VX (nerve Agent) - History

History

For an in-depth discussion, see main article on nerve agent history

The chemists Ranajit Ghosh and J.F. Newman discovered the V-series nerve agents at ICI in 1952, patenting diethyl S-2-diethylaminoethyl phosphono- thioate (agent VG) in November, 1952. Further commercial research on similar compounds ceased in 1955 when its lethality to humans was discovered. Information on the substance was passed to Porton Down in 1954 and research there led to VX within a year. This was traded to the United States in return for information on the design and construction of thermonuclear weapons as the British passed over VX in favor of continuing with sarin as the UK chemical weapon of choice. The reasoning behind the decision is unclear, although the then recent completion of a sarin production facility at Nancekuke may have played a part.

The US then went into production of large amounts of VX in 1961 at Newport Chemical Depot.

There was evidence of a combination of chemical agents having been used by Iraq against the Kurds at Halabja in 1988 under Saddam Hussein. Hussein later testified to UNSCOM that Iraq had researched VX, but had failed to weaponize the agent due to production failure. After U.S. and allied forces had invaded Iraq, no VX agent or production facilities were found. However, UNSCOM laboratories detected traces of VX on warhead remnants.

In December 1994 and January 1995, Masami Tsuchiya of Aum Shinrikyo synthesized 100 to 200 grams of VX which was used to attack three persons. Two persons were injured and one 28-year-old man died, who is believed to be the only fully documented victim of VX ever in the world. The VX victim, whom Shoko Asahara had suspected as a spy, was attacked at 7:00 am on December 12, 1994 on the street in Osaka by Tomomitsu Niimi and another AUM member, who sprinkled the nerve agent on his neck. He chased them for about 100 yards (90 metres) before collapsing, dying 10 days later without ever coming out of a deep coma. Doctors in the hospital suspected at the time he had been poisoned with an organophosphate pesticide. But the cause of death was pinned down only after cult members arrested for the subway attack confessed to the killing. Ethyl methylphosphonate, methylphosphonic acid and diisopropyl-2-(methylthio) ethylamine were later found in the body of the victim. Unlike the cases for sarin (Matsumoto incident and Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway), VX was not used for mass murder.

The only countries known to possess VX are the United States, Russia, and Syria. A Sudanese pharmaceutical facility was bombed by the U.S. in 1998 acting on information that it used VX and that the origin of the agent was associated with both Iraq and Al Qaeda. The chemical in question was later identified as O-ethyl hydrogen methylphosphonothioate (EMPTA), used as a precursor in the production of VX. It is also used to treat seeds and turf grasses.