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Although chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons are grouped together as
WMD, each differs in its lethality and effects. A 1993 authoritative review
of the effects of WMD, Proliferation
of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Assessing the Risks, by the former U.S.
Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) of the U.S. Congress concludes that nuclear
weapons are the most potent of the three. In addition to killing large numbers
of people, a nuclear weapon can destroy buildings and infrastructure and contaminate
large areas with radioactive fallout.
Biological and chemical weapons, on the
other hand, do not destroy infrastructure and can be defended
against through the use of gas masks, protective clothing, shelters,
and decontamination procedures. Such protective gear, however, can
impair the movement of troops. Biological agents can potentially
kill as many people as nuclear weapons, though they act more slowly
than chemical or nuclear weapons and are difficult to deliver
effectively.
One example of a biological weapon is
bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes the disease anthrax. In
the
2001 attacks with anthrax spores, it appears that the letter
sent to Senator Tom Daschle contained approximately two grams of
highly refined anthrax with chemical additives to prevent the
particles from sticking together. The 25 victims of the anthrax
attacks contracted the disease in one of two forms. If the spores
were breathed in, they caused the inhalation form of the
disease, which if untreated mostly resulted in toxic shock and death.
If the spores entered a person’s body through the skin, they formed a
darkened, often-painless lesion. In up to 20 percent of
untreated cases, this form progresses to death.
Chemical weapons incapacitate, injure, or
kill by affecting the skin, eyes, lungs, blood, nerves, or other
organs.
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