Chemical Warfare In Ww1

Chemical Warfare was used on a mass level for the first time in World War 1. The resulting consequences of using Chemical Warfare on a mass level exposed soldiers to adverse health effects that ranged from skin irritation to death which made the need for new medical treatments to be developed. During World War 1 beginning from July 28, 1914 until November 11, 1918 all nations involved with the conflict had used chemical weapons on their enemies. In World War 1 there was 3 different types of chemical agents used Lachrymators which causes the eyes to tear, Suffocative which causes sneezing, vomiting, and coughing, and thirdly Vesicants which blister the skins and produces lesions. The effects of these weapons had ranged from burns, damaged mucous membranes, temporary blindness, violent sneezing, fatally effecting heart activity, upset digestive functions and preventing the blood from

With such a wide range of effects medical personnel had to develop new techniques to treat chemical exposures. With chemical warfare on the rise a method to treat the effects of the chemical agents is to take prophylactic measures that could prevent or decrease the effectiveness of the chemicals. The first documented chemical attacks of World War 1 in began in 1914 with the French using Tear gas grenades. Afterwards the British began to develop non lethal chemical weapons as a method to harass the enemy soldiers. The Germans saw the potential of chemical weapons and it was the Germans who began working on lethal forms of chemical weapons, the chlorine gas weapon, which was chlorine placed into specially designed cylinder that the German Army to used to discharge a dense cloud of Chlorine which would settle into enemy trenches. It was this development of chlorine weapon and the horror’s it produced that prompted the British and the French to develop protection against the chemical weapons. Once the British was able to