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| Adamsite was first discovered by the German chemist Wieland in 1915. In the United States, Major Roger Adams also synthesized this compound in 1918 while conducting his own independent research. Adamsite is a yellowish, crystalline solid that can be delivered by means of a thermal fog, yielding fumes that were less flammable than other World War I-era chemical warfare (CW) agents. Despite this added safety feature, Adamsite was eventually found to be too potent for controlling civilian disturbances, while not being quite toxic enough for effective battlefield use. By the 1930s, therefore, Adamsite or DM had been supplanted by other compounds to be used as riot control agents (RCAs). Due to its utility as a pesticide, however, this same compound found extensive use as a treatment for wood against insects.
During World War I, one of the advantages seen in this new compound by the Allied powers was the relative ease with which it could be manufactured. (This particularly because of the availability of an important precursor—diphenylamine—made abundant from the rapidly growing dye industry at the time.) Reportedly, in 1919, the British employed Adamsite against Bolshevik forces during the Russian Civil War. As the term “vomiting agent” suggests, Adamsite’s impact on the human system includes severe nausea, although data are sparse with regard to this effect in humans. Unlike other types of RCAs, the effects of Adamsite are delayed by at least several minutes, and these include severe irritation of the upper respiratory tract. Adamsite is practically odorless and this, coupled with its capacity to permeate the first protective masks, was another feature that made Adamsite a potentially insidious and effective CW agent.
The estimated median lethal concentration of Adamsite is 11 grams-min/m3, making it far more toxic than other RCAs used in the modern civilian context. |
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