Posted on 10/21/2004 11:45:00 PM PDT by Jeff Head
This compound is extremely hazardous because of its lack of warning properties and delayed biological effects. It may cause burns of the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes. Eye damage may be permanent. Effects may be delayed occurring hours after exposure. Skin permeation may occur in toxic amounts. Both the fumes and the liquid may produce severe irritation. Inhalation may cause irritation of the nose, throat and lungs. Death may occur from overexposure. Prolonged exposures may cause liver and kidney effects. DuPont controls this compound as a potential carcinogen.Also note the barrel indicating it is some sort of chlorine. Chlorine Gas was also a chemical weapon used in World War I. Crates, barrels and boxes of other stuff as well. I believe the Kurds and the Iranians were familiar with some of this stuff.
Dimethyl sulfate vapor and liquid is extremely hazardous because of its deficient warning properties (NO ODOR THRESHOLD, LOOKS LIKE WATER, AND HAS ANALGESIC EFFECTS) and delayed biological effects. DMS hydrolyzes to methyl hydrogen sulfate and eventually sulfuric acid and methanol. Skin or eye contact with low concentrations of Dimethyl Sulfate may cause analgesia (numbness). Therefore, the corrosive action of Dimethyl Sulfate may not be readily detected.
Skin contact with Dimethyl Sulfate may cause skin burns or ulceration. Inital effects include itching, reddening of the skin followed hours later by severe blistering. Evidence suggests that skin permeation can occur in amounts capable of producing the effects of systemic toxicity. Eye contact with Dimethyl Sulfate may cause eye corrosion with corneal or conjunctival ulceration. Permanent eye damage may occur. Both the vapors and the liquid can cause severe irritation; upon slight vapor exposure the whites of the eyes turn red (bloodshot).
Ingestion of Dimethyl Sulfate may cause severe irritation of the mucous membranes of the mouth, throat and gastrointestinal tract.
Inhalation of Dimethyl Sulfate may cause irritation of the upper respiratory passages, angioneurotic edema of larynx with hoarseness, difficulty in swallowing; temporary lung irritation effects with productive cough, discomfort, difficulty breathing, chest pain, shortness of breath or cyanosis; or possibly modest initial symptoms, followed in hours by severe shortness of breath, requiring prompt medical attention. In severe poisonings, central nervous system effects may occur which include unconsciousness, cramps or convulsions, and paralysis. Fatality may result from gross overexposure.
"Im not trying to burst anyones bubble or anything, just dont get too excited"
You aren't busting, just misundstand what you're seeing.
There is a scheme in place to make it possible to ship hazardous materials worldwide and to communicate the hazzards associated with materials deemed hazardous.
Accordingly, all such materals are assigned a "UN" number, a univerally accepted index number, which has nothing what-so-ever to do with the UN inspectors.
A look at the US Dept. of Transportation hazmat tables indicates the following:
Proper Shipping Name: DIMETHYL SULFATE, TOXIC-INHALATION HAZARD ZONE B
Hazard Class: 6.1, 8
UN/NA: UN1595
Packing Group: I
Information reported for product/size: 500G
The name shown above is how the material must be described on shipping documents and the "mark" which is what you are seeing on the barrel.....actually that name plus the UN number is the legal "making".
(Note: this is very nasty stuff)
The Zone B indicates that this material is designated as an toxic inhalation hazard. This tells us that anyone near should have a breathing apparatus and the material requires "extra special handling" beyond other toxic materials.
Hazad class 6.1 indicates that the material is toxic, the 8 indicates that it is also corrosive. The 6.1 appears first which tells us that the toxcity is a greater hazard than the corrosivness of the material.
The packing group indicates that this material must be packaged in a UN tested/specification container of the most stringent requirements. There are three packing groups, 1-3 and 1 being the most dangerous of materials.
Finding this material doesn't in and of itself indicate a "WMD" but it could be used to harm others with devestating effects.
But are you cheap? ;^)
But seriously, we all know that Sadham had chemical weapons and wanted nuclear weapons in the worst way. He did, beyond a doubt, use deadly chemical weapons on people in his own country more than once
Where they went before the war is the larger question.
But that's one day less than yesterday!
And tomorrow it'll be 59 days.
Keep the chin up, and spirits high.
Thanks for being there.
"If you feel there is no value in the thread"
I think there's some merit and bolsters my feelings that what has been found isn't being discussed enough.
As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, some products have duel usage. Further some materials are "pre-cursor" materials, that is they start out as one thing but can be further processed into something else. A good example is the pesticides found.
On the one hand they can be used to kill bugs, weeds etc. but they can also be used "improperly" harm humans or to be chemically transformed into a much more toxic material.
Many pesticides derive their efficacy by affecting the nervous system of the pest the are intended to kill. These materials can also affect the nervous system of humans and or also toxic to humans.
If there has been any discussion around these possibilities I haven't seen it and I think it's a grave oversight and minimization of the real hazards of the many materials we've turned up in Iraq.
One possible explanation......these discussions have indeed taken place, but why publicize to the terrorist how easy it would be to take these duel use materials and use them for nefarious purposes?
Those pictures look like they were made in my garage.
If they found them weeks ago, they should have been released. If they release the pictures now (and they are accurate) you will hear "dirty trick."
Unless you have video of the guys finding them, with the most current New York Post in their hands, and Kerry bumper stickers on their helmets...no one will believe it.
Was there any point of origin on them?
Jet fuel isn't truly lethal, but it still took down the World Trade Center.
The left likes to use the buzzwords "militarily significant", but on 9/11 were those aircraft used in militarily significant quantities?
Chemical weapons can kill, period.
They can kill mass numbers of people with minimal effort.
The only limiting factor is the efficiency of the delivery system.
I had a relative who died due to mustard gas poisoning.
He didn't die during the war, no, that would have been merciful.
He died a slow lingering shriveling death with his skin blistered and his lungs filling with fluid.
Disgusted my great grandfather so much that he hated Germans afterwards.
And he was German.
You want to try to tell me that chemical weapons aren't WMD?
L
Thanks Jeff.You've been a Freeper far longer than those who are giving you grief over this.If you say your source is legitimate,that's enough for me.
Interesting discussion. I'm of the mind that he had them, obviously used them, and wanted to continue to use them. I'm remembering posts, when we got to Baghdad, about stuff being dumped into the Tigris, finding planes that were buried in the sand, the Russian technical weapons advisers being in Baghdad to advise how to break down these weapons right up to the time the shooting started, etc,etc,etc.
Only a fool would believe Saddam complied with UNSCOM and got rid of these weapons. The nagging fear is, where are they now?
GWB made the right call.
DMS will be absorbed by human skin... with whatever other chemical it contains.. like ricin... or some other chemical.. DMS has other uses too but the first one is what came to mind..
Funny thing about MSDS. Here's one that's used everyday in the food industry. This is a product that most people injest everyday......Pretty nasty stuff.....
HAZARD IDENTIFICATION
"You notice the white lettering on the barrel in the first pic, the chemical name and then the letters "UN". Ill bet those barrels were found during the first inspections just after Gulf War 1, so this would be on the list of declared stuff."
You know, that raises another whole set of interesting questions. Think about it. You're a brutal dictator. The UN has "stockpiled" your declared WMDs. What does it matter whether they are in your warehouse or the UN's? You know where they are. If you need them you just in and take them. Bottom line, if they are not destroyed, and they are still in your country, there nothing stopping you from taking them and using them if you so decide.
Not to pat myself on the back, but I've never seen that concept discussed. Could the argument not be made that Saddam's WMDs were in essence being kept by the UN and were at his disposal any time he decided it was no longer necessary to play the game?
I think you might get famous with this post.
Oh, time goes by fast here. It's hard for me to believe I've been here nearly ten months. I usually dread Christmas sneaking up real fast, but this year, I'm very enthusiastic about it because I'll be re-enetering the "Real World" for over three weeks. (I'll even get to go to a Texans game!)
Thanks for your kind words.
"Funny thing about MSDS"
Yes it is. That's why employees by OSHA regulation are required to be notified of their availability and how to read them.
Is there some reason you didn't list the ingrediant or ingredients upon which the sheet was filled out? This is material to a proper understanding of the hazards to be conveyed.
Exactly. Especially because of the mixed signals we were getting from the inspectors. Was it in 1998 that Blix (or the other guy) suggested very strongly that there were some stockpiles still in Iraq that were either not inspected or inspected and not disposed of? Sadam refused to allow the inspectors in after that.
Then all of a sudden the inspector said Iraq was clean, though we were still unable to confirm that and Saddam still wouldn't let the inspectors in. I think that was about the time Saddam hired the inspector to write a book.
Not being an organic chemist or weapons expert, I don't know whether TEPP has some property that makes disbursal by artillery shell (or bomb) infeasible, but I sure as heck don't want an al Qaeda cropduster loaded with the stuff anywhere over the US. I searched the ISG's public report and it didn't mention pesticides except in the context of discussions of the Iraqi chemical industry.
I've been wondering ever since whether, as the suggestion in this post has it, the Ba'athists just stockpiled chemicals which could be used both as CW agents and for other purposes--not dual use technology, dual use weapons.
I agree. The fly paper caper is working. The old 'Bait And Swat' technique. Heh.
Thanks for your analysis. Lots of good food for thought there.
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