injuries and poisoning
Toxins as Weapons
Introduction
"Toxin" is often loosely used to refer to any poison but technically refers only to a poisonous chemical produced by an organism (although some toxins can now also be produced synthetically). Because toxins used as Overview of Incidents Involving Mass-Casualty Weapons do not include the infectious agents from which they are derived, they are not transmissible from person to person. Thus, toxins are more like Hundreds of toxins are known. However, it is difficult to make large quantities of most toxins and hard to distribute toxins widely enough to affect many people. Thus, most toxins are more suited to assassination than to creating mass casualties. Only four toxins are considered high-threat agents by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Botulinum toxin Epsilon toxin fromClostridium perfringens Ricin toxin Staphylococcal enterotoxin B Of these, only botulinum toxin is classified among the highest-priority agents. Epsilon toxin fromC. perfringensis mainly of historical interest as an agent reportedly developed by Iraq in the 1980s. 