Chemical Ammunition

Indirectly derived from German agricultural research in the 1930s, organophosphorus compounds quickly found their application as chemical weapons of war under the name of nerve agents. Although the Nazis did not use them during the Second World War, nerve agents have since been used repeatedly in military conflicts and terrorist attacks. Due to their particularly devastating mechanism of action, which is based on disruption of the nervous system by inhibiting the ache enzyme, these substances are now classified among the most dangerous. At the end of the 20th century, the international community sought to curb their proliferation by implementing the CWC, which imposes a ban on signatory countries from producing and stockpiling nerve agents. Nevertheless, nerve agents still pose a real threat to the population.