Additional information on brake cleaner that forms phosgene gas.
This is very bad stuff.
All my emails to vendors have had no reply. It is clear they do not want to
admit any liability involved in generating this extremely deadly gas.
Here are some excerpts from Wikipedia. This stuff is lethal. Please do not
use it.
Chemical weapons in World War I were primarily used to demoralize,
injure and kill entrenched defenders, against whom the
indiscriminate and generally slow-moving or static nature of gas
clouds would be most effective. The types of weapons employed ranged
from disabling chemicals, such as tear gas and the severe mustard
gas, to lethal agents like phosgene and chlorine.
Phosgene was a potent killing agent, deadlier than chlorine. It had
a potential drawback in that some of the symptoms of exposure took
24 hours or more to manifest. This meant that the victims were
initially still capable of putting up a fight; although this could
also mean that apparently fit troops would be incapacitated by the
effects of the gas on the following day.[27]
In the first combined chlorine/phosgene attack by Germany, against
British troops at Wieltje near Ypres, Belgium on 19 December 1915,
88 tons of the gas were released from cylinders causing 1069
casualties and 69 deaths.[25] The British P gas helmet, issued at
the time, was impregnated with sodium phenolate and partially
effective against phosgene. The modified PH Gas Helmet, which was
impregnated with phenate hexamine and hexamethylene tetramine
(urotropine) to improve the protection against phosgene, was issued
in January 1916.[25][28][29]
Around 36,600 tons of phosgene were manufactured during the war, out
of a total of 190,000 tons for all chemical weapons, making it
second only to chlorine (93,800 tons) in the quantity
manufactured:[30]
* Germany 18,100 tons
* France 15,700 tons
* United Kingdom 1,400 tons (although they also used French stocks)
* United States 1,400 tons (although they also used French stocks)
Although phosgene was never as notorious in public consciousness as
mustard gas, it killed far more people, about 85% of the 100,000
deaths caused by chemical weapons during World War I.
Death by gas was often slow and painful. According to Denis Winter
(Death's Men, 1978), a fatal dose of phosgene eventually led to
"shallow breathing and retching, pulse up to 120, an ashen face and
the discharge of four pints (2 litres) of yellow liquid from the
lungs each hour for the 48 of the drowning spasms."
Delivering gas via artillery shell overcame many of the risks of
dealing with gas in cylinders. The Germans, for example, used
5.9-inch (150 mm) artillery shells ("five-nines").
Gas shells were independent of the wind and increased the effective
range of gas, making anywhere within reach of the guns vulnerable.
Gas shells could be delivered without warning, especially the clear,
nearly odorless phosgene - there are numerous accounts of gas
shells, landing with a "plop" rather than exploding, being initially
dismissed as dud HE or shrapnel shells, giving the gas time to work
before the soldiers were alerted and took precautions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapons_in_World_War_I
Mike M.
--
The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver.
Rules and Instructions: http://www.silverlist.org
Unsubscribe:
<mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
Archives:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html
Off-Topic discussions: <mailto:[email protected]>
List Owner: Mike Devour <mailto:[email protected]>
