what are biological weapons

7/30/2019 What Are Biological Weapons

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What are biological weapons?

Biological weapons are any infectious agent such as a bacteria or virus

when used intentionally to inflict harm upon others. This definition is

often expanded to include biologically-derived toxins and poisons.

Biological warfare agents include both living microorganisms (bacteria,

protozoa, rickettsia, viruses, and fungi), and toxins (chemicals) produced

by microorganisms, plants, or animals. (Some authors classify toxins as

chemical rather than biological agents, but most do not, and they were

included within the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention-as reflected in

its formal title, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development,

Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin

Weapons and on Their Destruction).

Writers on the subject have produced a long list of BW agents that

terrorists could potentially use. Among those mentioned have been:anthrax, cryptococcosis, escherichia

coli, haemophilus influenzae, brucellosis (undulant fever), coccidioidomycosis (San Joaquin Valley or

desert fever), psittacosis (parrot fever), yersina pestis (the Black Death of the 14th Century), tularemia(rabbit fever), malaria, cholera, typhoid, bubonic plague, cobra venom, shellfish toxin, botulinal toxin,

saxitoxin, ricin, smallpox, shigella flexneri, s. dysenteriae (Shiga bacillus), salmonella, staphylococcus

enterotoxin B, hemorrhagic fever, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, histoplasma capsulatum, pneumonic

plague, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, dengue fever, Rift Valley fever, diphtheria, melioidosis, glanders,

tuberculosis, infectious hepatitis, encephalitides, blastomycosis, nocardiosis, yellow fever, typhus,

tricothecene mycotoxin, aflatoxin, and Q fever.

Some of these agents are highly lethal; others would serve mainly in an incapacitating role. Some

authors have also speculated about the possible terrorist use of new, genetically-engineered agents

designed to defeat conventional methods of treatment or to attack specific ethnic groups, for example.

How dangerous are biological weapons

The Honorable John D. Holcum, in his Remarks to the Fourth Review Conference of the Biological

Weapons Convention, Geneva Switzerland said:

"Biological weapons are immensely destructive. In the right environment they can multiply, and so self-

perpetuate. And they can naturally mutate, frustrating protective measures. Chemical weapons, for all

their horrors, become less lethal as they are dispersed and diluted. But even the tiniest quantities of

disease organisms can be lethal. For example, botulinum toxin has been described as 3 million times

more potent than the chemical nerve agent sarin.

And these are truly loathsome instruments of war and terror. Anthrax, for instance, takes three

excruciating days to destroy the membranes of the lungs and intestines.

Botulinum toxin annihilates by slow asphyxiation, as the cells of the victim's breathing muscles die from

within.

Destroyed

chemical/biological warfare

agent R400 aerial bombs

destroyed in Iraq by U.N.

inspectors after the Gulf

War
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Biological Weapons

Biological weapons are devices designed to spread microorganisms or toxins in order to

incapacitate or kill humans, animals, or plants. They can be used as strategic militaryweapons, as well as for assassinations or terrorism. Social disruption through the mass

infection of a large population or economic disruption through the infection of livestock andcrops are alternative uses for biological weapons. Almost any infectious disease agent can

be used as a biological weapon, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, prions, and

toxins. The deliberate misuse of modern technology can produce a biological weapon withincreasing efficiency, and so the risk of bio-terrorism is higher than ever.

The1925 Geneva Protocolbanned the use of poisonous gases and bacteriological agents inwarfare. It was an initial building block which culminated in theBiological and Toxin

Weapons Convention (BTWC), entered into force in 1975 which now has 165 participatingstates (including Canada). The BTWC was the first multilateral disarmament treaty banning

the production and use of an entire category of weapons. The BTWC has no verificationregime, but rather relies on good-faith adherence by States Parties.

Canada participated in theSeventh Review Conferenceof the BTWC (5-22 December

2011). The five-yearly Review Conference is presently the only time when States Parties

can make decisions on the structure of the treaty. The conference reiterated the globalcommunity's abhorrence of biological weapons, citing national

implementation andinternational cooperation as essential to the ban of such weapons,and strengthened the Convention through the reorganization of the intersessional

meeting structure, the revision of the treaty's Confidence-Building Measure (CBM)system, and the renewal of the Implementation Support Unit (ISU).

National Implementation:

Each State Party has the legal requirement to implement the provisions of the BTWC into its

domestic laws, in accordance with its own constitutional process, per Article IV. Canadaimplements the BTWC through a series of legislations related tobiosafety, biosecurity, and

the non-proliferation of biological materials.

States Parties are also required to, as part of their implementation measures, have in place

export controls to prevent the proliferation of biological agents and dual-use equipment tothose who would mis-use them to make biological weapons, per Article III. As a member of

theAustralia Group Export Control Regime, Canada's export controls are consistent withthose of 40 other countries. Further information on Canada's export controls can be foundhere atExport Control Legislation and Regulations.

International Cooperation:

States Parties to the BTWC are required to participate in, to the fullest degree possible,

international cooperation and the exchange of science and technology for the peaceful useof biology, in accordance with the Convention's Article X. They must also provideassistance, upon request, to any country that has been attacked with a biological weapon,according to Article VII. The Government of Canada has provided significant funding to

numerous international projects around the world in support of disease surveillance,detection, and containment, as well as training in biosafety, biosecurity, andchemical/biological/radiological/nuclear/explosives (CBRNE) response. At the Seventh

Review Conference, Canada submitted data on no less than 62 international projects under

the aforementeioned topics to the Implementation Support Unit, who compiled a
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background document on States Parties' compliance with Article X of the BTWC. Referenceto Canada's contribution can be found on the website of the BTWC, here at theOfficial

Documents System of the United Nations.

Intersessional Process:

In between the Review Conferences, States Parties agreed to meet twice annually to

continue discussions on the BTWC. This process began in 2003 (following the Fifth Review

Conference in 2001-2002) and was revised in 2006 and 2011.

The intersessional process consists of a Meeting of Experts, where technical experts fromgovernments, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations meet todiscuss specific topics of relevance to the BTWC, and a Meeting of States Parties, where

political officers meet to review the recommendations made by the experts. Each year from

2003 to 2010 had its own theme for discussion by technical and policy experts. TheSeventh Review Conference revised this structure, replacing the theme with standing

agenda items to be discussed each year. These include national implementation, science

and technology, international cooperation, Confidence-Building Measures, and response incase of biological warfare.

Confidence-Building Measures:Under the BTWC, member-states are required to submitConfidence-Building

Measures(CBM) on a yearly basis as a means to promote transparency. These CBMs allowStates Parties to share data on their maximum containment laboratories, their biological

defense programmes, disease outbreaks on their territory, publications by their scientificcommunities, the laws that implement the BTWC, their vaccine production facilities, and

their past offense biological weapons programmes. The CBM Forms were revised at the

Seventh Review Conference, in order to decrease the administrative burden on StatesParties and make the information submitted in CBMs more relevant.

Canada's CBM submission has been made available for public viewing, and can be found on

the website of theImplementation Support Unit.

Implementation Support Unit:

TheImplementation Support Unit(ISU), based in Geneva, was created in 2006 out of

theSixth Review Conferenceto act as a Secretariat for the BTWC. Their mandate was set to

expire at the conclusion of the Seventh Review Conference in 2011. The Conference agreed

to renew their mandate under the conclusion of the Eighth Review Conference in 2016,though their budegt was maintained without significant change.

Conclusion:

Canada is convinced that both the Geneva Protocol and the BTWC enhance global securityfundamentally.

Effects of Biological Weapons

Infectious diseases have, of course, been with us throughout our history. They have the capability to kill

or incapacitate large numbers of people. Such a powerful force will always be of interest to the military.
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The idea of deliberately using the bacteria and viruses that cause the disease against an enemy seems a

terrible thing to even contemplate.

The effects of biological weapons depend on what type is used. Although toxins cannot reproduce

within their targets like micro-organisms can, they are generally more lethal. Toxins can kill within

minutes or hours whereas micro-organisms can be present for days or weeks before the symptoms

appear. This means that a biological attack can occur before anyone realises, or even without being

noticed at all as it could be taken as an outbreak of disease. Such an attack can have an impact long after

it takes place. It also depends on what form such an attack takes. Biological weapons can be delivered in

a missile warhead or in the form of a bomb. However, the most effective way is probably as an aerosol

dispersal much like a crop spray.

As you would expect, the effects of a biological weapon depend on exactly what happens. To have the

desired effect most biological agents have to be breathed in or ingested. In the case of anthrax, contact

with the skin is likely to cause infection. The weather certainly makes a difference to the effectiveness as

well.

Examples of the effects of different types of biological weapons are as follows:

Anthrax

A bacterial agent that, although not contagious, is lethal if inhaled.

Smallpox:

A highly contagious viral agent. It has a very high death rate and travels through air easily.

Plague

Another bacterial agent but this one is highly contagious. It causes a type of pneumonia that is lethal if

not caught early. Has an incubation period of 1-5 days.

Ebola

A fever caused by a viral agent. This is extremely lethal and leads to bleeding from all orifices. There is

no cure or treatment.

Botulinum

A toxin that causes muscular paralysis resulting in death.

The very nature of biological weapons would almost certainly lead to panic and terror in the civilian

population in the event of an attack, or even a suspected attack. In the US in 2001, anthrax was sent

through the post to addresses such as senators and newspapers. Although this did indeed lead to the

deaths of five people, the resulting panic throughout the country showed just how quickly an attack

could destabilise a nation.