Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T13:21:07.248Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Toxic Legacy: Mustard Gas in the Sea around Us

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Extract

In 1946, Tom Brock spent part of his summer dumping mustard gas bombs off a barge into the Atlantic Ocean. Brock was a civilian employed by the United States Army Transport Service in Charleston, South Carolina. His job was to dispose of surplus bombs and drums filled with mustard gas. Sulphur mustard, commonly called “mustard gas,” can take several forms: a liquid, a solid, or a vapour. Mustard gas, named for its mustard-like color and smell, is a vesicant that is toxic to humans and causes blistering and burns, affecting the lungs, eyes, and skin. Brock recalled that he and the soldiers enjoyed watching the occasional bomb explode as it sunk into the water. “We thought it was fun,” explained Brock. “I was 18 or 19 years old. We weren’t scared. We didn’t fear any explosive. We thought we were immortal.” Later that summer he was required to guard a barge of bombs that were leaking mustard gas, which looked to him like hot molasses. Due to the known health risks, Brock was told to wear a protective suit and gas mask. However, it was a hot day so he loosened the straps around his legs. As a result, enormous blisters developed, swelling out like a balloon from his toes to his knees. His summer job was no longer fun as he experienced firsthand the health hazards of exposure to mustard gas.

Type
Symposium
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brophy, L. P., Miles, W. O., and Cochrane, R. C., The Chemical Warfare Service: From Laboratory to Field (Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific, 2005 [reprint of Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1959]): At 62; Pechura, C. M. and Rall, D. P., eds., Veterans at Risk: The Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1993): At 4–5, 22.Google Scholar
William, T. [Tom] Brock quoted in Bull, J. M. R., “Burnt on a Barge,” Daily Press, Newport News, Virginia, November 3, 2005, available at <http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/dailypress/access/921547921.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Nov+3%2C+2005&author=John+M.R.+Bull+jbull%40dailypress.com+%7C+247-4768&pub=Daily+Press&edition=&startpage=A.l&desc=MEMORIES+OF+MUSTARD+GAS+BURNT+ON+A+BARGE> (last visited November 23, 2010; pay access only). See additional stories on mustard gas from the Daily Press by J. M. R. Bull in “Special Report, Part 1: The Deadliness Below,” October 30, 2005; “Special Report, Part 2: The Deadliness Below,” October 31, 2005; “Decades of Dumping Chemical Arms Leave a Risky Legacy,” November 3, 2005, and “House to Probe Chemical Dumping,” November 13, 2005, available at <http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-chemdumping-stories,0,4442836.storygallery> (last visited November 23, 2010).+(last+visited+November+23,+2010;+pay+access+only).+See+additional+stories+on+mustard+gas+from+the+Daily+Press+by+J.+M.+R.+Bull+in+“Special+Report,+Part+1:+The+Deadliness+Below,”+October+30,+2005;+“Special+Report,+Part+2:+The+Deadliness+Below,”+October+31,+2005;+“Decades+of+Dumping+Chemical+Arms+Leave+a+Risky+Legacy,”+November+3,+2005,+and+“House+to+Probe+Chemical+Dumping,”+November+13,+2005,+available+at++(last+visited+November+23,+2010).>Google Scholar
“Army Says Gases Not ‘Tide’ Cause,” The Evening Independent, St. Petersburg, Florida, August 25, 1947: At 11, available at <http://news.google.ca/newspapers?nid=PZE8UkGerEcC&dat=19470825&printsec=frontpage> (last visited November 23, 2010); Brophy, et al., supra note 1, at 431.Google Scholar
Brophy, et al., supra note 1, at 387, 431. American chemical warfare agents included mustard gas, lewisite, nitrogen mustard, chloroacetophenone (tear gas), phosgene, adamsite, hydrogen cyanide, and cyanogen chloride.Google Scholar
Russell, E., War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001); Hamblin, J., Poison in the Well: Radioactive Waste in the Oceans at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2009). On environment and health, see Mitman, G., Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007).Google Scholar
Hamblin, , id, at 2; Carton, G. and Jagusiewicz, A., “Historic Disposal of Munitions in U.S. and European Coastal Waters,” Marine Technology Society Journal 43, no. 4 (2009): 1632, at 21 and 24.Google Scholar
Brophy, et al., supra note 1, at 62, see also 64–69, 74, 387; Vilensky, J. A. and Sinish, P. R., “The Dew of Death,” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 60, no. 2 (2004): 5460, at 54–55, 57.Google Scholar
Bryden, J., Deadly Allies: Canada's Secret War, 1937–1947 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1989); Freeman, K., “The Unfought Chemical War,” The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 47, no. 10 (1991): 30–39; Goodwin, B., Keen as Mustard: Britain's Horrific Chemical Warfare Experiments in Australia (Queensland, Australia: University of Queensland Press, 1998); Evans, R., Gassed: A History of British Chemical Warfare Experiments on Humans (London: House of Stratus, 2000). See also Avery, D. H., The Science of War: Canadian Scientists and Allied Military Technology During the Second World War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998) and the documentary films Secret War: Odyssey of Suffield Volunteers (Insight Film and Video Productions, Canada, 2001) and Keen as Mustard: The Story of Top Secret Chemical Warfare Experiments (Yarra Bank Films, Australia, 1989).Google Scholar
Smith, S. L. and Mawdsley, S., “Proving Ground: Alberta's Role in U.S. Health Policy for Soldiers and School Children at Mid-Twentieth Century,” Canadian Perspectives on US Policy: Essays from a US Policy Research Workshop, ed. by Smith, C. (Edmonton: Institute for United States Policy Studies, 2007): 127141; Smith, S. L., “Mustard Gas and American Race-Based Human Experimentation in World War II,” Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 36, no. 3 (2008): 517–521.Google Scholar
Kleber, B. E. and Birdsell, D., The Chemical Warfare Service: Chemicals in Combat (Honolulu: University Press of the Pacific, 2003, reprint of 1966 edition): ix.Google Scholar
Harris, R. and Paxman, J., A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare (NY: Random House, 2002 edition, original publication 1982): 121124; Pechura, and Rall, , eds., supra note 1, at 43–44.Google Scholar
Brophy, et al., supra note 1, at 240, 425, 430.Google Scholar
Id., at 62, 387, 430 note 60.Google Scholar
Office of the Auditor General of Canada, 2008, March Status Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Chapter 13 – Previous Audits of Responses to Environmental Petitions – Military Dumpsites: 35, available at <www.oag-bvg.gc.ca> (last visited November 23, 2010); Bryden, , supra note 8, at 11–13.+(last+visited+November+23,+2010);+Bryden,+,+supra+note+8,+at+11–13.>Google Scholar
Department of Defense, U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command, Off-shore Disposal of Chemical Agents and Weapons Conducted by the United States (Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland: Historical Research and Response Team, Corporate Information Office, March 29, 2001): 115, available at <www.dailypress.com/media/acrobat/2005-10/20152941.pdf> (last visited November 25, 2010); Bull, , supra note 2.Google Scholar
Brewer, P. and Nakayama, N., “What Lies Beneath: A Plea for Complete Information,” Environmental Science and Technology 42, no. 5 (2008): 13941399, at 1394–1399, and table 1, 1397.Google Scholar
Harris, and Paxman, , supra note 11, at 110.Google Scholar
Cousteau, J. Y., The Silent World (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1953); Zronik, J., Jacques Cousteau: Conserving Underwater Worlds (N.Y.: Crabtree Publishing, 2007): At 5.Google Scholar
Rachel Carson, quoted in Lear, L., Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature (New York: Owl Books, Henry Holt and Company, 1997): At 214.Google Scholar
Carson, R., The Sea Around Us (New York: Signet Science Library Book, 1961): At vii (i960 preface).Google Scholar
Lear, , supra note 19, at 204, 228.Google Scholar
Id., at 206, 215, 217.Google Scholar
Id., at 221.Google Scholar
Carson, , supra note 20, at x.Google Scholar
Id., at x-xi.Google Scholar
Id., at xii.Google Scholar
Talen, M., Ocean Pollution (San Diego: Lucent Books, 1991): At 16, 43.Google Scholar
Wesley Chisholm, J. Director, Buried at Sea (National Film Board of Canada, 2006).Google Scholar
Long, T. P., “A Global Perspective on Underwater Munitions,” Marine Technology Society Journal 43, no. 4 (2009): 510; see also Brewer, Nakayama, , supra note 16, at 1397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bull, , supra note 2.Google Scholar
Kehoe, M., Petition 50A, Office of the Auditor General of Canada, petition received April 2, 2002, available at <www.oag-bvg.gc.ca> (last visited November 25, 2010).+(last+visited+November+25,+2010).>Google Scholar
Warfare Agent Disposal Project, Canadian Department of National Defense, June 16 2008. Specific webpages no longer available on the website, previously found at <www.forces.gc.ca>. See Backgrounder, Warfare Agent Disposal Project, Department of National Defence, March 31, 2003, available at <www.forces.gc.ca> (last visited November 25, 2010)..+See+Backgrounder,+Warfare+Agent+Disposal+Project,+Department+of+National+Defence,+March+31,+2003,+available+at++(last+visited+November+25,+2010).>Google Scholar
Office of the Auditor General of Canada, 2008 March Status Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Chapter 13.Google Scholar
Carson, , supra note 20, at 48–62.Google Scholar
Talen, , supra note 27, at 78–80; Census of Marine Life, available at <www.coml.org> (last visited November 25, 2010).+(last+visited+November+25,+2010).>Google Scholar
Kirsch, S., “Watching the Bombs Go Off: Photography, Nuclear Landscapes, and Spectator Democracy,” Antipode 29, no. 3 (1997): 227255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MEDEA, program of the CIA, “Ocean Dumping of Chemical Munitions: Environmental Effects in Arctic Seas,” May 1997, page 2.2, available at <www.foia.cia.gov> (last visited November 25, 2010); Brewer, and Nakayama, , supra note 16, at 1395.+(last+visited+November+25,+2010);+Brewer,+and+Nakayama,+,+supra+note+16,+at+1395.>Google Scholar
MEDEA, id., at 8–1, 10–13.Google Scholar