Wiktionary
n. (alternative namenerve gas)
WordNet
n. a toxic gas that is inhaled or absorbed through the skin and has harmful effects on the nervous and respiratory system [syn: nerve gas]
Wikipedia
Nerve agents are a class of phosphorus-containing organic chemicals ( organophosphates) that disrupt the mechanism by which nerves transfer messages to organs. The disruption is caused by blocking acetylcholinesterase, an enzyme that catalyzes the breakdown of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter.
As chemical weapons, they are classified as weapons of mass destruction by the United Nations according to UN Resolution 687 (passed in April 1991) and their production and stockpiling was outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993; the Chemical Weapons Convention officially took effect on April 29, 1997. The use of dangerous gases in warfare is forbidden by treaties already in the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and Geneva Protocol of 1925.
Poisoning by a nerve agent leads to contraction of pupils, profuse salivation, convulsions, involuntary urination and defecation, and eventual death by asphyxiation as control is lost over respiratory muscles. Some nerve agents are readily vaporized or aerosolized and the primary portal of entry into the body is the respiratory system. Nerve agents can also be absorbed through the skin, requiring that those likely to be subjected to such agents wear a full body suit in addition to a respirator.
Usage examples of "nerve agent".
After the Gulf War, Iraq admitted that it had built 50 CW missile warheads (filled with the nerve agent sarin) and 25 BW warheads (filled with botulinum toxin, anthrax, and aflatoxin).
It really doesn't matter-he is quickly killed by Ammar with an injection of the nerve agent sarin.
It really doesn't matter-he is quickly killed by Ammarwith an injection of the nerve agent sarin.
The obvious solution to this problem is to abandon our obsession with tear gas and fill the Street Cleaner with a nerve agent.
In extensive debriefings, Samarra'i told UNSCOM that despite what it had been led to believe, Iraq had developed VX nerve agent (one of the most lethal forms of chemical warfare) and loaded it onto missiles during the Gulf War for use if the coalition had marched on Baghdad or used nuclear weapons.
Medical research involving the testing of nerve agents, nerve agent antidotes, psychochemicals, and irritants was often classified.
Its population was packed in between the sea and the mountains, a relatively small area, which made a nerve agent attack that much more deadly.
He ordered his grenade mortars forward, and launched into that tunnel a number of gas grenades loaded with the nerve agent Tisyn-C.
Tisyn-C was heavier than air, and though their Opanko Graylite combat armor was rated to protect them from gas exposure, none of the regulars wished to test this capability with a nerve agent known to produce convulsions and dementia, followed by paralytic respiratory failure and death.
He'd been a young lieutenant at Dugway Proving Grounds when they'd had the well-publicized accident with GB, a persistent nerve agent that had blown too far and slaughtered a few hundred sheep-and neurotoxins were not a pretty death, even for sheep.