Toxic Exposures: Mustard Gas and the Health Consequences of World War II in the United States
- ISBN-10
- 0813586127
- ISBN-13
- 9780813586120
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 200
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2017-01-17
- Publisher
- Rutgers University Press
- Author
- Susan L. Smith
Description
Mustard gas is typically associated with the horrors of World War I battlefields and trenches, where chemical weapons were responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. Few realize, however, that mustard gas had a resurgence during the Second World War, when its uses and effects were widespread and insidious. Toxic Exposures tells the shocking story of how the United States and its allies intentionally subjected thousands of their own servicemen to poison gas as part of their preparation for chemical warfare. In addition, it reveals the racialized dimension of these mustard gas experiments, as scientists tested whether the effects of toxic exposure might vary between Asian, Hispanic, black, and white Americans. Drawing from once-classified American and Canadian government records, military reports, scientists’ papers, and veterans’ testimony, historian Susan L. Smith explores not only the human cost of this research, but also the environmental degradation caused by ocean dumping of unwanted mustard gas. As she assesses the poisonous legacy of these chemical warfare experiments, Smith also considers their surprising impact on the origins of chemotherapy as cancer treatment and the development of veterans’ rights movements. Toxic Exposures thus traces the scars left when the interests of national security and scientific curiosity battled with medical ethics and human rights.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2017-01-17
- 200 pages
- Ebook
- Rutgers University Press
-
- 2007-06-29
- 392 pages
- Ebook
- Columbia University Press
Similar books
-
Clinical Environmental Health and Toxic Exposures
By John Burke Sullivan, Gary R. Kriegerally involves a sudden exposure and a high concentration rather than chronic low - grade exposures . A history of chronic sinusitis , allergic rhinitis , nasal symptomatology , upper respiratory tract infections , and head traumas is ...
-
Air Monitoring for Toxic Exposures
By Henry J. McDermottGet the Latest from the Field This book offers ready-to-use information for measuring a wide variety of airborne hazardous materials including chemicals, radon, and bioaerosols.
-
Cooper's Toxic Exposures Desk Reference with CD-ROM
By Sr., Andre R. CooperCooper's Toxic Exposures Desk Reference with CD-ROM contains the most up-to-date summation of hundreds of the most hazardous substances used in industry and found in the workplace.
-
Chemical Exposure and Toxic Responses
By Stephen K. HallThis book is organized so that readers can proceed from a general perspective on the problem of chemical exposure and toxic responses to an understanding of toxicology and a method of inquiry.
-
Surface and Dermal Monitoring for Toxic Exposures
By Shirley A. NessWritten by one of the nation's foremost sampling experts, this authoritative guide offers an integrated approach that combines surface and dermal sampling methods with air and biological monitoring techniques.
-
Air Monitoring for Toxic Exposures: An Integrated Approach
By Shirley A. NessAir Monitoring for Toxic Exposures: An Integrated Approach, Second Edition explains the procedures for evaluating potentially harmful exposures to people from hazardous materials, including chemicals, radon, and bioaerosols. The author...
-
Better Safe Than Sorry: How Consumers Navigate Exposure to Everyday Toxics
By Norah MacKendrickThis book is growing more relevant, more urgent by the minute.”—Rebecca Altman, writer and sociologist “Well researched and beautifully written, Better Safe Than Sorry shows how ‘precautionary consumption’ is a logical but ...
-
Air Monitoring for Toxic Exposures: An Integrated Approach
By Shirley A. NessAir Monitoring for Toxic Exposures: An Integrated Approach, Second Edition explains the procedures for evaluating potentially harmful exposures to people from hazardous materials, including chemicals, radon, and bioaerosols.
-
Review of Acute Human-Toxicity Estimates for Selected Chemical-Warfare Agents
By National Research Council, Division on Earth and Life Studies, Commission on Life SciencesSome human-toxicity estimates are available for the most common CW agentsâ€"organophosphorus nerve agents and vesicants; however, most of those estimates were developed for offensive purposes (that is, to kill or incapacitate the enemy) ...
-
Chemical Exposure and Toxic Responses
By Stephen K. HallThis book is organized so that readers can proceed from a general perspective on the problem of chemical exposure and toxic responses to an understanding of toxicology and a method of inquiry.