Introduction

Weapons of mass destruction usually refer to a nuclear, radiological, biological, or chemical weapon that is capable of causing widespread death and demoliton.

The use of chemical weapons is considered illegal and unethical. Generally, this is because they cause unnecessary suffering, sometimes on innocent civilians, and have indiscriminate effects. Also, some agents of these weapons have delayed reactions and inflict harm on a large amount of people unintentionally, when their original aim was to fire at their opponent's army only.

Some of the chemicals/compounds found in such chemical weapons include:

CW Agent Group	Persistency	Rate of Action
Choking Agents
Chlorine (Cl)	Low	Variable
Phosgene	High	Variable
Blister Agents
Nitrogen mustard (HN)	High	Delayed
Blood Agents
White phosphorus	High	Variable
Sarin (GB)	Low	Very rapid