IUPAC and OPCW Working Toward Responsible Science

Abstract

Imagine being a chemist in the summer of 1941, four years prior to the end of the Second World War. The pressure to use the powerful knowledge of chem. in service of national and political interests is enormous. The end result At the Auschwitz Nazi extermination camp, Zyklon B, an infamous weapon of mass destruction, is first used. Over the next four years it claims responsibility for the lives of several million people in the gas chambers of Auschwitz and other death camps. When mixed with water, Zyklon B releases hydrogen cyanide, which fatally interferes with the respiratory processes of those inhaling it. Hydrogen cyanide is a simple, triat. mol. whose power for destruction is now burned into our global consciousness as a symbol of how badly things can go wrong when the tools of chem. are misused. Prior to the Second World War, hydrogen cyanide had been used as a delousing agent and insecticide, and this toxicity inspired its use in designing a new way to kill people. [on SciFinder(R)]