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US Navy tested chemical weapons in the 50s: Video

Wednesday, 14 October 2015 4:18 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 14 October 2015 4:24 PM ]

M55 rockets containing VX nerve agent are stored in a secure bunker at Bluegrass Army Depot in Richmond, Kentucky.

A recently declassified video reveals that the US Navy has conducted major experiments with chemical warfare in 1950s, sometimes using ordinary people as subjects.

Although chemical weapons were deemed "allowable" at the time, the video shows that the US Navy did not shy away from conducting experiment on American people, the Huffington Post reported on Tuesday.

In the film we can see techniques improvised by the US military to develop and disperse the advanced weapons across huge areas.

The 14-minute video illustrates how the US coastline becomes a testing ground, where significant amounts of seemingly harmless but traceable chemicals are released to the air and water.

The US Navy used huge sprayers on minesweepers and crop-dusting sprayers on naval planes to conduct huge tests across the Western seaboard.

The United States began its chemical weapons program in 1917, during World War I. The program came to its end 73 years later in 1990, when Washington practically adopted the Chemical Weapons Convention arms control treaty.

The United States produced nearly 40,000 tons of chemical weapons since World War I until 1968. The weapons were either nerve agents or blister agents.

The US Army disposed of thousands of chemical warfare agents and ammunition into the sea between 1967 and 1970, as part of the Operation Cut Holes and Sink 'Em (CHASE). Two years later, Congress passed a bill that prohibited such dumping measures.

This file photo shows US warplanes spraying Agent Orange over Vietnamese lands during the Vietnam War.

In March, Washington announced that it will begin to destroy one of its major chemical weapons stockpiles in the Pueblo Chemical Depot, in Pueblo County, Colorado. The storage facility is home to some 2,611 tons of World War II-era mustard agent.

Mustard agent is a blister agent and can cause skin redness and itching, eye irritation and scarring. It can also increase the risk for lung and respiratory cancer.

During the Vietnam War, the US military used Agent Orange, a herbicide mixture that contained a dangerous chemical contaminant called dioxin.

Estimates by the Red Cross indicate that at least three million Vietnamese have been affected by the chemical toxin, including at least 150,000 children who were born with birth defects.

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