Handbook of Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents, Volume 2: Nonlethal Chemical Agents and Biological Warfare Agents

The Handbook of Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents, Volume 2: Pathogens, Mid-Spectrum, and Incapacitating Agents, Third Edition provides rapid access to key data to response professionals and decision-makers on a broad range of agents and pathogens.

This volume presents information on a wide range of chemical and biological agents. Chemical agents detailed in this volume are those that were developed specifically for their non-lethal potential. The biological agents described are militarily significant pathogens that could be weaponized to pose a threat to people, animals, or crops and other agricultural interests. Mid-spectrum agents, materials that do not fit clearly into either the Chemical or the Biological Weapons Conventions, include toxins and bioregulators. Entomological agents, the final class of agents discussed in volume, are arthropods that could pose a significant threat to a country's agriculture infrastructure and be used to devastate its economy. They were proposed for inclusion in the Biological Weapons Convention but never adopted.

In addition to a discussion of each of these classes of agents, coverage includes detailed information on a broad spectrum of individual agents that have been used on the battlefield, stockpiled as weapons, used or threatened to be used by terrorists, or have been otherwise assessed by qualified law enforcement and response organizations and determined to be agents of significant concern.

The information presented in this edition has been updated and expanded to contain more information on toxicology, health effects, presentation of diseases, advances in medical care and treatment, as well as protective actions needed at the scene of an incident.

Key Features:

• Focuses on the key information needed during an emergency response
• Provides updated toxicology, exposure hazards, physical-chemical data, and treatment of casualties
• Profiles the presentation of diseases in people, animals and plants
• Presents updated protective action distances, decontamination, and remediation information

All data compiled is gathered from numerous sources and arranged into the current, easy-to-access format. In order to ensure accuracy, all data has been cross-checked over the widest variety of military, scientific and medical sources available. The Handbook of Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents, Volume 2: Pathogens, Mid-Spectrum, and Incapacitating Agents, Third Edition remains the gold-standard reference detailing the widest variety of military, scientific, and medical sources available.

D. Hank Ellison served in the United States Army as a chemical officer and has worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as both a remedial project manager and federal on-scene coordinator under the Superfund Program. He currently is president of Cerberus & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in response to technological disasters. As a private consultant, Ellison has responded to hazardous material incidents involving highly poisonous materials, chemical fires, water reactive substances, and shock-sensitive materials throughout the state of Michigan. He has provided chemical and biological counterterrorism training to members of emergency medical service (EMS) units, hazardous materials (hazmat) teams, police special weapons and tactics (SWAT) teams, and explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) teams. During the anthrax events of 2001, he helped state and local governments as well as Fortune 500 companies to develop and implement response plans for biological threats. He currently advises clients on issues of hazardous materials, and related safety and security concerns.

He also served as a safety officer and then the training officer for the United States Department of Health and Human Services DMORT-WMD emergency response team, which has the primary mission for recovery and decontamination of fatalities contaminated with radiological, biological or chemical materials. He deployed with the team to New Orleans in response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Mr. Ellison holds an MS degree in chemistry from the University of California, Irvine. His graduate research involved methods to synthesize poisons extracted from Colombian poison-dart frogs. He holds a BS in chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology. In addition to his works on weapons of mass destruction, he is the author of Chemical Warfare During the Vietnam War: Riot Control Agents in Combat, published in 2011, as well as a chapter on the hazardous properties of materials in Managing Hazardous Materials: A Definitive Text published in 2002.