"A fraction of a drop of VX, absorbed through the skin, can fatally disrupt the nervous system.
Army code name, it is a clear, colorless liquid with the consistency of motor oil," read the CFR statement. The actual cause of death after someone's exposed to a nerve agent like VX, Khare said, is that they rapidly accumulate so much secretion in their lungs that they can't breathe.Īccording to a explainer by the Council on Foreign Relations, VX is the deadliest nerve agent ever created, and the only new one of consequence since World War II. "Atropine does the opposite of that it dries everything up."īut dehydration isn't what kills people who suffer organophosphate poisoning. Rahul Khare, founder and emergency physician at Innovative Express Care, told Newsweek. "Salivation, tears, urinating on yourself, sweating, diarrhea, throwing up.all of that's going to happen," Dr. When the body is attacked with a nerve agent, it's forced to increase secretion-by a lot.
Soldiers from the United States Army's 10th Mountain Division train for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological attacks using auto-injectors containing Atropine and Pralidoxime Chloride. As Time reported, North Korea is currently in possession of around 2,500 to 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, including VX. Nerve gases are chemical weapons, the kind responsible for, among others, the 2013 attack in Syria that killed more than 1,400 civilians. Kim Jong-nam, who traveled under the alias Kim Chol, died after assassins wiped a cloth treated with VX nerve gas across his face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13.Ītropine is a medication that, when injected, can treat organophosphate poisoning, which is caused by nerve agents and insecticides. On November 30, the Malaysian High Court heard testimony that Kim Jong-nam was carrying 12 bottles of Atropine at the time of his death, according to reports, including the Washington Post. But what is Atropine, and why, when he'd so clearly prepared to do so, wasn't Kim Jong-nam able to use it? When Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, was assassinated with a nerve gas in Malaysia earlier this year, he was carrying a dozen bottles of the antidote, Atropine, in his backpack.