WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.839 Welcome to another deep dive. I'm so glad you 00:00:02.839 --> 00:00:04.599 could join us today because we are looking at 00:00:04.599 --> 00:00:08.279 something that is, frankly, going to completely 00:00:08.279 --> 00:00:10.660 flip your perspective on modern history. Yeah, 00:00:10.660 --> 00:00:13.380 it really is a mind -bending topic. Right. Let 00:00:13.380 --> 00:00:15.439 me start you off with a seemingly contradictory 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:19.260 question. How could one of the most feared, gruesome 00:00:19.260 --> 00:00:21.679 weapons in human history also be responsible 00:00:21.679 --> 00:00:24.800 for saving millions of lives? I mean, it sounds 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:27.670 like an impossible paradox. But the history we're 00:00:27.670 --> 00:00:30.210 looking at today is just full of these dark unexpected 00:00:30.210 --> 00:00:33.149 turns. Exactly. So our mission today is to explore 00:00:33.149 --> 00:00:36.310 the surprisingly complex and honestly ongoing 00:00:36.310 --> 00:00:39.490 legacy of sulfur mustard. And we are relying 00:00:39.490 --> 00:00:42.210 on a comprehensive set of historical and scientific 00:00:42.210 --> 00:00:44.750 excerpts compiled from the Wikipedia article 00:00:44.750 --> 00:00:47.299 on mustard gas. And we have a massive timeline 00:00:47.299 --> 00:00:49.719 to cover here. Everything from strange laboratory 00:00:49.719 --> 00:00:52.859 accidents to trench warfare and then to a truly 00:00:52.859 --> 00:00:55.320 shocking medical breakthrough. That paradox is 00:00:55.320 --> 00:00:57.920 exactly why we're unpacking this today. And to 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:00.079 help synthesize all this intense history, I've 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:02.880 got my co -host here, the calm voice of reason. 00:01:03.079 --> 00:01:05.060 I will do my best to keep us on track. There's 00:01:05.060 --> 00:01:07.480 a lot to get through. OK, let's unpack this. 00:01:08.079 --> 00:01:11.239 And I think we need to start by setting the record 00:01:11.239 --> 00:01:13.420 straight right out of the gate. Yeah, the name 00:01:13.420 --> 00:01:16.120 itself. Yeah, the name mustard gas is actually 00:01:16.120 --> 00:01:19.180 a massive misconception. It's technically incorrect, 00:01:19.359 --> 00:01:21.739 isn't it? It is. It's a total misnomer because 00:01:21.739 --> 00:01:24.560 it is almost never a gas when it's deployed. 00:01:24.780 --> 00:01:27.780 Wait, really? Not at gas at all? No. It is actually 00:01:27.780 --> 00:01:30.459 dispersed as a fine mist of liquid droplets. 00:01:30.780 --> 00:01:33.420 And when this compound is pure, it's completely 00:01:33.420 --> 00:01:36.060 colorless. But - That's not how it looked on 00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:38.239 the battlefield. No, in warfare it's usually 00:01:38.239 --> 00:01:40.760 deployed in impure forms or it's mixed with other 00:01:40.760 --> 00:01:42.819 chemicals. So it takes on this yellow -brown 00:01:42.819 --> 00:01:45.620 color. And then there's the smell, which according 00:01:45.620 --> 00:01:47.340 to the source doesn't actually come from mustard 00:01:47.340 --> 00:01:49.659 at all. Right, there is no actual mustard in 00:01:49.659 --> 00:01:52.239 mustard gas. But it gets its name because that 00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:54.900 viscous liquid gives off an odor that resembles 00:01:54.900 --> 00:01:58.219 mustard plants or garlic or horseradish. And 00:01:58.219 --> 00:02:00.980 that mild smell is your only warning. Which is 00:02:00.980 --> 00:02:03.480 terrifying. Because the way this weapon works 00:02:03.480 --> 00:02:06.019 is essentially a sneak attack on the human body. 00:02:06.500 --> 00:02:08.860 The insidious nature of sulfur mustard comes 00:02:08.860 --> 00:02:11.539 down to its high lipophilicity. Which means it's 00:02:11.539 --> 00:02:13.819 fat soluble, right? Exactly. It is highly fat 00:02:13.819 --> 00:02:17.280 soluble. And because human skin is very rich 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:20.419 in lipids or fats, the agent absorbs into the 00:02:20.419 --> 00:02:22.659 body incredibly rapidly. But you don't feel it 00:02:22.659 --> 00:02:25.229 right away. That's the terrifying part. It often 00:02:25.229 --> 00:02:27.590 doesn't elicit any immediate symptoms at all. 00:02:27.849 --> 00:02:30.169 You might not feel anything for up to 24 hours. 00:02:30.530 --> 00:02:32.629 So just to translate this for you listening, 00:02:33.330 --> 00:02:35.909 imagine you encounter this mild garlic smell. 00:02:36.650 --> 00:02:39.229 You feel completely fine. You go about your day. 00:02:39.270 --> 00:02:42.030 But you are not fine. Right. A day later, your 00:02:42.030 --> 00:02:45.849 DNA itself is actively malfunctioning. The physical 00:02:45.849 --> 00:02:49.490 reality of that delay is staggering. On a microscopic 00:02:49.490 --> 00:02:52.330 level, your body is under siege while you think 00:02:52.330 --> 00:02:54.530 you're perfectly safe. What's fascinating here 00:02:54.530 --> 00:02:57.569 is the underlying cellular toxicity. How does 00:02:57.569 --> 00:03:00.270 it actually work once it's inside you? So, sulfur 00:03:00.270 --> 00:03:02.289 musters belong to a class of chemicals known 00:03:02.289 --> 00:03:04.849 as alkylating agents. Okay, alkylating agents. 00:03:05.009 --> 00:03:06.889 Right. Once it hits the moisture in your body, 00:03:07.150 --> 00:03:09.870 it undergoes a specific chemical reaction. It 00:03:09.870 --> 00:03:12.849 drops chloride ions to form what are called cyclic 00:03:12.849 --> 00:03:15.229 sulfonium ions. That sounds complicated. What 00:03:15.229 --> 00:03:17.280 does that mean in practical terms? Basically, 00:03:17.419 --> 00:03:19.800 it transforms into a highly reactive molecular 00:03:19.800 --> 00:03:22.900 magnet. It immediately hunts down the DNA in 00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:25.840 your cells and permanently binds to the nucleotides. 00:03:26.139 --> 00:03:27.979 So it's essentially throwing a chemical wrench 00:03:27.979 --> 00:03:30.360 right into the gears of your DNA. That is a perfect 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:33.360 way to visualize it. And once the DNA is permanently 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:36.699 alkylated or damaged, the cell can no longer 00:03:36.699 --> 00:03:39.520 divide. Which means the cell is basically doomed. 00:03:39.879 --> 00:03:43.199 Exactly. It leads to one of two outcomes, either 00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:46.060 immediate programmed cell death, which is known 00:03:46.060 --> 00:03:49.840 as apoptosis, or if the cell somehow survives, 00:03:50.460 --> 00:03:53.139 that damaged DNA leads to mutations and the development 00:03:53.139 --> 00:03:55.719 of cancer later in life. And the physical effects 00:03:55.719 --> 00:03:58.240 of that cellular death are just horrific to read 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:00.699 about. They really are. The text details how 00:04:00.699 --> 00:04:03.180 victims experience this intense itching. and 00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:05.719 then that turns into massive pus -filled blisters 00:04:05.719 --> 00:04:08.060 anywhere the liquid or vapor touched the skin. 00:04:08.300 --> 00:04:10.639 It can even cause a process called melanogenesis, 00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:13.039 which actually turns a patient's skin different 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:15.560 colors. And it goes far beyond just skin contact. 00:04:15.759 --> 00:04:19.100 Much further, if 80 % of the agent evaporates, 00:04:19.399 --> 00:04:22.579 10 % stays in the skin, and the other 10 % is 00:04:22.579 --> 00:04:24.699 absorbed directly into the bloodstream. And if 00:04:24.699 --> 00:04:27.399 you inhale it? If inhaled, it causes bleeding 00:04:27.399 --> 00:04:30.139 and blistering right inside the respiratory system. 00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:33.259 It damages the mucous membranes and causes your 00:04:33.259 --> 00:04:36.040 lungs to fill with fluid. A condition the source 00:04:36.040 --> 00:04:38.899 calls pulmonary edema. Right. You are effectively 00:04:38.899 --> 00:04:41.439 drowning in your own fluids. The damage to the 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:44.579 eyes is equally severe. It starts with conjunctivitis, 00:04:44.819 --> 00:04:47.519 like pink eye, but then the eyelids swell completely 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:49.860 shut. Leading to temporary blindness. And in 00:04:49.860 --> 00:04:52.259 severe cases, the source says it ulcerates the 00:04:52.259 --> 00:04:55.779 cornea so badly that victims literally need corneal 00:04:55.779 --> 00:04:58.480 transplants. It's devastating. There is a chilling 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:01.160 quote in our sources from a British nurse who 00:05:01.160 --> 00:05:03.379 treated World War I soldiers. What did she say? 00:05:03.519 --> 00:05:06.670 She noted, quote, Gas burns must be agonizing 00:05:06.670 --> 00:05:09.050 because usually the other cases do not complain, 00:05:09.370 --> 00:05:12.290 even with the worst wounds. But gas cases are 00:05:12.290 --> 00:05:14.790 invariably beyond endurance, and they cannot 00:05:14.790 --> 00:05:17.610 help crying out. That paints such a grim picture. 00:05:18.250 --> 00:05:20.310 And remembering that there is no antidote makes 00:05:20.310 --> 00:05:22.850 it all the more terrifying. Protection relies 00:05:22.850 --> 00:05:25.009 entirely on keeping it off your skin in the first 00:05:25.009 --> 00:05:27.509 place. Which brings us to a huge question. How 00:05:27.509 --> 00:05:29.949 did this nightmare even come to be? Surprisingly, 00:05:30.209 --> 00:05:32.970 it wasn't invented as a weapon. Right. No one 00:05:32.970 --> 00:05:36.089 sat down and intentionally tried to invent a 00:05:36.089 --> 00:05:39.310 weapon of mass destruction. It started as a laboratory 00:05:39.310 --> 00:05:42.170 curiosity. We can trace the timeline all the 00:05:42.170 --> 00:05:44.870 way back to 1822. Over a century before the World 00:05:44.870 --> 00:05:48.410 Wars. Yes. A French chemist named César -Montsouet 00:05:48.410 --> 00:05:51.209 -Despretz synthesized it. But he didn't even 00:05:51.209 --> 00:05:53.410 notice it was dangerous. And then we fast forward 00:05:53.410 --> 00:05:56.560 to 1860. A British scientist named Frederick 00:05:56.560 --> 00:05:58.860 Guthrie synthesized it. And get this, he actually 00:05:58.860 --> 00:06:01.279 tasted it. He tasted it. He tasted it. And he 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:03.579 just noted that it was, quote, irritating. I 00:06:03.579 --> 00:06:06.220 mean, he is incredibly lucky. That same year, 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:08.459 Albert Nieman, who was actually a pioneer in 00:06:08.459 --> 00:06:11.439 cocaine chemistry, he also made it. And he was 00:06:11.439 --> 00:06:13.899 the first to record its blister -forming properties. 00:06:14.220 --> 00:06:16.180 But it still wasn't weaponized at that point. 00:06:16.519 --> 00:06:19.100 No, the real turning point comes decades later, 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:23.160 in 1886. With Victor Meyer. Right. Meyer synthesized 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:25.759 a much purer version of the compound, and the 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:27.680 purity meant the adverse health effects were 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:30.439 suddenly much more severe. So severe that his 00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:33.310 assistant was badly burned by it. But Meyer actually 00:06:33.310 --> 00:06:35.730 suspected the assistant might just be suffering 00:06:35.730 --> 00:06:38.430 from psychosomatic symptoms, like a mental block 00:06:38.430 --> 00:06:40.850 making him think he was burned. To prove it wasn't 00:06:40.850 --> 00:06:43.769 just in the guy's head, Meyer tested this pure 00:06:43.769 --> 00:06:47.009 compound on laboratory rabbits. And of course, 00:06:47.110 --> 00:06:50.889 most of the rabbits died. The toxicity was undeniably 00:06:50.889 --> 00:06:53.250 real. But we are still not at the weapon stage 00:06:53.250 --> 00:06:55.509 yet. The final piece of the puzzle falls into 00:06:55.509 --> 00:06:58.670 place in 1913. An English chemist named Hans 00:06:58.670 --> 00:07:00.709 Thatcher Clark was working in Berlin. He was 00:07:00.709 --> 00:07:03.129 working with Emil Fischer, right? Yes. Clark 00:07:03.129 --> 00:07:05.569 replaced one of the ingredients in Meyer's formulation 00:07:05.569 --> 00:07:08.170 with hydrochloric acid. And while he was working, 00:07:08.389 --> 00:07:11.170 one of his flasks broke. And Clark was hospitalized 00:07:11.170 --> 00:07:13.990 for two months with severe burns. Two months 00:07:13.990 --> 00:07:17.730 in the hospital from one broken flask. That is 00:07:17.730 --> 00:07:20.250 an incredible level of toxicity from a simple 00:07:20.250 --> 00:07:22.810 lab accident. And then Fischer reports this accident. 00:07:22.970 --> 00:07:25.470 He reported it to the German Chemical Society, 00:07:26.009 --> 00:07:28.189 and according to Meyer, it was that specific 00:07:28.189 --> 00:07:30.990 report that inadvertently sent the German Empire 00:07:30.990 --> 00:07:33.269 down the path to developing chemical weapons. 00:07:33.490 --> 00:07:36.089 They realized the immense destructive potential 00:07:36.089 --> 00:07:39.009 of what Clark had accidentally unleashed. And 00:07:39.009 --> 00:07:41.829 they already had the means to mass produce it. 00:07:42.189 --> 00:07:45.089 Because one of the key ingredients, 2 -chloroethanol, 00:07:45.420 --> 00:07:47.939 was readily available from the German dye industry. 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:51.600 Which all culminates on July 12th, 1917. The 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:53.839 German army deploys it for the first time against 00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:56.980 British and Canadian troops near Ypres, Belgium. 00:07:57.160 --> 00:07:59.300 Which is why the French called the agent Yprite. 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:02.579 And the Germans called it Lost, that's L -O -S 00:08:02.579 --> 00:08:04.939 -T, which was a combination of the last names 00:08:04.939 --> 00:08:08.060 of Lommel and Steinkopf, the scientists who developed 00:08:08.060 --> 00:08:10.699 the large -scale production method. What is crucial 00:08:10.699 --> 00:08:12.899 to understand about its deployment in World War 00:08:12.899 --> 00:08:15.480 I is the strategic intent. Because it wasn't 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:17.139 just about killing as many people as possible, 00:08:17.160 --> 00:08:19.899 was it? Surprisingly no. It was actually lethal 00:08:19.899 --> 00:08:23.720 in only about 1 % of cases. Wait, if it was only 00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:26.480 lethal in 1 % of cases, why was it considered 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:29.279 so strategically valuable? Was it just about 00:08:29.279 --> 00:08:31.519 overwhelming the medical tents? That is a large 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:34.490 part of it, yes. Creating chaos. But its primary 00:08:34.490 --> 00:08:37.450 military value was as an incapacitating agent 00:08:37.450 --> 00:08:40.879 and an area denial weapon. Area denial. Meaning, 00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:43.559 it stops the enemy from occupying a space. Exactly. 00:08:43.659 --> 00:08:45.980 It would linger in the cold, muddy soil of the 00:08:45.980 --> 00:08:48.720 trenches for weeks. And this created a uniquely 00:08:48.720 --> 00:08:52.419 terrifying hazard. The text notes a detail about 00:08:52.419 --> 00:08:54.279 life in the trenches that just stuck with me. 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:57.120 The Soosterains. Yes. Soldiers would get the 00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:58.960 agent on their clothing while outside in the 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:01.840 freezing cold. But because it was cold, the mustard 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:04.120 agent remained a stable liquid on their uniforms. 00:09:04.299 --> 00:09:06.860 Then, those soldiers would retreat into the enclosed, 00:09:07.259 --> 00:09:09.559 warm underground subways and birthing areas. 00:09:09.610 --> 00:09:12.009 The Soosterines. Right. And as their clothes 00:09:12.009 --> 00:09:14.549 warmed up in that confined underground space, 00:09:14.830 --> 00:09:17.309 the liquid mustard agent would vaporize. So the 00:09:17.309 --> 00:09:19.870 environment itself triggers the weapon. It becomes 00:09:19.870 --> 00:09:22.450 an airborne toxic agent, poisoning everyone trapped 00:09:22.450 --> 00:09:24.830 inside the bunker with them. It's a weapon that 00:09:24.830 --> 00:09:26.909 literally turns your own uniform against you 00:09:26.909 --> 00:09:29.610 and your friends. It's horrifying. And here's 00:09:29.610 --> 00:09:32.149 where it gets really interesting. And honestly, 00:09:32.330 --> 00:09:34.909 deeply unsettling. Because the timeline shifts 00:09:34.909 --> 00:09:37.970 to World War II. As if trench warfare wasn't 00:09:37.970 --> 00:09:41.019 horrific enough. Right. The onset of World War 00:09:41.019 --> 00:09:43.480 II pushed the desperation for military advantage 00:09:43.480 --> 00:09:47.299 into even darker territory. Specifically, classified 00:09:47.299 --> 00:09:49.919 human testing. We are looking at sources detailing 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:52.059 secret experiments conducted by the United States 00:09:52.059 --> 00:09:55.019 military on its own people. The declassified 00:09:55.019 --> 00:09:57.120 records from this period show that during and 00:09:57.120 --> 00:10:00.320 after World War II, the US military tested sulfur 00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:03.480 mustards on up to 60 ,000 of its own servicemen. 00:10:03.779 --> 00:10:06.730 60 ,000. And there was a specific race -based 00:10:06.730 --> 00:10:09.330 component to these trials? Yes. The testing was 00:10:09.330 --> 00:10:11.789 heavily segregated. African -American servicemen 00:10:11.789 --> 00:10:14.350 were tested in separate trials alongside white 00:10:14.350 --> 00:10:16.649 men to see if their skin color afforded them 00:10:16.649 --> 00:10:19.269 any natural immunity to mustard gas and lewisite. 00:10:19.470 --> 00:10:22.070 They also tested knee -sized servicemen? Japanese 00:10:22.070 --> 00:10:24.509 Americans, some of whom had literally just been 00:10:24.509 --> 00:10:27.230 released from internment camps. They were tested 00:10:27.230 --> 00:10:30.409 to determine the susceptibility of Japanese military 00:10:30.409 --> 00:10:33.490 personnel to these chemical agents. The text 00:10:33.490 --> 00:10:36.190 also notes that Puerto Rican subjects were specifically 00:10:36.190 --> 00:10:38.769 singled out for testing as well. To understand 00:10:38.769 --> 00:10:40.649 the physical reality of these tests, we have 00:10:40.649 --> 00:10:43.070 to look at the account of Rollin Edwards. He 00:10:43.070 --> 00:10:45.590 was one of the test subjects. His quote in the 00:10:45.590 --> 00:10:47.889 source material is incredibly hard to shake. 00:10:48.210 --> 00:10:50.350 He stated, quote, It felt like you were on fire. 00:10:50.470 --> 00:10:52.330 Guy started screaming and hollering and trying 00:10:52.330 --> 00:10:54.820 to break out. He goes on to say, it took all 00:10:54.820 --> 00:10:57.120 the skin off your hands. Your hands just rotted. 00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:00.299 Your hands just rotted. This raises an important 00:11:00.299 --> 00:11:02.639 question about the ethical boundaries of wartime 00:11:02.639 --> 00:11:06.559 science. How far is too far? Exactly. The sheer 00:11:06.559 --> 00:11:09.399 desperation for military advantage led to these 00:11:09.399 --> 00:11:11.659 classified operations, and they were kept secret 00:11:11.659 --> 00:11:14.639 for decades. Even after these experiments were 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:17.299 finally declassified in 1993, the Department 00:11:17.299 --> 00:11:20.639 of Veterans Affairs routinely denied compensation 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:23.379 claims from the victims. The aftermath is just 00:11:23.379 --> 00:11:26.759 tragic. The text mentions, the VA promised to 00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:30.100 contact 4 ,000 surviving test subjects, but they 00:11:30.100 --> 00:11:32.440 only ended up reaching 600. Leaving thousands 00:11:32.440 --> 00:11:35.200 without any help. You have all these men, some 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:37.779 who are only 19 at the time, left plagued by 00:11:37.779 --> 00:11:41.200 skin cancer, severe eczema, leukemia, and chronic 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:43.480 breathing problems. And the U .S. wasn't alone 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:46.779 in doing this? No. Australia also conducted tropical 00:11:46.779 --> 00:11:49.149 tests. They tested volunteer service members 00:11:49.149 --> 00:11:51.950 on the Brook Islands to simulate Pacific Island 00:11:51.950 --> 00:11:54.509 conditions. Which resulted in severe injuries 00:11:54.509 --> 00:11:56.710 for those men as well. It's a stark reminder 00:11:56.710 --> 00:11:59.230 of the collateral damage of weapons programs. 00:11:59.490 --> 00:12:02.070 It extends far beyond the actual battlefield. 00:12:02.190 --> 00:12:04.409 It affected the very people the military was 00:12:04.409 --> 00:12:06.769 meant to protect. Now we arrive at the pivot, 00:12:07.169 --> 00:12:09.509 the most shocking twist in this entire deep dive. 00:12:09.690 --> 00:12:12.529 The medical breakthrough. Yes. How on earth did 00:12:12.529 --> 00:12:15.070 this horrifically destructive weapon, a chemical 00:12:15.070 --> 00:12:18.149 that rots your skin and damages your DNA, how 00:12:18.149 --> 00:12:20.269 does that become a medicine? The clues were actually 00:12:20.269 --> 00:12:21.889 there from the very beginning. Going back to 00:12:21.889 --> 00:12:25.409 World War I. Right. In 1919, shortly after the 00:12:25.409 --> 00:12:28.090 First World War ended, researchers from the University 00:12:28.090 --> 00:12:31.409 of Pennsylvania performed autopsies on 75 soldiers 00:12:31.409 --> 00:12:34.110 who had died from mustard agent exposure. And 00:12:34.110 --> 00:12:36.590 what did they find? When they examined the bodies, 00:12:36.629 --> 00:12:39.450 they found something unusual, drastically decreased 00:12:39.450 --> 00:12:42.110 white blood cell counts. So the mustard agent 00:12:42.110 --> 00:12:44.950 was suppressing blood formation. Exactly. A process 00:12:44.950 --> 00:12:47.490 called hematopoiesis. But nobody connected the 00:12:47.490 --> 00:12:49.990 dots right away. No. The science just sat there. 00:12:50.330 --> 00:12:52.470 It took another world war to push the research 00:12:52.470 --> 00:12:55.490 forward. During World War II, the American Office 00:12:55.490 --> 00:12:57.710 of Scientific Research and Development funded 00:12:57.710 --> 00:12:59.990 the biology and chemistry departments at Yale 00:12:59.990 --> 00:13:02.870 University to study chemical warfare. And while 00:13:02.870 --> 00:13:04.830 Yale was conducting this research in the lab, 00:13:05.029 --> 00:13:08.029 a parallel real -world tragedy occurred. On December 00:13:08.029 --> 00:13:12.309 2nd, 1943. Yes. There was a devastating air raid 00:13:12.309 --> 00:13:15.409 on the port of Bari, Italy. The attack destroyed 00:13:15.409 --> 00:13:18.269 an allied ship. So an allied ship is bombed in 00:13:18.269 --> 00:13:20.549 Italy. It's a tragedy. But how does that connect 00:13:20.549 --> 00:13:23.490 back to the chemical research at Yale? Because 00:13:23.490 --> 00:13:26.909 that specific ship, the SS John Harvey, was secretly 00:13:26.909 --> 00:13:29.529 carrying a massive stockpile of mustard gas. 00:13:29.889 --> 00:13:32.330 When the ship was destroyed, the mustard gas 00:13:32.330 --> 00:13:35.009 was released into the water and the air. It was 00:13:35.009 --> 00:13:38.879 a chaotic disaster. 83 people were killed and 00:13:38.879 --> 00:13:41.700 628 were hospitalized. And this is where the 00:13:41.700 --> 00:13:43.899 medical observation happens. Right. The doctors 00:13:43.899 --> 00:13:46.500 treating the survivors of the Bari disaster noticed 00:13:46.500 --> 00:13:49.700 the exact same phenomenon that the autopsy doctors 00:13:49.700 --> 00:13:53.419 had seen in 1919. A massive plunge in the victim's 00:13:53.419 --> 00:13:55.720 white blood cell counts. Yes. This is the light 00:13:55.720 --> 00:13:58.000 bulb moment. The medical teams are looking at 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:01.220 these crashing white blood cell numbers and realizing 00:14:01.500 --> 00:14:04.480 This chemical does something very specific to 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:06.639 the body's ability to produce these cells. If 00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:08.759 we connect this to the bigger picture, it is 00:14:08.759 --> 00:14:11.259 one of the most brilliant syntheses in medical 00:14:11.259 --> 00:14:13.539 history. How so? Remember that chemical wrench 00:14:13.539 --> 00:14:15.460 we talked about earlier? The one that hunts down 00:14:15.460 --> 00:14:18.179 DNA, damages it, and stops the cell from dividing. 00:14:18.779 --> 00:14:21.240 The exact mechanism that makes it a weapon. Yes. 00:14:21.679 --> 00:14:24.519 The scientists at Yale realized... That cancer 00:14:24.519 --> 00:14:27.120 fundamentally is just a problem of unchecked 00:14:27.120 --> 00:14:29.940 rapid cell division. Right. So if mustard agents 00:14:29.940 --> 00:14:32.639 are so incredibly effective at throwing a wrench 00:14:32.639 --> 00:14:34.899 into cell division and destroying white blood 00:14:34.899 --> 00:14:37.279 cells, perhaps they could be used intentionally 00:14:37.279 --> 00:14:39.960 to destroy out -of -control white blood cells. 00:14:40.120 --> 00:14:42.360 Like the kind you see in lymphoma or leukemia? 00:14:42.539 --> 00:14:45.159 That is just incredible. They focused on a related 00:14:45.159 --> 00:14:47.759 compound called nitrogen mustard, specifically 00:14:47.759 --> 00:14:50.889 one known as HN2. And what happened? In December 00:14:50.889 --> 00:14:54.169 of 1942, this compound was secretly administered 00:14:54.169 --> 00:14:56.809 to a human patient with lymphoma, and it worked. 00:14:57.250 --> 00:15:00.929 HN2, which is also known as chormethine or meclorethamine, 00:15:01.490 --> 00:15:04.409 became the very first cancer chemotherapy drug. 00:15:04.470 --> 00:15:07.149 It really did. The foundation of modern oncology. 00:15:07.309 --> 00:15:09.649 A field of medicine that has saved countless 00:15:09.649 --> 00:15:12.649 millions of lives worldwide was born directly 00:15:12.649 --> 00:15:15.769 from the horrors of World War I autopsies and 00:15:15.769 --> 00:15:18.269 a bomb ship in World War II. It's hard to wrap 00:15:18.269 --> 00:15:21.090 your head around. Chemotherapy is, quite literally, 00:15:21.340 --> 00:15:24.559 a chemical weapon repurposed to fight the war 00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:27.159 inside the human body. By targeting those rapidly 00:15:27.159 --> 00:15:29.559 dividing cancer cells. It's a profound realization. 00:15:29.860 --> 00:15:31.840 And while chloromethene has largely been replaced 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:34.440 by safer chemotherapy drugs today, the whole 00:15:34.440 --> 00:15:36.779 mechanism of using toxic compounds to target 00:15:36.779 --> 00:15:39.519 rapidly dividing cancer cells all started with 00:15:39.519 --> 00:15:41.820 the study of mustard gas. So what does this all 00:15:41.820 --> 00:15:44.679 mean for us today? Well, we have this miraculous 00:15:44.679 --> 00:15:47.629 medical legacy. But we also have to deal with 00:15:47.629 --> 00:15:49.789 the physical legacy of the weapons themselves. 00:15:49.990 --> 00:15:51.710 Right, you don't just throw away thousands of 00:15:51.710 --> 00:15:54.750 tons of mustard gas. Actually, for decades, that's 00:15:54.750 --> 00:15:57.190 almost exactly what they did. Wait, really? The 00:15:57.190 --> 00:15:59.429 disposal methods were almost as hazardous as 00:15:59.429 --> 00:16:02.009 the weapons themselves. The primary solution 00:16:02.009 --> 00:16:05.309 after World War II was ocean dumping. Just putting 00:16:05.309 --> 00:16:08.149 it on ships and tossing it overboard? Yes. For 00:16:08.149 --> 00:16:11.730 instance, in 1946, Canada took 10 ,000 drums 00:16:11.730 --> 00:16:16.899 of mustard gas. That's 2 ,800 tons. They loaded 00:16:16.899 --> 00:16:20.620 them onto 187 boxcars and then buried them at 00:16:20.620 --> 00:16:23.320 sea on a barge 40 miles south of Sable Island. 00:16:23.580 --> 00:16:26.179 And the U .S. did this too. The U .S. Army created 00:16:26.179 --> 00:16:29.100 at least 26 chemical weapons dumping sites in 00:16:29.100 --> 00:16:31.600 the ocean off the coast of at least 11 different 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:33.799 states. When did they stop doing that? It wasn't 00:16:33.799 --> 00:16:36.940 until 1972 that the U .S. Congress finally banned 00:16:36.940 --> 00:16:39.720 the practice of ocean disposal. The consequences 00:16:39.720 --> 00:16:41.679 of that dumping are still washing up on our shores 00:16:41.679 --> 00:16:44.320 today. There is a detail from the text that is 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:47.240 genuinely terrifying. The Baltic Sea Amber. Yes. 00:16:47.840 --> 00:16:50.580 After World War II, Germany dumped a massive 00:16:50.580 --> 00:16:53.059 amount of weapons into the Baltic Sea. Among 00:16:53.059 --> 00:16:55.940 these were weapons called Spruebuch 37. Which 00:16:55.940 --> 00:16:58.580 were essentially spray cans. Right. But these 00:16:58.580 --> 00:17:01.580 cans contain mustard gas mixed with a thickener. 00:17:01.659 --> 00:17:04.619 giving it the consistency of tar. And when those 00:17:04.619 --> 00:17:07.980 specific weapons sit in seawater, only the outer 00:17:07.980 --> 00:17:10.799 layer of that viscous mustard agent hydrolyzes. 00:17:10.900 --> 00:17:12.900 Meaning it reacts with the water and breaks down. 00:17:13.079 --> 00:17:15.839 Exactly. That leaves a hardened amber -colored 00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:18.500 crust on the outside. But inside that crust, 00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:20.640 the enclosed mustard gas is perfectly preserved. 00:17:20.839 --> 00:17:22.940 It's completely active and just as lethal as 00:17:22.940 --> 00:17:25.119 the day it was manufactured. And they look exactly 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:28.380 like lumps of natural amber. To this day, fishermen 00:17:28.380 --> 00:17:30.759 in the Baltic Sea will pull these lumps up in 00:17:30.759 --> 00:17:33.180 their dragnets. Thinking it's amber. Yeah, they 00:17:33.180 --> 00:17:34.660 think it's amber. They might grab it with their 00:17:34.660 --> 00:17:37.039 bare hands or accidentally break it open. And 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:39.200 the moment that crust breaks, they're exposed 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:43.519 to fully active decades -old mustard gas. The 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:47.160 source notes that between 1966 and 2002, fishermen 00:17:47.160 --> 00:17:49.960 in the Bornholm region found about 700 chemical 00:17:49.960 --> 00:17:53.339 weapons, mostly containing mustard gas. In 2010, 00:17:53.700 --> 00:17:56.299 a clamming boat off Long Island, New York, pulled 00:17:56.299 --> 00:17:59.619 up World War I shells. The fishermen had to be 00:17:59.619 --> 00:18:02.240 hospitalized with severe blistering and respiratory 00:18:02.240 --> 00:18:05.299 irritation. It is a lingering environmental minefield. 00:18:05.460 --> 00:18:08.380 Thankfully, there is a cleanup effort. The Chemical 00:18:08.380 --> 00:18:11.500 Weapons Convention of 1993 banned the development, 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:13.519 production, and stockpiling of these agents. 00:18:13.720 --> 00:18:16.700 And there has been a massive global effort to 00:18:16.700 --> 00:18:19.400 destroy the remaining stockpiles safely, usually 00:18:19.400 --> 00:18:21.799 through incineration or chemical neutralization. 00:18:21.980 --> 00:18:24.299 But it takes a remarkably long time to execute 00:18:24.299 --> 00:18:27.019 that cleanup. India declared its stockpiles and 00:18:27.019 --> 00:18:29.819 managed to destroy them by 2009. And the United 00:18:29.819 --> 00:18:32.240 States. The U .S. only just destroyed its final 00:18:32.240 --> 00:18:34.980 declared stockpile of mustard weapons on June 00:18:34.980 --> 00:18:38.759 22, 2023. at the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado. 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:41.740 That is over a century after the weapon was first 00:18:41.740 --> 00:18:44.000 used in the trenches of Ypres. Over a century. 00:18:44.240 --> 00:18:46.960 And even with the declared stockpiles gone, the 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:49.220 unexploded shells remain scattered across the 00:18:49.220 --> 00:18:50.960 globe. Right. They're still being found on farms 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:55.000 in Belgium. In 2014, they found 200 bombs meant 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:56.750 for the Battle of Passchendaele. They're found 00:18:56.750 --> 00:18:59.049 during mining surveys in Queensland, Australia. 00:18:59.349 --> 00:19:01.430 They were even found buried in a residential 00:19:01.430 --> 00:19:04.130 neighborhood in Washington, D .C. In a residential 00:19:04.130 --> 00:19:06.589 neighborhood. Yes. And that cleanup wasn't completed 00:19:06.589 --> 00:19:10.089 until 2021. Wow. Let's take a step back and look 00:19:10.089 --> 00:19:12.190 at the incredible arc we've covered today. It 00:19:12.190 --> 00:19:15.309 really is vast. We started with a harmless looking 00:19:15.309 --> 00:19:18.369 liquid synthesized by accident in a 19th century 00:19:18.369 --> 00:19:21.769 lab. We watched it become a horrific area denial 00:19:21.769 --> 00:19:24.509 weapon in the muddy trenches of World War One. 00:19:24.599 --> 00:19:28.380 We covered the secretive race -based human testing 00:19:28.380 --> 00:19:31.279 during World War II. And then that unbelievable 00:19:31.279 --> 00:19:33.779 pivot where the suppression of white blood cells 00:19:33.779 --> 00:19:36.400 led to the miraculous birth of cancer chemotherapy. 00:19:36.619 --> 00:19:39.579 And finally, we confronted the reality that this 00:19:39.579 --> 00:19:41.859 environmental hazard is still lurking in our 00:19:41.859 --> 00:19:44.279 oceans and buried under our cities today. It 00:19:44.279 --> 00:19:47.400 is a vast and complicated legacy. It is. And 00:19:47.400 --> 00:19:49.660 I want to leave you with one final forward -looking 00:19:49.660 --> 00:19:52.019 concept from the source material to ponder on 00:19:52.019 --> 00:19:54.900 your own. What's that? While the massive warehouse 00:19:54.900 --> 00:19:57.559 -sized stockpiles have finally been destroyed, 00:19:58.039 --> 00:20:00.339 the invisible remnants of this agent remain in 00:20:00.339 --> 00:20:03.859 the soil and the water. To combat this, scientists 00:20:03.859 --> 00:20:05.920 are currently developing tutting -edge technology. 00:20:05.900 --> 00:20:10.000 Like what? It's a portable immunochromatographic 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:12.470 assay. What exactly does that do in the field? 00:20:12.609 --> 00:20:15.470 It is a highly sensitive diagnostic tool. It's 00:20:15.470 --> 00:20:18.470 similar in design to a rapid test that's specifically 00:20:18.470 --> 00:20:22.230 engineered to detect microscopic, oxidized degradation 00:20:22.230 --> 00:20:24.930 products of sulfur mustard right there in the 00:20:24.930 --> 00:20:27.450 soil. So you don't have to wait for a lab. Exactly. 00:20:27.730 --> 00:20:31.069 It eliminates the need for expensive, time -consuming 00:20:31.069 --> 00:20:34.589 lab tests. It allows teams to instantly read 00:20:34.589 --> 00:20:37.150 the presence of these toxic metabolites. That's 00:20:37.150 --> 00:20:39.009 incredible. It's a profound realization when 00:20:39.009 --> 00:20:41.490 you think about it. The chemical war isn't actually 00:20:41.490 --> 00:20:43.869 over. It has just shifted from the battlefield 00:20:43.869 --> 00:20:47.109 to the molecular level. Wow. Today we are using 00:20:47.109 --> 00:20:49.549 advanced science to hunt down the microscopic 00:20:49.549 --> 00:20:52.829 ghosts of World War I, ensuring we protect unsuspecting 00:20:52.829 --> 00:20:55.029 civilians before these silent remnants can find 00:20:55.029 --> 00:20:57.809 them. Hunting down the microscopic ghosts of 00:20:57.809 --> 00:21:00.559 World War I. That is a powerful thought. It really 00:21:00.559 --> 00:21:02.380 is. Thank you so much for joining us on this 00:21:02.380 --> 00:21:04.680 deep dive today. We hope exploring these sources 00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:06.920 has given you a whole new perspective on the 00:21:06.920 --> 00:21:09.779 history beneath our feet and the unexpected origins 00:21:09.779 --> 00:21:12.339 of the medicines in our hospitals. It's been 00:21:12.339 --> 00:21:14.700 a journey. Keep questioning the history of the 00:21:14.700 --> 00:21:16.799 world around you and we'll see you next time.