Word: toxication
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...actions arouse more spontaneous revulsion than the deliberate use of toxic substances and pathogens against other humans. The thousands of mustard gassed blind and lung burned soldiers returning from World War I (and those that did not return) sparked an immediate world outcry. The result was the 1925 Geneva Protocol outlawing both biological and chemical weapons. The United States did not sign, perhaps as a by-product of the same isolationism that prompted the Senate not to ratify' entry into the League of Nations, but all other major powers were signatories to the treaty World War II saw no large...
Also this month the Cambridge health authorities have tried to bar the Arthur D. Little Co. from manufacturing binary nerve gas shells in a North Cambridge laboratory. The weapons, budgeted two years ago in heated Congressional debate, contain two non-toxic substances which combine to make nerve gas only after the weapon has been fired. Before producing any evidence that a health hazard was posed by local manufacture, the department sought a ban, which was promptly overturned by a local court. The city has now actually sought an extension of the ruling in order to try and build a case...
...Anne Burford, the former Environmental Protection Agency chief, was investigated for her preferential treatment of certain toxic waste producers...
...Middlesex Superior Court had temporarily blocked the ban at the request of the Arthur D. Little Company (ADL), a local research firm investigating toxic chemicals for the military at a new laboratory in North Cambridge...
Researchers speculate that chemicals may work their damage in several ways. The excess ozone might open the pores of leaves, allowing acid rain to leach vital nutrients. Or acid rain may cause harmful changes in the chemical composition of the soil. Rain may also deposit toxic heavy metals that damage plants' root systems. Says Richard Phipps of the U.S. Geological Survey: "The darn thing is a heck of a lot more complex than we ever thought...