Differences between Chemical and
Biological Weapons

n discussing CBW terrorism, it is important to distinguish between terrorist attacks involving chemical and biological warfare agents, which differ in several ways:

Model of the chemical
agent Sarin

• Chemical warfare (CW) agents are non-living, manufactured chemicals that are highly toxic and can enter the body through the lungs or the skin. They cause illness or death within minutes to hours after exposure.



The Ebola virus

• Biological warfare (BW) agents are microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria that infect humans, livestock, or crops and cause an incapacitating or fatal disease. Symptoms of illness do not appear immediately but only after a delay, or "incubation period," that may last for days to weeks.
  
• Toxins—nonliving poisons produced by living plants, insects, and animals—are in a gray area between CW and BW agents. They generally have an incubation period of hours to days, longer than that of CW agents but shorter than that of BW agents.

Chapters 2-6 discuss the technical issues of biological terrorism in greater detail.

This material is produced independently for NTI by the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of and has not been independently verified by NTI or its directors, officers, employees, agents.
Copyright © 2004 by MIIS.