Sarin gas as chemical agent (26 times more deadly than cyanide)

Library quest ^

[SoFloFreeper]

The infamous Sarin gas possesses a variety of names...Sarin like most other nerve agents,is colorless,odorless,tasteless and diffuses very rapidly into the human skin due to its high volatility....Sarin is known to vapourise 36 times more rapidly than Tabun, is 26 times more deadly than cyanide, 21 times more lethal than potassium cyanide and all it takes is 0.01 mg for every 1kg of body mass for it to be fatal for a human....Remember that Sarin is a gas and it is also colorless and odorless, making it even more difficult to be sensed by human beings;And even if the person somehow "manages" to detect the presence of the gas it is quite likely that he/she has been contaminated as well.

[spunkets]

"The main thing about chemicals, and the reason they're banned in warfare, is people are simply creeped out by them. "

The reason they're banned is because most of the casualties are crippled and the toxic debris that remains is a hazard.

"Chemical weapons were used in simply massive quantities in World War I and actually there weren't that many troops actually killed by them, relative to plain old high explosive - main effect was fear and the slowdown in operations caused by the masks, etc."

A great number of soldiers came home with damaged lungs. They were crippled for life.

[3niner]

That's true, but it accounts for why we haven't found very much in Iraq.