Chemical Terrorism

Chemical weapons are just what their name implies: devices that use chemicals to inflict death or injury. Chemical weapons can be dispensed using bombs, artillery shells, aircraft sprayers, or missiles carrying hundreds of small “bomblets” that are spread over a large area when they are ejected from canisters. Chemical weapons have typically been used in large-scale warfare by organized armies; however, the prospect of the use of chemical weapons by terrorists against civilian populations raises an entirely new problem.