nerve agents / nerve gases / CBR weapons

see also:

• toxicology
• polonium poisoning
• Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors

• man-made chemical agents which primarily affect the nervous system in a similar manner to many pesticides
• they are generally liquid at room temperature, can mix with water and evaporate readily to odorless or near-odorless vapors which are heavier than air
• they tend to be readily absorbed through skin
• the main nerve agents are the chemicals:
  • sarin (GB)
  • soman (GD)
  • tabun (GA)
  • VX
  • Novichok
    • a series of binary chemical weapons developed by the Soviet Union and Russia between 1971 and 1993
    • some variants possibly five to eight times more potent than VX, some up to ten times more potent than soman
    • 1995: the forerunner of Novichok agents, substance-33 (frequently also referred to simply as “Novichok”) was reportedly used to poison Russian banker Ivan Kivelidi [ru], and Zara Ismailova, his secretary.
    • 2018: UK government said that a Novichok agent had been used in an attack in the English city of Salisbury on 4 March 2018 in an attempt to kill former GRU officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
      • Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess found a perfume bottle in the park and in June 2018 also developed severe symptoms and being found unconscious in their house with Dawn Sturgess later dying from the exposure.
    • see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novichok_agent

• these are generally similar to acetylcholinesterase inhibitor poisoning / organophosphate pesticides