Chemical and bacteriological (biological) weapons

Casualties caused by chemical weapons during the First World War, in which they were used extensively for the first time, numbered about 1,300,000, of which about 100,000 were fatal. The agents used in that war were much less toxic than those which could be used today, and they were dispersed by means of relatively primitive equipment as compared with what is now available. Today a large number of industrialized countries have the capability to produce a variety of chemical agents. Thus the potential for developing an armoury of chemical and also bacteriological (biological) weapons has grown considerably in recent years, not only in terms of the number of agents, but in their levels of toxicity and in the diversity of their effects.

Related Subject(s): Disarmament