What are the basic differences between chemical warfare agents and biological warfare agents?
First, biological agents are many times deadlier than chemical agents. As an example, ten grams of anthrax spores could kill as many people as 2,000 pounds, or one ton, of the nerve agent Sarin. Biological agents can take days to display symptoms while chemical agents are measured in minutes to hours. Generally, the toxicity of chemical warfare agents falls between the more deadly biological warfare agents and that of traditional and conventional munitions and weapons. Chemical weapons are typically disseminated through artillery rounds, cluster bombs and missile warheads. Unlike chemical warfare agents, biological warfare agents require aerosolization into small particles in the one to five micron particle size range. However, both biological and chemical weapons are significantly affected by meteorological conditions. For example, the relative coverage of 1,000 kilograms of the nerve agent Sarin is about 8 square kilometers under favorable weather. This type of attack would result in
