The terms "chemical weapon," "chemical warfare," and "chemical agent" are often used as if they were interchangeable. To be precise,
- "chemical agent" is a chemical compound that is either lethal or injurious in relatively small amounts
- "chemical weapon" is a system that contains the chemical agent, can deliver the chemical agent to a target, and can disseminate the chemical agent once it reaches the target, generally as a liquid or solid aerosol
- "chemical warfare" is the use of chemical weapons
Possession of chemical agents does not automatically afford a chemical warfare capability. The agents must be "weaponized;" systems must be designed to deliver the chemical warfare agent to a target. Chemical Weapons and Dissemination provides general descriptions of some types of chemical weapons.
Fate of Chemical Warfare Agents
Once a chemical weapon is used, and it creates an aerosol of chemical agent at a target, a number of factors govern what happens to that chemical agent. Dispersal and fate of chemical warfare agents describes the factors that affect the lifetime of the toxic aerosol cloud, ground contamination as the primary cloud settles, and the environmental persistence of some agents.