Show 3 as woolsorter's disease pulmonary anthrax infects the lungs and is not detectable until after a raging fever has begun Resistant to all known modem antibiotics victims face certain death in less than 24 hours Qoetridlum Botulinum: An anaerobic bacterium it is the most powerful poison ever known to man — just an ounce will exterminate the entire population of France or a similar-size- d area in a matter of a few hours Over n times more powerful than cyanide Clostridium botulinum takes its poisonous form as botulism toxin which causes botulism one of mankinds ancient enemies Once spread there is no defense against the disease even with mass inoculations These gases and germs and their nearly incalculable effects form an as: founding series of horrors undreamed of even by the most imaginative ce-fiction upiter They underscore why a debate just now beginning in Congress has aroused strong feelings on both sides of the issue 300-millio- scien- as part of President record the Army wants $20 million to begin construction of a plant in Arkansas for the building of something called the binary munitions system But as everybody connected with the debate understands the Army request has far more significance than a simple request for money to build a new ar- Simply tillery shell system In fact the binary system represents one of the most ominous scientific descienvelopments in the decades-lonsearch for bigger and better CBW weapons The binary is deceptively simple: A artillery shell warhead is divided into two chambers In one design the first chamber contains a chemical called methyl phosphonyl flouride the second another chemical called sopropanol plus a chemical “promoter" In that state the chemicals are relatively harmless But after the shell is fired the wall separating the two chambers ruptures and the chemicals unite — forming GBSarin a deadly nerve gas The advantage of this deceptively simple development is that it eliminates the major problem of current g tific CBW agreements with the Russians on CBW weapons rather than begin a CBW arms race Among other things they argue the Russians confronted with an American binary system will simply build one of their own setting off a cycle to develop stockpiles and weapons even more dangerous than nuclear weapons Senator David Pryor the Arkansas Democrat a leading opponent of the Reagan Administration's plan to build full-sca- le reaction-counterreactio- f ® n of unusable chemical munitions that are either obsolete or deteriorating cannot be repaired and are in storage awaiting destruction We now have only 25 percent of our CBW needs according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff" However the real spur to the Pentagon's drive for a CBW buildup has little to do with the wish to replace aging stockpiles In fact it has much more to do with what they perceive as a growing “CBW gap" between the One biological weapon stockpiled in both the United States and Russia contains the bacteria for pneumonic plague It kills 100 percent of its untreated victims up America's CBW arsenal notes that former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown and former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie while both were in office strongly opposed plans to start building binary CBW weapons Moreover argues Pryor such a buildup would reverse at least a decade of official US Government unwillingness to get into the CBW business in a big way “We've stored over 150000 tons of CBW weapons" Pryor says “We have no space even' to store what we now have much less all the new stockpiles they’re proposing our allies will not allow us to store it on their territory We're committing ourselves to a program down the road” Supporters of the binary plan concede that it is only a down payment on a mukibillion-dolla- r program for a CBW buildup but claim that such a buildup is long overdue Democratic Congressman Richard (chord of Missouri a leading Congressional proponent of the binary says that Pryor's figures are misleading “The facts are these" Ichord argues “Our allegedly 'enormous' stockpile comprises 730000 rounds $4-bUli- US and foe Soviet Union According to foe Pentagon the Russians have 35 times as many per- sonnel (100000 men) trained in foe use of chemical weapons eight times as great a chemical munitions inventory five times as many ground chemical (and bacteriological) delivery systems — vapor dispensers and the like — and 14 more CBW production facilities In foe past 10 years foe Pentagon says the Soviets have deployed two new artillery pieces and a rocket launcher specifically designed to fire CBW weapons Moreover Russian troops in Europe especially have stepped up their training in CBW warfare Combined with reports of foe Soviet use of poison gas in Afghanistan — US intelligence officials say foe reports are incorrect — there is something of a minor panic inside foe Pentagon on foe subject of CBW Actually for nearly 12 years American CBW has been in Umbo In 1969 President Nixon unilaterally renounced first use of biologic weapons and ordered all such existing stockpiles destroyed (but he permitted research and stockpiling of “defensive" warfare: stockpile deteriora- tion Even when encased in steel these substances especially the gases and many of begin to deteriorate their casings are prone to leakage Binary shells then can be produced in large quantities and be stored for much longer periods At the same time it is clear that binaries make it that much more tempting to use CBW in the event of war It is precisely that fear which has led a coalition of Congressional opponents to the binary request to demand that the whole plan be snapped and that the US pursue arms-contr- ol Innocent victims: In 1968 an Army plane accidentally sprayed nerve gas over ranches in Utah killing 7000 sheep CBW weapons a sometimes slippery definition) Nixon also ordered sharp reductions in US chemical munition stockpiles To a certain extent Nixon was reacting to growing public disquiet over the stockpiling of CBW weapons — and more significantly the continuing testing of such weapons Public concern came to a peak on March 13 1968 when a plane dropping hquid forms of VX nerve gas during a test at the Army's Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah made a mistake and sprayed an area outside foe facility In an episode that sent nearly foe entire state of Utah into mass hysteria almost 7000 sheep on ranches up to 45 miles away suddenly died of a strange ailment caused by the gas Miraculously no humans died but Utah officials began to ask pointed questions Worse foe Army since then has admitted to canying out at least 200 secret tests throughout the country on various biological weapons during the years 1949 to 1968 These tests included one in San Francisco that killed a hospital patient and another in Alabama that caused an outbreak of pneumonia While foe American CBW stayed in limbo arms-limitati- with the Soviet Union Switzerland Geneva in to began work out an agreement restricting the size of both countries’ stockpiles and stop foe development of even more horrible weapons Thus far the talks have failed mainly over the sticky points over which gases to include (the Russians want such things as tear gas and CS gas included) and foe inspection (the question of on-sit- e Russians are violently opposed to that) Therefore Russian laboratories and chemical plants continue to chum out bigger and bigger stockpiles and now six CBW centers in this country are poised to begin their own buildup Whether foe projected buildup of the American CBW arsenal will as its proponents claim act as a deterrent to any Soviet plan to unleash such horrors against this country remains to be seen One thing is clear: The effects of such a war are so horrible as to be clearly unthinkable Interestingly history's most prominent victims of CBW warfare were native Americans: During the French and Indian War the British angered at Indian support of the French side decided to eliminate that problem in one swoop They arranged to give the Indians blankets — each one of which was infected with smallpox germs The Indians to whom smallpox was unknown had no immunity and died by foe hundreds Unfortunately they left no written record op what CBW warfare rare ULi is really aD about FAMILY WEEKLY May 3 1981 MS 1 i m "i’Sl -- “V 3&Y m |