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From: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Nerve Gas
Message-ID: <1990Aug28.043154.468@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 28 Aug 90 04:31:54 GMT
References: <1990Aug18.182811.24916@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: Computer Laboratory, Trinity College Dublin
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From: rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie
In article <1990Aug18.182811.24916@cbnews.att.com>, ames!ames!claris!portal!cup.portal.com!mmm@uunet.UU.NET writes:
> However, nerve agents are regarded (by those familiar with their effects)
> as very humane weapons.  For a given degree of incapacitation, nerve agents
> cause far fewer deaths than conventional weapons.  Among the wounded, a far
> greater number make a complete recovery.  And, among people who survive a



As far as I know it's the other way round: the reason nerve gases and other
chemical weapons are banned by international treaty is that while they cause
fewer deaths than conventional weapons, if you get hit by nerve gas you don't
completely recover. Some of the damage to the nervous system is permanent. Even
if you don't spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair (or a lunatic asylum -
they can affect the brain as well as the motor nerves), you get your health
permanently damaged. This certainly happens to people who get exposed to enough
pesticide to get sick but not die.

"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"
Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie