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From Socialist Worker, No. 85, July 1968, pp. 4 & 5.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
THE DECISION TO OPEN Britain’s largest research establishment into chemical and biological warfare to the press seems to be a standard reaction to any large wave of adverse publicity. The last time Porton Down, near Salisbury, opened was in 1962 when a scientist, Geoffrey Bacon, died of plague.
Presumably the Ministry of Defence hopes that, as in 1962, journalists will be shown rows of spotless test tubes, a few bottles with long names on the labels, filters through which all waste, including air, must pass in order to prevent the escape of even the tiniest germ, and that the press will carry stories suggesting that Porton isn’t so bad really, and at least it’s clean.
What sort of research is done at Porton? There are several fields which must be studied in order to develop chemical and biological weapons. They include the development of new weapons, mass production and storage of such weapons, methods of dispersal, and defence against the weapons.
There are a large number of potential weapons in the form of poisonous compounds and disease organisms. They are not necessarily primarily directed against people – in Vietnam, for example wide use is made of the plant hormones 2,4-D, and 2,4-T which cause plants to drop their leaves. They are used to destroy crops in the “restriction of food supply” programme and are estimated to destroy 60–90 per cent of the crop in the areas sprayed.
Tear gases are important weapons. They are generally used in riot control or to flush enemies out of bunkers. The gas CS was developed at Porton, and is the main constituent of MACE, the gas used by the police during the French strikes and marches. It is also used in Vietnam, where it was proved to be lethal when an Australian. Captain Bowtell, entered a civilian home where the gas had been used and was overcome by the fumes and died, although it had had two hours to disperse and he was wearing a gas mask.
Most of the gases used in the 1914–18 war are now obsolete. They have been replaced by the nerve gases, the newest, most effective and most likely to be used of all chemical agents. They are complex organic phosphates, which may be liquid or gas, entering the body via the lungs or through the skin. They operate by blocking the action of an enzyme that breaks down actylcholine, a substance that transmits impulses from nerves to muscles. They are extremely poisonous – a few inhalations can absorb enough of the gas to kill in one to two minutes.
Closely related to the nerve gases in its mode of action is botulinus toxin, the most poisonous substance known. It is produced by the bacteria which cause botulism, a form of food poisoning. Given perfect distribution only 8½ oz. would be enough to kill everybody on earth. It decays in air in about 12 hours, so troops could be used to follow up an attack in 24 hours.
A chemical weapon with completely different effects is LSD-25. This is one of the so-called psychochemicals, which effects human, behaviour without the victims realising it.
Among the disease organisms most suitable as weapons are those causing anthrax, cholera, plague, salmonella food poisoning, typhoid, hepatitis, mumps, smallpox, polio, influenza, yellow fever and typhus. To be suitable for military use they must satisfy certain requirements:
Most of the research into biological agents is probably centred on the breeding of more virulent strains of organisms, the problem of storing living material for any length of time (this has been solved, in some cases, by freeze drying) and in avoiding immune reactions.
The body’s main internal defence against disease organisms is a group of blood proteins known as antibodies. They are produced after an infection, and act by neutralising the disease organisms. The basis of immunisation using vaccines is that injection of a few dead or inactive organisms will stimulate the production of the antibodies needed for defence against the real thing.
However the antibodies are very specific – they protect you against one type of germ only. A new type of smallpox for example, with a coat of slightly different chemical composition, would not be recognised by the antibodies and would be free to breed.
Dispersal of the agents to produce the maximum effect can be achieved by any of three methods – introduction into food or water supplies, by means of vectors, or in a cloud of tiny airborne droplets or particles. Vector transmission can only be used with biological agents; it depends on the fact that a disease organism can be carried by animals which infect people with the disease. In suitable circumstances it can be extremely effective; it was rats which carried the Black Death through Europe in the Middle Ages.
It is generally agreed however that, the most effective method of dispersing any agent is by means of an aerosol spray and considerable research has been done into various aspects of spraying at Porton. It was found, for example, that the size of the particles was very important – they must be small enough to get into the farthest parts of the lungs, but not so small that they are breathed out again.
The area that can be covered with an aerosol is very large – a B-52 bomber that could carry an H-bomb with an area of destruction approaching 75–100 sq. miles could also carry enough aerosol spray of a biological weapon to kill 25–75 per cent of the people in an area of 34,000 sq. miles.
The Ministry of Defence claims that (the work done at Porton is purely defensive. For once, when they say this, they are not using the usual jargon which transforms every word into its opposite (“defence” in this newspeak means aggressive attack) but they are trying to give the impression that the public spirited men at Porton are doing all they can to protect the population against attack by an enemy.
This is an important claim. If it is true, they can justify all the research in terms of finding out what the enemy could be doing, and discovering the best way to counter it.
The question of the motives of the Ministry of Defence cannot be determined in terms of the kind of research that is done – the research would be identical both for defence and aggressive attack – but only in terms of what is done after all the research has been completed. If an aggressive attack is being planned then one would expect to find facilities for mass production of chemical and biological agents. And such are found – at Nancekuke in Cornwall there is a large establishment engaged in process research (that is, mass production).
The fact that Porton supplies disease organisms and botulinus toxin for ordinary medical and biological research as a commercial sideline suggests that they are engaged in mass production of these, as well. On the other hand, if civil defence was the aim of the research one would expect everyone in the country to be provided with at least a gas mask, and detailed instructions on its use.
Some kind of early warning system would also be necessary as it is difficult to detect an attack until its effects are felt, by which time it is too late to put on gas masks. And there would need to be phenomenal emergency health services to cope with a high casualty rate, and to provide mass immunisation.
None of these things has been provided and in the absence of further evidence we must conclude that the government is in fact contemplating at least the threat of an aggressive or retaliatory attack with chemical and biological weapons.
The Home Office admitted last month that the riot gas CS had been used on two occasions by British police when tackling “ dangerous men ” and would be used again in “similar circumstances.” 36 of the 80 police forces m England and Wales have supplies of the gas.
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