Chemical Warfare Secrets Almost Forgotten
Opinions
© 2006/2007
J.S. Ketchum
J.S. Ketchum
Documenting a Lost Decade of Clinical Research
Your area of work with the Chemical Corps was one of the most important areas of work through the 1950's and 1960's. I'm looking forward to reading your book. A friend of mine informed me of your recent book "Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten", and I immediately ordered a copy and passed the word out to several other scholars.
I have been at work for the past several years documenting the history of the US Army Chemical Corps, and am currently working on a history monograph on the St. Jo Project (E61 bomblet with anthrax). I hope to soon turn my attentions back to the comprehensive study on the CmlC covering the period of 1915 - 2005, and your book will no doubt be of great assistance. There really is not a good study on the Chemical Corps after WWII, and many of us fear this is resulting in a sizable loss of corporate memory within the Chemical Corps.
I also volunteer for the US Army Chemical Corps Museum at Fort Leonard Wood, MO, and write articles on CBR (mostly for the Army Chemical Review). A recent article I wrote on Psycho Agents was published in the Harvard-Sussex Newsletter http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/spru/hsp/CBWCB71.pdf
I can't find an exact source [for the ICt50 figure of 200,000] but believe I know how the figure was arrived at. Before information was publicly available on BZ, most scholars had to rely on eastern European reports and journal articles. I believe the East Germans thought the ICt50 of BZ was 200 mg x min/cu m. Estimates on lethality were suggested from Randall, L. O. et al. Spasmolytic action of bicyclic basic alcohol esters. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 104: 284-90, 1952, indicating a ratio of LCT50/ICt50 of 1,000x. Together these create a figure of 200,000. I am sure the figure came from some writing in the disarmament community in the late 1960's, as that was the only public writing on BZ that could have made such an induction.
You might be interested to know that the CB Joint Technical Data Source book on BZ states the LCt01 is in the range of 3,800 - 40,000 mg x min/cu m. The report I cited previously agrees with this magnitude in its review of assessment data - including yours), in terms of LD50 values.
My background is less interesting than the subject. Not to get too much into it, I have some practical experience in behavioral toxicology and biotechnology from undergraduate studies, and a natural love for operations research. Being a liberal arts student, around 1988, I undertook the study of chemical biological warfare as a scholarly pursuit with the hopes of someday being suitably informed to write a definitive study on its doctrinal basis (an area I perceived as not being documented). I have been a consultant to the US Army Chemical Corps Museum and Historical Office from my wide knowledge on the subject, and actively work to preserve the history of our chemical biological program, and communicate its accomplishments.
Reid Kirby
I have been at work for the past several years documenting the history of the US Army Chemical Corps, and am currently working on a history monograph on the St. Jo Project (E61 bomblet with anthrax). I hope to soon turn my attentions back to the comprehensive study on the CmlC covering the period of 1915 - 2005, and your book will no doubt be of great assistance. There really is not a good study on the Chemical Corps after WWII, and many of us fear this is resulting in a sizable loss of corporate memory within the Chemical Corps.
I also volunteer for the US Army Chemical Corps Museum at Fort Leonard Wood, MO, and write articles on CBR (mostly for the Army Chemical Review). A recent article I wrote on Psycho Agents was published in the Harvard-Sussex Newsletter http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/spru/hsp/CBWCB71.pdf
I can't find an exact source [for the ICt50 figure of 200,000] but believe I know how the figure was arrived at. Before information was publicly available on BZ, most scholars had to rely on eastern European reports and journal articles. I believe the East Germans thought the ICt50 of BZ was 200 mg x min/cu m. Estimates on lethality were suggested from Randall, L. O. et al. Spasmolytic action of bicyclic basic alcohol esters. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 104: 284-90, 1952, indicating a ratio of LCT50/ICt50 of 1,000x. Together these create a figure of 200,000. I am sure the figure came from some writing in the disarmament community in the late 1960's, as that was the only public writing on BZ that could have made such an induction.
You might be interested to know that the CB Joint Technical Data Source book on BZ states the LCt01 is in the range of 3,800 - 40,000 mg x min/cu m. The report I cited previously agrees with this magnitude in its review of assessment data - including yours), in terms of LD50 values.
My background is less interesting than the subject. Not to get too much into it, I have some practical experience in behavioral toxicology and biotechnology from undergraduate studies, and a natural love for operations research. Being a liberal arts student, around 1988, I undertook the study of chemical biological warfare as a scholarly pursuit with the hopes of someday being suitably informed to write a definitive study on its doctrinal basis (an area I perceived as not being documented). I have been a consultant to the US Army Chemical Corps Museum and Historical Office from my wide knowledge on the subject, and actively work to preserve the history of our chemical biological program, and communicate its accomplishments.
Reid Kirby