Stanley John Whidden | Chemical and Bio Terrorism

To Stanley John Whidden chemical and bio terrorism is the deliberate release of chemical toxins, viruses, bacteria, toxins or other harmful agents used to cause illness, injuries or death of human beings, animals, and plants. Bioterrorism is more attention seeking as the biological agents are relatively easy and cheaper to obtain, different than the chemical ones, also it is more easily disseminated, causing panic and fear more than actual physical damage.

When we talk about biological and chemical warfare, we generally think about terrorism, we think about attacks like the recent ones on Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State, where sulfur and chlorine were used to kill and injure as many people as possible. However, the use of these kind of weapons are not an exclusivity of terrorist groups. Stanley John Whidden remembers that during the Civil War in the U.S. Luke Blackburn, a future Kentucky governor, sold clothing contaminated with smallpox and yellow fever to Union soldiers. Another case is the famous letters with anthrax send to the media and the government in 2001. Counting the civilians injured, 19 people developed anthrax infections, while five died.

During the World War I more than 1 million of the 26 million casualties were done by chemical agents. However, the biological warfare was less successful, because of the difficulty of controlling the agent, most attacks were on the enemy livestock, that the enemy infected with anthrax glanders. After the WWI many countries increased the research and production of chemical and biological weapons. World War II didn’t have such large attacks with neither, since every country knew the other could retaliate. But the German Nazis used chemical and biological weapons at the concentration camps, recalled Stanley John Whidden.

Most chemical agents have immediate effects or will take a few hours for them to show. In biological agents the effects can be delayed, often for days, for example, the botulinum toxin symptoms occur in less than a day, but anthrax or plague can take from 2 to 5 days for any symptoms to appear.

Stanley John Whidden discuss that currently the biggest fear is the use of the weapons by terror groups, that found chemical and biological weapons well suited to their purposes. Luckily, it is difficult to obtain materials, prepare weapons, and deliver the attacks with the number of casualties intended. Also, the terrorist must have technical skills to cultivate the agent, know how it will behave, put together the chemicals and the weapon, and understand the mechanical proportions of the dissemination process. In all of this, Stanley John Whidden believes that one thing we can be sure, that these type of weapons only bring fear and despair.