the treaty, which was opened for signature in 1972. Under the terms of the BWC, member states are prohibited from using biological weapons in warfare and from developing, testing, producing, stockpiling, or deploying them. However, a number of states have continued to pursue biological warfare capabilities, seeking a cheaper but still deadly strategic weapon rather than following the more difficult and expensive path to nuclear weapons. In addition, the threat that some deranged individual or terrorist organization will manufacture or steal biological weapons is a growing security concern.

Biological warfare agents

Biological warfare agents differ greatly in the type of organism or toxin used in a weapons system, lethality, length of incubation, infectiousness, stability, and ability to be treated with current vaccines and medicines. There are five different categories of biological agents that could be weaponized and used in warfare or terrorism. These include:

• Bacteria—single-cell organisms that cause diseases such as anthrax, brucellosis, tularemia, and plague.

• Rickettsiae—microorganisms that resemble bacteria but differ in that they are intracellular parasites that reproduce inside cells. Typhus and Q fever are examples of diseases caused by rickettsia organisms.

• Viruses—intracellular parasites, about 1/100 the size of bacteria, that can be weaponized to cause diseases such as Venezuelan equine encephalitis.

• Fungi—pathogens that can be weaponized for use against crops to cause such diseases as rice blast, cereal rust, wheat smut, and potato blight.

• Toxins—poisons that can be weaponized after extraction from snakes, insects, spiders, marine organisms, plants, bacteria, fungi, and animals. An example of a toxin is ricin, which is derived from the seed of the castor bean.

Some of these biological agents have properties that would make them more likely candidates for weaponization, such as their lethality, ability to incapacitate, contagiousness or noncontagiousness, hardiness and stability, and other characteristics. Among the agents deemed likely candidates for biological weapons use are the toxins ricin, staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB), botulinum toxin, and T-2 mycotoxin and the infectious agents responsible for anthrax, brucellosis, cholera, pneumonic plague, tularemia, Q fever, smallpox, glanders, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, and viral hemorrhagic fever. Various states at various times have looked into weaponizing dozens of other biological agents in addition.

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Defense against biological weapons

Military defense

Most weaponized lethal biological agents are intended to be delivered as aerosols, which would cause infections when breathed by the targeted personnel. For this reason, the most-effective defense against biological weapons is a good protective mask equipped with filters capable of blocking bacteria, viruses, and spores larger than one micron (one micrometre; one-millionth of a metre) in cross section from entry into the wearer’s nasal passages and lungs. Protective overgarments, including boots and gloves, are useful for preventing biological agents from contacting open wounds or breaks in the skin. Also, decontaminants can neutralize biological agents in infected areas after a biological attack.

Developing and fielding effective biological weapon sensors that can trigger an alarm would allow personnel to don masks before exposure, get into protective overgarments, and go inside, preferably into toxic-free collective protection shelters. Medical teams could then immediately go into action to check and treat those who may have been exposed.

Biological warfare attacks can be made less effective, or ineffective, if the targeted persons have been vaccinated against the specific disease-causing agent used in an attack.

Civil defense against biological weapons has greatly improved since the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, but progress does not necessarily equal success. A successful civil defense against major biological attacks requires that significant progress be made in sensors, warning systems, vaccines, medicines, training of responders, and public education as well as in planning of emergency procedures. These aspects of civil defense are described briefly in this section, using as examples certain practices put into effect in the United States since September 11.

The foundation of any civil defense against a biological weapons attack is the medical system that has already been set up to deal with naturally occurring diseases. Special vaccines have been created, tested, and approved to deal with the two most lethal biological agents that can also be most easily weaponized: anthrax and smallpox. For example, the U.S. government has enough smallpox vaccine to vaccinate the entire American population and enough anthrax vaccine to inoculate at least every member of the U.S. military.

Effective vaccines for plague and cholera now exist and have been approved for use, but only small quantities have been produced, far short of what might be needed if large numbers of people were to be infected. Furthermore, in the United States a number of vaccines are still in the Investigational New Drug (IND) category and await further trials before the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) can validate their effectiveness and safety. Included among these are vaccines for Q fever, tularemia, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, viral hemorrhagic fever, and botulism.

At present no effective vaccines exist for preventing infections from glanders, brucellosis, staphylococcal enterotoxin B, ricin, or T-2 mycotoxins—all biological agents that some countries have researched for military use or have weaponized in the past. However, in some cases where vaccines are not yet available, medicines have been developed that help the sick to recover.

Long-term medical research is being conducted to investigate the possibility of developing vaccines and supplements that, when administered, might raise the effectiveness of the recipient’s immune system to protect against the whole spectrum of probable biological warfare agents.

One U.S. civil defense program that might make a difference in a biological emergency is the Strategic National Stockpile program, which has created 50-ton “push packages” of vaccines, medicines, decontamination agents, and emergency medical equipment, which are stored in a dozen locations across the country in preparation for emergencies. Furthermore, every U.S. state has bioterrorism response plans in place, including plans or guidelines for mass vaccinations, triage, and quarantines. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also drafted model legislation on emergency health powers for states to adopt in order to deal with such crises.

A new emergency response system was created in the United States following the September 11 attacks. The National Guard increased the number of its Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Teams, which respond to chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear weapons attacks—augmenting the police, fire, and medical first responders in the local area of any attacks. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security, working with the Department of Health and Human Services, invested heavily in passive defenses against biological attacks, focusing on such programs as Project BioShield and the Laboratory Response Network. The CDC also embarked on a training program on bioterrorism for thousands of medical lab technicians, and the National Institutes of Health funded new biocontainment research laboratories to further research in vaccines, medicines, and bioforensics.

Sensors to detect the presence of biological agents in the air, in water, or on surfaces are still relatively ineffective, but the aim of research is to create a “detect-to-warn” system that would provide enough time for potential victims to don masks, cover up, and take shelter before they are infected. The current “detect-to-treat” capability is unsatisfactory because responders would be treating many persons already infected. Most current biological detectors are point detectors, which are not capable of giving advance warning after scanning an airborne cloud of particles to discern if those particles contain biological agents of a specific type.

The USA used all types of weapons of mass destruction, Patrushev reminded

https://ria.ru/20220328/patrushev-1780517487.html

The USA used all types of weapons of mass destruction, Patrushev reminded

The USA used all types of weapons of mass destruction, Patrushev recalled – RIA Novosti, 03/28/2022

The United States used all types of weapons of mass destruction, Patrushev recalled RIA Novosti, 03/28/2022

2022-03-28T16:56

2022-03-28T16:56

2022-03-28T16:56

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MOSCOW, March 28 – RIA Novosti. The United States is the only country that has used all types of weapons of mass destruction against sovereign countries, said Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev. In addition to a springboard for anti-Russian activities, Washington-controlled Ukraine was used to create threats to the entire civilized world, Patrushev noted at negotiations with his Algerian counterpart Nureddin Makri in Moscow. “I mean, first of all, the closed US military biological programs being implemented on its territory, as well as plans to create nuclear weapons,” the Security Council Secretary added. similar American projects to analyze possible risks for their population have already led to awareness of the seriousness of this problem throughout the world, Patrushev noted. “This requires special attention from the entire civilized world, since only the United States has not joined the protocol on mutual control under the international Convention on Biological and toxin weapons. In addition, the United States is the only state in history to have used all types of weapons of mass destruction against sovereign countries,” he added. laboratories in Ukraine that participated in the American military biological program and dealt, in particular, with the causative agents of plague and anthrax. A network of more than 30 biological laboratories has been formed on the territory of Ukraine, working in the interests of the Pentagon, said Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops (RCBZ) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Everything for the continuation of the military biological program of the United States has already been taken out of Ukraine after the start of the Russian special military operation, he said. The United States in August 1945 years dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Americans used bacteriological weapons during the Korean War in the early 1950s. As for chemical weapons, the United States used them, including in the 1960s in South Vietnam. At that time, 10% of the country’s territory was affected by the “agent orange” chemical – this is the largest use of chemical weapons in history. The Vietnamese Red Cross estimated that 3 million people were affected by the use of the chemical, including 150,000 children born with hereditary disorders.

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MOSCOW, March 28 – RIA Novosti. The United States is the only country that has used all types of weapons of mass destruction against sovereign countries, said Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Russian Security Council.

In addition to a springboard for anti-Russian activities, Washington-controlled Ukraine was used to create threats to the entire civilized world, Patrushev noted at talks with his Algerian counterpart Nureddin Makri in Moscow. “I mean, first of all, the closed US military-biological programs being implemented on its territory, as well as plans to create nuclear weapons,” the Security Council secretary added.

Medvedev: the end of the unipolar world, the US is no longer the master of the planet Earth their populations have already led to awareness of the seriousness of this problem throughout the world, Patrushev noted.

«

“This requires the special attention of the entire civilized world, since only the United States has not joined the protocol on mutual control under the international Convention on Biological and Toxin Weapons. In addition, the United States is the only state that has used all types of weapons of mass destruction in history against sovereign countries,” he added.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation previously held a presentation from which it follows that the United States spent more than $ 200 million on the operation of biological laboratories in Ukraine, which participated in the American military biological program and dealt, in particular, with plague and anthrax. A network of more than 30 biological laboratories has been formed on the territory of Ukraine, working in the interests of the Pentagon, said Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, head of the Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops (RCBZ) of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Everything for the continuation of the US military biological program has already been removed from Ukraine after the start of the Russian special military operation, he said.

In August 1945, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Americans used bacteriological weapons during the Korean War in the early 1950s. As for chemical weapons, the United States used them, including in the 1960s in South Vietnam. At that time, 10% of the country’s territory was affected by the “agent orange” chemical – this is the largest use of chemical weapons in history. The Vietnamese Red Cross estimated that 3 million people were affected by the use of the chemical, including 150,000 children born with hereditary disorders.

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On April 7, the United States launched a missile attack on the Syrian Shayrat airbase in Homs province. The operation was a response to the chemical attack in Idlib on April 4, for which Washington and Western countries blame Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Official Damascus denies its involvement in the attack.

As a result of the chemical attack, more than 70 people were killed and more than 500 were injured. This is not the first such attack in Syria and not the first in history. The largest cases of the use of chemical weapons are in the RBC photo gallery.

Photo: Scherl / Global Look Press

One of the first major use of chemical warfare agents occurred on April 22, 1915 , when German troops sprayed about 168 tons of chlorine on positions near the Belgian city of Ypres. The victims of this attack were 1100 people. In total, during the First World War, as a result of the use of chemical weapons, about 100 thousand people died, 1. 3 million were injured.

Pictured: a group of British soldiers blinded by chlorine

Photo: Daily Herald Archive / NMeM / Global Look Press

mustard gas was used in Ethiopia. The Italian military claimed that the substance used during the hostilities was not lethal, however, during the entire conflict, about 100 thousand people (military and civilians) who did not have even the simplest means of chemical protection died from poisonous substances.

Pictured: Red Cross soldiers carry the wounded across the Abyssinian desert

Photo: Mary Evans Picture Library / Global Look Press

During World War II, chemical weapons were practically not used on the fronts, but were widely used by the Nazis to exterminate people in concentration camps . Hydrocyanic acid-based pesticide called “cyclone-B” was first used against people in September 1941 in Auschwitz. For the first time, these lethal gas pellets were used September 3, 1941, victims were 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 Poles, the second time – 900 Soviet prisoners of war became victims. Hundreds of thousands of people died from the use of “cyclone-B” in Nazi concentration camps.

In the photo: cyclone-B pellets

Photo: AP

In November 1943, , the Imperial Japanese Army used chemical and bacteriological weapons against Chinese soldiers during the Battle of Changde. According to the testimonies of witnesses, in addition to the poisonous gases of mustard gas and lewisite, fleas infected with bubonic plague were thrown into the area around the city. The exact number of victims of the use of toxic substances is unknown.

Pictured: Chinese military marching through the ruined streets of Changde

Photo: Richard Vogel / AR

chemicals, the most common of which was the chemical known as Agent Orange. The substance was produced using a simplified technology and contained high concentrations of dioxin, which causes genetic mutations and cancer. The Vietnamese Red Cross estimated that 3 million people were affected by the use of Agent Orange, including 150,000 children born with mutations.

Pictured: A 12-year-old boy suffering from the effects of Agent Orange

Photo: Chikumo Chiaki / AP

On March 20, 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo sect sprayed the nerve agent sarin on the Tokyo subway. As a result of the attack, 13 people were killed and another 6,000 were injured. Five members of the sect entered the carriages, lowered packages of volatile liquid onto the floor and pierced them with the tip of an umbrella, after which they left the train. According to experts, there could have been much more victims if the poisonous substance had been sprayed in other ways.

Photo: Doctors treating passengers affected by sarin

Photo: Anja Niedringhaus / AR

In November 2004, US troops used white phosphorus munitions during the assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Initially, the Pentagon denied the use of such ammunition, but eventually admitted this fact. The exact number of deaths from the use of white phosphorus in Fallujah is unknown. White phosphorus is used as an incendiary agent (it causes severe burns to people), but itself and its decay products are highly toxic.

Pictured: U.S. Marines escorting a captured Iraqi

Photo: Bassam Khabieh / Reuters

The largest chemical weapons attack in Syria during the standoff took place in April 2013 in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Yes mask. As a result of shelling with sarin, according to various sources, from 280 to 1,700 people died. UN inspectors were able to establish that surface-to-surface missiles with sarin were used in this place, and they were used by the Syrian military.

Pictured: UN chemical weapons experts collecting samples

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