Development Mustard gases were possibly developed as early as 1822 by
César-Mansuète Despretz (1798–1863). Despretz described the reaction of
sulfur dichloride and
ethylene but never made mention of any irritating properties of the reaction product. In 1854, another French chemist, Alfred Riche (1829–1908), repeated this procedure, also without describing any adverse physiological properties. In 1860, the British scientist
Frederick Guthrie synthesized and characterized the mustard agent compound and noted its irritating properties, especially in tasting. Also in 1860, chemist
Albert Niemann, known as a pioneer in
cocaine chemistry, repeated the reaction, and recorded blister-forming properties. In 1886,
Viktor Meyer published a paper describing a synthesis that produced good yields. He combined
2-chloroethanol with
aqueous potassium sulfide, and then treated the resulting
thiodiglycol with
phosphorus trichloride. The purity of this compound was much higher and consequently the adverse health effects upon exposure were much more severe. These symptoms presented themselves in his assistant, and in order to rule out the possibility that his assistant was suffering from a mental illness (psychosomatic symptoms), Meyer had this compound tested on laboratory
rabbits, most of which died. In 1913, the English chemist
Hans Thacher Clarke (known for the
Eschweiler-Clarke reaction) replaced the phosphorus trichloride with
hydrochloric acid in Meyer's formulation while working with
Emil Fischer in
Berlin. Clarke was hospitalized for two months for burns after one of his flasks broke. According to Meyer, Fischer's report on this accident to the
German Chemical Society sent the
German Empire on the road to chemical weapons. The
German Empire during
World War I relied on the Meyer-Clarke method because
2-chloroethanol was readily available from the German dye industry of that time.
Use s containing "HD" (distilled mustard gas agent) at the
Pueblo Chemical Depot. The distinctive
color-coding scheme on each shell is visible. Mustard gas was first
used in World War I by the German army against British and Canadian soldiers near
Ypres, Belgium, on July 12, 1917, and later also against the
French Second Army.
Yperite is "a name used by the French, because the compound was first used at Ypres." The Allies used mustard gas for the first time on November 1917 at
Cambrai, France, after the armies had captured a stockpile of German mustard shells. It took the British more than a year to develop their own mustard agent weapon, with production of the chemicals centred on
Avonmouth Docks (the only option available to the British was the Despretz–Niemann–Guthrie process). Mustard gas was originally assigned the name LOST, after the scientists Wilhelm Lommel and
Wilhelm Steinkopf, who developed a method of large-scale production for the
Imperial German Army in 1916. • United Kingdom against the
Red Army in 1919 •
Alleged British use in Mesopotamia in 1920 •
Spain against the
Rifian resistance in
Morocco during the
Rif War of 1921–27 (see also:
Spanish use of chemical weapons in the Rif War) •
Italy in
Libya in 1930 • After World War II, stockpiled mustard gas was dumped by South African military personnel under the command of
William Bleloch off
Port Elizabeth, resulting in several cases of burns among local trawler crews. • The United States Government tested effectiveness on US Naval recruits in a laboratory setting at The Great Lakes Naval Base, June 3, 1945 • The 2 December 1943
air raid on Bari destroyed an Allied stockpile of mustard gas on the
SS John Harvey, killing 83 and hospitalizing 628. • Egypt against
North Yemen in 1963–1967 • Iraq against Iranians in
1983–1988 • Possibly in Sudan against insurgents in the
civil war, in 1995 and 1997. and were used against Coalition forces in
roadside bombs. • By
ISIS forces against
Kurdish forces in Iraq in August 2015. • By ISIS against another rebel group in the town of
Mare' in 2015. • According to Syrian state media, by ISIS against the
Syrian Army during the battle in
Deir ez-Zor in 2016. The use of toxic gases or other chemicals, including mustard gas, during warfare is known as
chemical warfare, and this kind of warfare was prohibited by the
Geneva Protocol of 1925, and also by the later
Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. The latter agreement also prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, and sale of such weapons. In September 2012, a US official stated that the rebel militant group
ISIS was manufacturing and using mustard gas in Syria and Iraq, which was allegedly confirmed by the group's head of chemical weapons development, Sleiman Daoud al-Afari, who has since been captured.
Development of the first chemotherapy drug As early as 1919 it was known that mustard agent was a suppressor of
hematopoiesis. In addition, autopsies performed on 75 soldiers who had died of mustard agent during
World War I were done by researchers from the
University of Pennsylvania who reported decreased counts of
white blood cells. As a part of this effort, the group investigated
nitrogen mustard as a therapy for
Hodgkin's lymphoma and other types of
lymphoma and
leukemia, and this compound was tried out on its first human patient in December 1942. The results of this study were not published until 1946, when they were declassified.
Disposal In the United States, storage and incineration of mustard gas and other chemical weapons were carried out by the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency. Disposal projects at the two remaining American chemical weapons sites were carried out near
Richmond, Kentucky, and
Pueblo, Colorado. The last of the declared mustard weapons stockpile of the United States was destroyed on June 22, 2023 in Pueblo with other remaining chemical weapons being destroyed later in 2023. New detection techniques are being developed in order to detect the presence of mustard gas and its metabolites. The technology is portable and detects small quantities of the hazardous waste and its oxidized products, which are notorious for harming unsuspecting civilians. The
immunochromatographic assay would eliminate the need for expensive, time-consuming lab tests and enable easy-to-read tests to protect civilians from sulfur-mustard dumping sites. In 1946, 10,000 drums of mustard gas (2,800 tonnes) stored at the production facility of Stormont Chemicals in
Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, were loaded onto 187 boxcars for the journey to be buried at sea on board a long barge south of
Sable Island, southeast of
Halifax, at a depth of . The dump location is 42 degrees, 50 minutes north by 60 degrees, 12 minutes west. A large British stockpile of old mustard agent that had been made and stored since World War I at
M. S. Factory, Valley near
Rhydymwyn in
Flintshire, Wales, was destroyed in 1958. Most of the mustard gas found in Germany after
World War II was dumped into the
Baltic Sea. Between 1966 and 2002, fishermen have found about 700 chemical weapons in the region of
Bornholm, most of which contain mustard gas. One of the more frequently dumped weapons was "Sprühbüchse 37" (SprüBü37, Spray Can 37, 1937 being the year of its fielding with the German Army). These weapons contain mustard gas mixed with a
thickener, which gives it a tar-like viscosity. When the content of the SprüBü37 comes in contact with water, only the mustard gas in the outer layers of the lumps of viscous mustard
hydrolyzes, leaving behind amber-colored residues that still contain most of the active mustard gas. On mechanically breaking these lumps (e.g., with the drag board of a fishing net or by the human hand) the enclosed mustard gas is still as active as it had been at the time the weapon was dumped. These lumps, when washed ashore, can be mistaken for amber, which can lead to severe health problems.
Artillery shells containing mustard gas and other toxic ammunition from World War I (as well as conventional explosives) can still be found in France and Belgium. These were formerly disposed of by explosion undersea, but since the current environmental regulations prohibit this, the
French government is building an automated factory to dispose of the accumulation of chemical shells. In 1972, the
U.S. Congress banned the practice of disposing of chemical weapons into the ocean by the United States. 29,000 tons of nerve and mustard agents had already been dumped into the ocean off the United States by the
U.S. Army. According to a report created in 1998 by William Brankowitz, a deputy project manager in the
U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, the army created at least 26 chemical weapons dumping sites in the ocean offshore from at least 11 states on both the
East Coast and the
West Coast (in
Operation CHASE,
Operation Geranium, etc.). In addition, due to poor recordkeeping, about one-half of the sites have only their rough locations known. In June 1997, India declared its stock of chemical weapons of of mustard gas. By the end of 2006, India had destroyed more than 75 percent of its chemical weapons/material stockpile and was granted extension for destroying the remaining stocks by April 2009 and was expected to achieve 100 percent destruction within that time frame. This was cross-checked by inspectors of the United Nations. Producing or stockpiling mustard gas is prohibited by the
Chemical Weapons Convention. When the convention entered force in 1997, the parties declared worldwide stockpiles of 17,440 tonnes of mustard gas. As of December 2015, 86% of these stockpiles had been destroyed. A significant portion of the United States' mustard agent
stockpile was stored at the Edgewood Area of
Aberdeen Proving Ground in
Maryland. Approximately 1,621 tons of mustard agents were stored in one-ton containers on the base under heavy guard. A chemical neutralization plant was built on the proving ground and neutralized the last of this stockpile in February 2005. This stockpile had priority because of the potential for quick reduction of risk to the community. The nearest schools were fitted with overpressurization machinery to protect the students and faculty in the event of a catastrophic explosion and fire at the site. These projects, as well as planning, equipment, and training assistance, were provided to the surrounding community as a part of the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP), a joint program of the Army and the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Unexploded shells containing mustard gases and other chemical agents are still present in several test ranges in proximity to schools in the Edgewood area, but the smaller amounts of poison gas () present considerably lower risks. These remnants are being detected and excavated systematically for disposal. The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency oversaw disposal of several other chemical weapons stockpiles located across the United States in compliance with international chemical weapons treaties. These include the complete incineration of the chemical weapons stockpiled in
Alabama,
Arkansas,
Indiana, and
Oregon. Earlier, this agency had also completed destruction of the chemical weapons stockpile located on
Johnston Atoll located south of
Hawaii in the
Pacific Ocean. The largest mustard agent stockpile, at approximately 6,200
short tons, was stored at the
Deseret Chemical Depot in northern
Utah. The incineration of this stockpile began in 2006. In May 2011, the last of the mustard agents in the stockpile were incinerated at the Deseret Chemical Depot, and the last artillery shells containing mustard gas were incinerated in January 2012. In 2008, many empty
aerial bombs that contained mustard gas were found in an excavation at the
Marrangaroo Army Base just west of Sydney, Australia. In 2009, a mining survey near
Chinchilla, Queensland, uncovered 144 105-millimeter
howitzer shells, some containing "Mustard H", that had been buried by the U.S. Army during World War II. In 2014, a collection of 200 bombs was found near the
Flemish villages of
Passendale and
Moorslede. The majority of the bombs were filled with mustard agents. The bombs were left over from the German army and were meant to be used in the
Battle of Passchendaele in World War I. It was the largest collection of chemical weapons ever found in Belgium. A large amount of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, was found in a neighborhood of
Washington, D.C. The cleanup was completed in 2021.
Post-war accidental exposure In 2002, an archaeologist at the Presidio Trust archaeology lab in San Francisco was exposed to mustard gas, which had been dug up at the
Presidio of San Francisco, a former military base. In 2010, a clamming boat pulled up some old
artillery shells of World War I from the
Atlantic Ocean south of
Long Island, New York. Multiple fishermen suffered from blistering and respiratory irritation severe enough to require hospitalization.
WWII-era tests on men From 1943 to 1944, mustard agent experiments were performed on Australian service volunteers in tropical
Queensland, Australia, by
Royal Australian Engineers,
British Army and American experimenters, resulting in some severe injuries. One test site, the
Brook Islands National Park, was chosen to simulate Pacific islands held by the
Imperial Japanese Army. and
lewisite agents
African American servicemen were tested alongside white men in separate trials to determine whether their skin color would afford them a degree of immunity to the agents, and
Nisei servicemen, some of whom had joined after their release from
Japanese American Internment Camps, were tested to determine susceptibility of
Japanese military personnel to these agents. These tests also included
Puerto Rican subjects.
Detection in biological fluids Concentrations of thiodiglycol in urine have been used to confirm a diagnosis of chemical poisoning in hospitalized victims. The presence in urine of 1,1'-sulfonylbismethylthioethane (SBMTE), a conjugation product with glutathione, is considered a more specific marker, since this metabolite is not found in specimens from unexposed persons. In one case, intact mustard gas was detected in postmortem fluids and tissues of a man who died one week post-exposure. ==See also==