Public health and environmental laboratories form the backbone of the nation's system for response to a chemical terrorist attack. They perform tasks to identify, test and characterize potential threats and agents. Without this information, panic can quickly spread through affected communities and medical professionals cannot give patients proper treatment. For example, the environmental and public health laboratories played integral roles in getting information to officials during the nerve gas attacks in Tokyo, the Anthrax attacks and September 11th. These events illustrated a greater need for laboratories to handle large scale emergency events. In 2003, the chemical component of the Laboratory Response Network was created to assist laboratories to respond to chemical threats and emergencies.
Types of Chemical Warfare Agents
Although there are many types of hazardous chemicals in the environment, there are only five types of chemical warfare agents:
Blood agents are absorbed through blood and have serious health effects including seizures and cardiac arrest.
Nerve agents prevent the nervous system from functioning properly and can cause symptoms throughout the body, some of which are irreversible.
Blister agents cause blisters on the skin, eyes and respiratory tract. These blisters can occur within minutes to hours of initial contact.
Choking agents cause damage to the respiratory tract, including the nose, throat and lungs, which in turn cause choking, coughing and shortness of breathe.
Metal agents are poisonous substances that can cause many of the same symptoms as other agents, including cough, nervous system effects and shortness of breath.
Other potential chemical terrorism agents include chlorine gas, benzene, cyanide and toxic alcohols. All of these chemicals can be just as, if not more, toxic as the chemical warfare agents listed above.