Chemical soldiers and radiomimetic mustard
Mustard gas, dioxins and death. What we can learn from history on exposure to chemical mutagens. (Part 3)
Poison gas. The very thought alarms. The words evoke horror, revulsion, panic. The stereotypical perception of World War 1 chemical warfare visualizes a thick greenish cloud gliding relentlessly across the trenches. Sinister and deadly, it seeks out ditches and shell holes with hideous and diabolical thoroughness. It wreaks havoc on every living thing in its path. The ultimate destroyer of individuality, more indiscriminate than a machine gun, it renders bravery superfluous, subjecting its victims to the most excruciating agonies of suffocation.
- Chemical soldiers
Unlike the agents discussed in the first two parts of this series on chemical mutagens, which covers Agent Orange and Asbestos.
Mustard gas (Dichlorodiethyl-sulfide) was first deployed in war with the explicit intent to cause harm.
But the misery was not limited to the grotty trenches of the Great War. In many veterans, the chronic toxicities lingered. Those who came into contact or inhaled the garlic scented gas often developed mustard lungs. Skin conditions. Blindness. Bone marrow disorders. Cancers and an early death.
Nor was the battlefield the only time and place troops were exposed. In 1993 declassified documents showed the US Navy had experimented on a number of young sailors in the 1940s, some only seventeen years young and often without advertising the true intent of the experiments, or obtaining informed consent.
From then till now, a cascade of secrets, chronic complications and court filings took place as the young sailors, now much older, riled with dissatisfaction and discontent over the historic wrong doings.
From chemical weapon to crude chemotherapy used in the war against cancer. Let me introduce “mustard gas” in all its forms, the good, bad and ugly. The corruption and the crimes committed by the Allied military industrial complex. The search for justice and reparations. The toxicities and their implications. Journalists and their investigations.
History
The first synthesis of mustard gas is often credited to Frederick Guthrie in 1860. Guthrie not only synthesized the compound but also experienced some of the toxic effects when the gas made contact with his skin. Its name comes from impure forms of mustard gas, which has an odor resembling mustard or garlic. Its name is misleading. It’s not truly a gas, but exists as a liquid at room temperature. In order to be used as a weapon, it has to be finely dispersed as a most, usually by some sort of mortar or gun shell. Mustard gas does not occur naturally in the environment it must be synthesized.
Mustard gas was not used as a weapon until 1917, during World War I. WWI was a turning point in the development of weapons of war. Technology was on the rise and the war accelerated the development of many key technologies, including aircraft, communications, and weaponry. The war first saw use of chemical weapons in combat with the release of chlorine gas on a battlefield near Ypres, Belgium.
Chlorine gas was a crude, but effective predecessor to mustard gas. Elemental chlorine is a greenish gas at room temperature. It is a very reactive substance. It attacked the respiratory tissue of the soldiers and caused slow painful death by asphyxiation, drowning in their own mucosal secretions. Two years later, in July 1917, the Germans were the first to use mustard gas on the battlefield.
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! —An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime. —
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.- Dulce et Decorum est
Human experimentation
The most recent use of US troops in human experimentation to come to light was the forced participation of American sailors in mustard gas tests in 1943. Then, within sight of the dome of the White house in Washington, seventeen-year-old naval novices, many of whom had been told that they were going to test a new range of summer uniforms for the navy, were thrust into a gas chamber and engulfed with mustard and arsenic based gases.
It was not until March 1993, after fifty years of silence, that the US Navy finally released details of its ‘man break’ experiments, in which 2500 US sailors were used in mustard gas tests as human guinea pigs.
Radiomimetic
Radiomimetic substances are drugs producing similar symptoms in living organisms as ionizing radiation does. They constitute a special subgroup of carcinogen, mutagen, teratogen compounds; their common characteristic is to cause DNA breaks and/or to inhibit their repair. Mustard gas and its derivatives – alkylating agents – were the first known group of radiomimetic substances, later, it was observed, that some purine and pyrimidine analogues playing an antimetabolic role show a resembling outcome. Initially mustards were used in warfare, but now their usage for military purpose is prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Other radiomimetic substances have also become important tools in medicine, as they have been shown to be useful against certain pathogens and tumors.
The immediate incapacitating effect of mustard gas is to cause a severe watery inflammation of the eyes, painful blistering of the skin or fits of coughing and breathlessness. Its lethality however, often results from its effect on the bone marrow, where it destroys developing blood cells, leaving its victims vulnerable to hemorrhage and overwhelming infections.
And because mustard gas can be absorbed through the skin, gas masks were often useless at protecting soldiers from these effects. Even fully clothed soldiers weren’t fully protected. It could take up to six weeks to die from mustard gas, and it was a terrible way to die.
Chronic disease and complications
There have been many long term consequences that we can see to date, such as difficulty in breathing, miscarriages, chronic respiratory complications, and psychological side effects as well. Many who survived are still suffering from these long term consequences and have been taking medications for a number of years to alleviate their symptoms.
Long-term respiratory effects of sulfur mustard might remain for decades after exposure, and are present in about 42% of 34,000 veterans of the Iran–Iraq war who were exposed to the agent. And some evidence is emerging that some traits are passed on to children and grandchildren in increasing levels of cancers and asthma being observed.
Law suits and secret settlements
When the experiments were formally declassified in the 1990s, the Department of Veterans Affairs made two promises: to locate about 4,000 men who were used in the most extreme tests, and to compensate those who had permanent injuries.
But the VA didn't uphold those promises, an NPR investigation has found.
NPR interviewed more than 40 living test subjects and family members, and they describe an unending cycle of appeals and denials as they struggled to get government benefits for mustard gas exposure. Some gave up out of frustration.
After 70 years without financial or medical assistance the Department of Defense and the Veterans Affairs continued to stall lawsuits.
A class action lawsuit seeking compensation for soldiers exposed to mustard gas tests remains stalled in the courts.
The delay in having the case resolved is leading to concern, especially among the older claimants.
"The government just doesn't give a hell about us boys anymore," said Leonard Link, 90, told CBC News.
Stall, stall, stall until they're all dead. This seems to be a common theme employed by the defense lawyers representing the government agencies.
Although the government has said it has relaxed the rules for servicemen trying to prove their injuries were caused by the experiments, fewer than 120 of them have been compensated -- out of nearly 600 who have filed claims.
As of 2019 the VA finally announced publicly that it would do more to compensate veterans used as guinea pigs back during the 1940s and offer up free medical assistance via the use of active military treatment facilities dotted around the country. A decision that for many, was a decision made far too late.
Chemical weapon to chemotherapy
Two doctors at Yale University, Louis Goodman and Alfred Gilman, delved into the medical records of soldiers affected by mustard gas, and noticed that many of them had a surprisingly low number of immune cells in their blood – cells that, if mutated, can go on to develop into leukemia and lymphoma.
Goodman and Gilman hypothesized that if mustard gas could destroy normal white blood cells, it seemed likely that it could also destroy cancerous ones.
After successful animal trials, Goodman and Gilman looked for a human volunteer with white blood cell cancer to test mustard gas as a cancer therapy. They found a patient with advanced lymphoma, known today only by his initials: J.D.
A massive tumor on J.D.’s jaw meant he couldn’t swallow or sleep – he couldn’t even fold his arms across his chest because the tumors in the lymph nodes in his armpits were so big. He was encased, front and back, by cancer. His doctors tried everything they could, but his outlook was considered hopeless.
With nowhere else to turn, J.D agreed to try the new experimental drug. At 10am on the 27th of August 1942 he was given the first injection of what they called “synthetic lymphocidal chemical”. This was in fact nitrogen mustard, the compound used to make mustard gas. Because of the war, J.D.’s treatment was a secret and it was referred to in his records only as “substance X”.
He received a number of treatments with substance X and with each one he became a little better. He could sleep, he could swallow and he could eat. He was much more comfortable and the pain faded away.
This was a monumental moment in the history of medicine. It was the beginning of what we now know as chemotherapy.
Conclusions
Mustard gas was a menace on the battlefield and a burden on the veterans it contaminated.
Those exposed often recovered only to find years later they actually hadn't entirely and had developed debilitating conditions which required costly and frequent therapies. At their own expense.
The military industrial complex and the US Navy has shown disregard towards those it had a duty of care towards.
They hid the truth with classifications. Silenced those suffering and adopted the strategy of stall, muddy the waters and settle in silence, in a desperate attempt to minimize the PR nightmare.
Often quick to paint the NAZIS as war criminals, or the Japanese, or the Russians in a similar light. The department of defense also has a track record of inhumane experimentation on soldiers and POWs they refuse to acknowledge.
Geezuz. I'd heard little bits about this stuff, over time, but.... Geeeezuz.
very difficult to read. easier to put ones head in the sand. the military used to be slaves and mercenaries I suppose, and we seem to think they still are. not that treating anyone like a guinea pig, even guinea pigs, is on any level OK.
The ancient greeks had to go into battle if they voted for it. I think that's a pretty good idea.do the Swiss treat themselves as badly? Is this why they never seem to get into any wars?
Universal life long subscription is the way to go.
Jo