

These compounds have the added advantage in that if they are used in excess, they remain as impurities in the finished product and can therefore produce additional mechanisms of toxicity. Thionyl chloride and phosgene, the latter of which is also a choking agent, have also been used as chlorinating agents. In the Meyer–Clarke method, concentrated hydrochloric acid (HCl) is used instead of PCl 3: In the Meyer method, thiodiglycol is produced from chloroethanol and potassium sulfide and chlorinated with phosphorus trichloride: 3 (HOC 2H 4) 2S + 2 PCl 3 → 3 (ClC 2H 4) 2S + 2 P(OH) 3 In the Levinstein process, disulfur dichloride is used instead: S 2Cl 2 + 2 C 2H 4 → (ClC 2H 4) 2S + 1⁄ 8 S 8 In the Depretz method, sulfur dichloride is treated with ethylene: Mustard gas can be synthesized in a variety of different ways. 6.2.1 Development of the first chemotherapy drug.5 Commonly-stockpiled mustard agents (class).Mustard agents could be deployed by means of artillery shells, aerial bombs, rockets, or by spraying from aircraft. Today, sulfur-based and nitrogen-based mustard agents are regulated under Schedule 1 of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, as substances with few uses other than in chemical warfare (though since then, mustard gas has been found to be useful in cancer chemotherapy ). When pure, they are colorless, but when used in impure forms, such as in warfare, they are usually yellow-brown.Īs a chemical weapon, mustard gas was first used in World War I, and has been used in several armed conflicts since then, including the Iran–Iraq War, resulting in more than 100,000 casualties. Sulfur mustards are viscous liquids at room temperature and have an odor resembling mustard plants, garlic, or horseradish, hence the name.
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It can form large blisters on exposed skin and in the lungs, often resulting in prolonged illness ending in death.

Mustard gas has a long history of being used as a blister agent in warfare and is one of the most well-studied of such agents. Oxidative stress is another pathology involved in mustard gas toxicity. Alternatively, if cell death is not immediate, the damaged DNA can lead to the development of cancer. Such compounds can form cyclic -onium ions (sulfonium, ammonium, etc.) that are potent alkylating agents of nucleotides in DNA strands, which prevents cellular division, leading to programmed cell death. In the wider sense, compounds with the structural element BC 2H 4X, where X is any leaving group and B is a Lewis base, are known as mustards. ĭichlorodiethyl sulfide is a symmetric, short chain molecule, with a sulfur atom in the middle and chlorine atom at both ends, chemical formula C 4H 8Cl 2S. The name mustard gas is widely used, but it is technically incorrect: the substance, when dispersed, is often not actually in a vapor, but is instead in the form of a fine mist of liquid droplets. Mustard gas or sulfur mustard is a chemical compound belonging to a family of cytotoxic and blister agents known as mustard agents.
