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Nerve
Gas
Definition:
Organophosphorus
and other organophosphate compounds that inhibit tissue cholinesterase in man at
small dosages. Mode of action of these substances consists essentially of a
disruption of nerve impulse transmission.
Most
Important Types:
Sarin
VX
Characteristics:
Nerve agents are mostly odourless and colourless to yellow-brown liquids at
ambient temperature.
Exposure:
Miosis, bronchoconstriction, respiratory distress, incapacitation, eventually
lethal. Exposure to nerve agent
vapor concentrations probably results in death within one to a few hours.
Exposure to several times the lethal concentration is probably lethal
within minutes to half an hour.
Medical
management: In severe cases
of nerve agent poisoning antidotal treatment per se will not be
sufficient for survival. Assisted
ventilation and general supportive measures will be required, sometimes for
several days.