TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - WARFARE AGENTS—BIOLOGICAL A1 - Durrani, Timur S. A2 - Olson, Kent R. A2 - Anderson, Ilene B. A2 - Benowitz, Neal L. A2 - Blanc, Paul D. A2 - Clark, Richard F. A2 - Kearney, Thomas E. A2 - Kim-Katz, Susan Y. A2 - Wu, Alan H. B. PY - 2018 T2 - Poisoning & Drug Overdose, 7e AB - Biological weapons have been used since antiquity, with documented cases dating back to the 6th century BC, when the Assyrians poisoned wells with ergots. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Japanese Army (Unit 731) experimented on prisoners of war in Manchuria with biological agents that are thought to have resulted in at least 10,000 deaths. Although in 1972 over 100 nations signed the Biological Weapons Convention, both the former Soviet Union and Iraq have admitted to the production of biological weapons, and many other countries are suspected of continuing their programs. Today, bioweapons are considered the cheapest and easiest weapons of mass destruction to produce. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/29 UR - accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1174607292 ER -