Biological Weapons : History of Biological Weapons.
Biological warfare is war involving the use of a living organism as a weapon of war. Compared to chemical weapons, biological weapons are far more deadly. Just a small amount of biological agent could do as much damage as a chemical weapon thousands to times bigger. Although in theory a biological attack could cause many thousands of deaths as well as severe disruption, many military analysts think that such an attack would be of very little use outside of a terrorist attack. Any attack would normally take some time to have an effect, probably days, and in that time an enemy would continue to fight. There is also the problem of an attack spreading to your own troops.Biological Weapons spread disease among humans, animals or plants. Diseases may occur when a population is exposed to infectious microorganisms or to chemicals – toxins – which are manufactured by such organisms. With microorganisms (such as bacteria, viruses or fungi), the symptoms of the disease become apparent after an incubation period, during which time the organisms are multiplying. With toxins, symptoms generally appear more rapidly. Among people and animals, the effects of disease may range from incapacitation to death.
Biological warfare has been around for far longer than most people realise. There are accounts from as long ago as 300-400BC of parts of the dead bodies of humans or animals being used as tips for arrows and to poison water supplies. There have also been instances of the dead bodies of those who died from plague being catapulted into besieged cities.
In the United States in the 18 th century, the British gave blankets to the Native Americans that had been used by smallpox victims in an attempt to cause disease. There were certainly suspicions and allegations of similar attempts during the American civil War.
Japan ran a research unit in Manchuria during the Second World war where prisoners were exposed to agents such as plague and anthrax.
A number of other countries are thought to have considered the idea of using biological weapons during the second world war. By D-Day, the United States had large amounts of anthrax and botulinum. In 1942, the British tested anthrax bombs off the west coast of Scotland and used sheep to test anthrax itself. Gruinard Island is now uninhabited and it is believed that anthrax spores still infect the island. There are reports that plague dispersion took place during the second world war.
The United Nations investigated reports of ‘yellow rain’ in Laos and other areas of South East Asia in the late 70s.
The 1925 Geneva Protocol banned the use of bacteriological weapons as well as chemical. Negotiations to ban the production of such weapons went on for many years. In 1969, after strong protests about the use of herbicides in Vietnam, the United States unilaterally banned the production, development and stockpiling of biological weapons. This led to a series of agreements culminating in the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) of 1972. Under the terms of the BWC, countries are not allowed to develop, produce, stockpile or otherwise acquire biological agents for use against an enemy. They must destroy any existing stocks and cannot transfer any material to any other country. However there are no formal verification measures and countries did not have to declare any current or previous possession. The US is preventing attempts to add an effective verification protocol to the BWC.
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