[The_Reader_David]

BTTT. Why am I bumping an April article to the top now? Supposedly the ISG is coming out with its 'final report' any day now, and I've been doing a little looking into the question of 'pesticide drums' in military installations. It's a very important question which pesticides they contained. It is quite possible that not only did the Baathist regime, post 1991, convert their CW capacity to 'dual use' capacity, but that they even made their chemical weapons themselves into 'dual use' substances. The pesticide tetraethylpyrophosphate (TEPP) is as potent a choliesterase antagonist as Sarin. Estimates of the cutaneous LD50 (does at which half the victims die from a drop on the skin) for a 70 kg adult human (for some reason that's the standard) are 1700 mg for Sarin, and (extrapolating from the per kg LD50 in rats) 1680 mg for TEPP. See NERVE AGENTS, PESTICIDES, AND CHOLINESTERASE INHIBITION by John S. Nordin

I can't find LCI50 estimates (dose in terms of mg*min/m3 at which inhalation kills half of the victimes)for TEPP, but a public document Chemical Terrorism generated by the Canadian Intelligence Security Service, describes both TEPP and the less toxic parathion as "almost as toxic as their military counterparts".

Just because the stuff in the drums wasn't Sarin, cyclosarin, VX or any of the other standard nerve agents, and could be used as pesticide, doesn't mean we haven't found the WMD's.

[Numbers Guy]

Iraqi military bases obviously had a far worse cockroach problem than anyplace else in the country did.

[SandRat]

If I remember my Chem school training correctly both nerve agents and pesticides are organophosphates that interfere with the cholinesterase that controls muscles. Malathion 50% solution distilled down is nearly as lethal as VX a most portent nerve agent. Then the question is how to make is a binary agent two separate chemicals that are mixed in the delivery vehicle as it is fired and then rotates in flight. This provides the greatest safety factor for friendly troops, allows for easier storage and transport of two separate inert chemicals and generally allows for easier de-weaponization as the separate binaries can usually have a legitimate civilian use.

[Strategerist]

I don't remember any of those drums being found at locations that looked like "military installations." They looked like decrepit farms.

[punster]

"I can't find LCI50 estimates (dose in terms of mg*min/m3 at which inhalation kills half of the victimes)for TEPP, but a public document Chemical Terrorism generated by the Canadian Intelligence Security Service, describes both TEPP and the less toxic parathion as "almost as toxic as their military counterparts". "

I don't think any one will be less dead, for being esposed to a lethal dose of TEPP, Parathion, etc. (all organophosphate cholinesterase inhibitors(, than being exposed to VX, Sarin, Tabun, etc.

The big difference between military nerve agents and commercial pesticides is: The military agents have a longer persistence in the environment.

[DTogo]

Some good news articles on WMD/pesticide finds summarized halfway down this webpage in a special section:

http://cshink.com

[MizSterious]

I have a listing of articles discussing such finds, but don't have time to post it right now--be back later with it.

[Fatalis]

" FReepers with expertise in toxicology, organic chemistry, or CBW are particularly welcomed. Me, I'm just a guy in pajamas typing away in his bedroom. "

I went to Google and it looks like there are a lot of older links to this story at Free Republic.

http://www.google.com/search?q=iraq+pesticides+organophosphates+nerve+agents+%22free+republic%22&num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&c2coff=1&safe=off&filter=0

[RBroadfoot]

I don't know if it's really relevant to your question, but I distinctly recall that, back when they were gassing Iranians in 1984 or 1985, Saddam Hussein said that were just spraying them with pesticide.

Back then the media reported the tactic as chemical warfare. I suppose, though, that pesticide doesn't quite qualify as a "weapon of mass destruction" in today's context.

[fso301]

Anyone who can make pesticide can make nerve gas.