CHEMISTS in Poland have found a way to destroy lewisite, one of the nastiest
chemical weapons of the 20th century. Lewisite has a burning, choking effect
like a fast-acting version of mustard gas, and is dangerous to incinerate
because it contains arsenic. This either escapes up the chimney or makes the ash
too toxic to dump. But scientists in Wroclaw have found a way to harmlessly
break down lewisite.
Poland discovered nine tonnes of adamsite, a vomit-inducing riot gas related
to lewisite, in a warehouse near Lodz in 1945. The containers had labels written
in German. Under the Chemical Weapons…
