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Trichothecene mycotoxins are so potent, they are used in biological warfare
The significance of this selection is to provide, from a 1997 US Army Military Manual, the description of what happens to those exposed to low - moderate - high levels of mycotoxins, including those found in damp buildings, including schools: Trichothecene mycotoxins such as T-2 Toxin, produced by Fusarium sp. & various other fungi (hemmoragghic, immunosuppressive reactions, nausea, vomiting); Satratoxin H, produced by Stachybotrys chartarum (high cytotoxicity)(Click on Biological Warfare Agents poster available to order).
In other words, we have, in our schools, millions of students and school staff exposed to the same agents used in biological warfare. The health impact will be familiar to those who are school mold-victims, who read the list of harmful, lethal effects of trichothecene exposure, and in addition, these toxins can produce DNA damage and cell death.
"This family of mycotoxins causes multiorgan effects including emesis and diarrhea, weight loss, nervous disorders, cardiovascular alterations, immunodepression, hemostatic derangements, skin toxicity, decreased reproductive capacity, and bone marrow damage.4,6
In this chapter, we will concentrate on T-2 mycotoxin, a highly toxic trichothecene that, together with some closely related compounds, has been the causative agent of a number of illnesses in humans and domestic animals.1,2,4 During the 1970s and 1980s, the trichothecene mycotoxins gained some notoriety as putative biological warfare agents when they were implicated in “yellow rain” attacks in Southeast Asia.7–11" (p. 658)
"When delivered at low doses, trichothecene mycotoxins cause skin, eye, and gastrointestinal problems. In nanogram amounts,4,25 they (T-2 toxin, in particular) cause severe skin irritation (erythema, edema, and necrosis).4,6 Skin vesication has been observed in a number of humans exposed to yellow rain attacks.4,14,15 T-2 toxin is about 400-fold more potent (50 ng vs 20 μg) than mustard in producing skin injury.26 Lower-microgram quantities of trichothecene mycotoxins cause severe eye irritation, corneal damage, and impaired vision.4,16,26,27 Emesis and diarrhea have been observed at amounts that are one fifth to one tenth the lethal doses oftrichothecene mycotoxins.2
With larger doses, in humans, aerosolized trichothecenes may produce death within minutes to hours. "(p. 658)
MEDICAL ASPECTS OF CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE
The Chapter of Particular Interest: 34. Trichothecene Mycotoxins 655 (and see similar hyperlinks, full Table of Contents, below)
Specialty Editors
FREDERICK R. SIDELL, M.D.
Chemical Casualty Consultant
ERNEST T. TAKAFUJI, M.D., M.P.H.
Colonel, Medical Corps, U.S. Army
DAVID R. FRANZ, D.V.M, PH.D.
Colonel, Veterinary Corps, U.S. Army
Borden Institute
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Washington, D. C.
Office of The Surgeon General
United States Army
Falls Church, Virginia
United States Army Medical Department Center and School
Fort Sam Houston, Texas
United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command
Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Bethesda, Maryland
1997
MEDICAL ASPECTS of CHEMICAL and BIOLOGICAL WARFARE
1 Foreword by The Surgeon General xi
1 Preface xiii
1 Patient Flow in a Theater of Operations xv
1 Medical Aftermath of the Persian Gulf War xvi
1. Overview: Defense Against the Effects of Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents 1
2. History of Chemical and Biological Warfare: An American Perspective
9
3. Historical Aspects of Medical Defense Against Chemical Warfare
87
4. The Chemical Warfare Threat and the Military Healthcare Provider
111
5. Nerve Agents
129
6. Pretreatment for Nerve Agent Exposure
181
7. Vesicants
197
8. Long-Term Health Effects of Nerve Agents and Mustard
229
9. Toxic Inhalational Injury
247
10. Cyanide Poisoning
271
11. Incapacitating Agents
287
12. Riot Control Agents
307
13. Field Management of Chemical Casualties
325
14. Triage of Chemical Casualties 337
15. Decontamination 351
16. Chemical Defense Equipment 361
17. Healthcare and the Chemical Surety Mission 397
18. Historical Overview of Biological Warfare 415
19. The U.S. Biological Warfare and Biological Defense Programs 425
20. Use of Biological Weapons 437
21. The Biological Warfare Threat 451
22. Anthrax 467
23. Plague
479
24. Tularemia 503
25. Brucellosis 513
26. Q Fever 523
27. Smallpox 539
28. Viral Encephalitides 561
29. Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers 591
30. Defense Against Toxin Weapons 603
31. Staphylococcal Enterotoxin B and Related Pyrogenic Toxins 621
32. Ricin Toxin 631
33. Botulinum Toxins 643
34. Trichothecene Mycotoxins 655
35. Medical Challenges in Chemical and Biological Defense for the 21st Century 677
Acronyms and Abbreviations 687
Index 691
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