In the late ’thirties a German scientist, Gerald Schrader, discovered a group of organic phosphorus insecticides from which Parathion1 and Melathion were developed. The German Government immediately put a security blank over all this work, seeing the potential value of nerve gas as a weapon. They filmed the effect of them upon concentration-camp prisoners. The films and the research came into Allied hands during the war and the research was continued by UK, USSR and USA and still continues to be important as a military weapon.
There are many stories demonstrating the enormous potency of these poisons, like the crop-sprayer who reached his hand into a tank of it to retrieve a nozzle and was dead within twenty-four hours.
Dr Samuel Gershon and Dr F.H. Shaw (Departments of Pharmacology and Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia) reported in the Lancet on sixteen cases of schizophrenic symptoms, depression, blackouts, impaired memories and inability to concentrate among horticultural workers where this group of insecticides was used.
Organo-phosphorus compounds although they break down quickly have a dangerous tendency to ‘potentiate’ one another. That is to say, two tiny harmless amounts get together and make a lethal combination.
1 Parathion is a popular suicide drug.