Biological Warfare
The United Nations has defined biological warfare as the use of any living organisms (e.g. bacteria) or infective material derived from them, in order to cause disease or death in humans, animals, or plants. The effectiveness of these organisms depends on their ability to multiply in the person, animal or plant attacked.
While the United Nations is a post-World War II institution, biological warfare is considerably older. Biological weapons have been used throughout world history: crops and livestock have been destroyed, water supplies have been contaminated, and humans have been exposed to lethal diseases.
Some historians have suggested that the second plague pandemic in the Middle Ages was a result of a rather crude form of biological warfare. During the fourteenth century, the city of Kaffa, or Caffa (now Feodosiya, Ukraine), was under siege by Tatars, whose own population was suffering from an outbreak of the plague. As a weapon, the attacking Tatar forces catapulted their cadavers into the city which subsequently initiated an epidemic in Kaffa. Refugees from Kaffa, which was then ruled by Genoa, moved to major ports, such as Venice, Genoa, and Constantinople, thereby spreading the disease over a large area. In another instance, a smallpox epidemic broke out among Native Americans in the Ohio River Valley after they were deliberately exposed to smallpox during French-Indian War (1754-1767). At the suggestion of Sir Jeffrey Amherst, Captain Ecuyer distributed used blankets from the smallpox hospital among Native American tribes with the intention of spreading the disease. However, the cause of an epidemic is difficult to pin down, as modern epidemiologists have pointed out that other factors, such as initial contact with the Europeans, may have triggered the epidemic among the Native Americans. In the case of the plague pandemic, it is likely that other factors, such as poor sanitation and the extraordinary effectiveness of fleas and rats as pathogen-carriers, contributed to the spread of the disease.
The creation of modern biological weapons is the direct result of advances in the field of microbiology. For example, scientists have learned how to isolate strains of bacteria, enabling the mass production of pure bacterial colonies. Because of remarkable progress in microbiology, biological weapons are easily and cheaply produced, and easily dispersed. In addition, they are d extremely potent.
Biological weapons are classified as: viruses, bacteria, rickettsia, and biological toxins. Of particular concern are genetically altered microorganisms, whose effect can be made to be group-specific. In other words, persons with particular traits are susceptible to these microorganisms.
There is evidence of biological weapon research and use during both World Wars. For example, during World War I, Germany developed a biological warfare program based on the anthrax bacillus (Bacillus anthracis) and a strain of pseudomonas (Burkholderia mallei), the causative agent of glanders, to infect livestock. During World War II, Japan conducted extensive biological weapon research in occupied Manchuria, China, where prisoners were infected with a variety of pathogens, including Neisseria meningitis, Bacillus anthracis , Shigella spp, and Yersinia pestis. It has been estimated that over 10,000 prisoners died as a result of either infection or execution following infection. In addition, the water supply and some food items were contaminated by biological agents, and an estimated 15 million potentially plague-infected fleas were released from aircraft, affecting many Chinese cities. However, as the Japanese military found out, biological weapons have fundamental disadvantages: they are unpredictable and difficult to control. After infectious agents were let loose in China by the Japanese, approximately 10,000 illnesses and 1,700 deaths occurred among Japanese troops.
Other countries encouraged biological weapon research with a view to determining the pathogenesis of specific bacteria. For example, prisoners in Nazi concentration camps were infected with pathogens, such as hepatitis A, Plasmodia spp., and two types of Rickettsia bacteria. These prisoners were used as guinea-pigs by Nazi physicians who attempted to develop vaccines and antibacterial drugs. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. government set up Operation Whitecoat, a research project which used conscientious objectors who nevertheless wanted to serve their country. For example, some of these young men were exposed to the causative pathogen of tularemia.
The first diplomatic effort to limit biological warfare was the Geneva Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare. This treaty, ratified in 1925, prohibited the use of biological weapons. Unfortunately, the treaty failed to prohibit biological warfare research, nor did it ban the production and possession of biological weapons. Consequently, many countries developed extensive defensive biological weapon research. In the United States, several research facilities were constructed to develop antisera, vaccines, and various equipment for protection against a possible biological attack. From1949-1968, in covert experiments, scientists used nonpathogenic agents to study aerosol use over large areas, as well as the effects of solar irradiation and climate on the pathogens' viability. Interestingly, several mysterious outbreaks of diseases occurred after some of these experiments, and, in 1977, senate hearings were held to investigate the outbreaks. The United Sates also had developed biological pathogens specifically for crops.
During the 1960s, there was worldwide concern regarding of biological warfare; the inadequacy of the 1925 Geneva Protocol was brought to light. In 1969, The United States began dismantling its offensive biological weapons program. In 1972, a treaty that took the Geneva Protocol a few steps further was proposed. This was the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development Production, and the Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction (BWC). The BWC prohibits development, possession, storing and stockpiling biological weapons, as well as devices used to disperse pathogens. In addition, it forbids transfer of pathogens or expertise to other countries. The treaty went into effect in March, 1995, and was signed by more than 100 countries. However, several signatories have since participated in using biological weapons, and some non-military groups have used biological weapons as well. In 1978, the Soviet Union used ricin, a lethal toxin from castor beans, to assassinate the Bulgarian defector, Georgi Markov, and several others. During the Persian Gulf War (1991) thousands of U.S. troops were inoculated against several diseases because of the perceived threat of Iraqi biological warfare. In 1984, the Rajneeshee cult contaminated salad bars in several Oregon restaurants and; eleven years later, the cult Aum Shinriko released sarin gas in the Tokyo subway system. In 1996, a man from Ohio was able to obtain bubonic plague cultures through the mail!
Biological warfare is complex and the effects are extremely variable. Most importantly, only a small amount of a pathogen can be lethal to a large area or population. The continual threat of biological warfare challenges national security and questions the popular notions of warfare. Thus, even during peacetime, there is a perceived need for the development of detector devices, protective equipment, and decontamination procedures. In 1996, the U.S. Congress enacted the Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act to enhance disaster preparedness policies and to call upon the cooperation between civil and military institutions. As of the summer of 1997, the fire, police, rescue, and hospital emergency departments in more than 100 US cities have been designated to receive special training to respond to incidents involving the use of weapons of mass destruction.
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