Nitrogen Mustard Agents (Hn-1, Hn-2 & Hn-3): Comparative Toxicity Profile with Sulphur Mustard

The whole world is virtually sitting on a landmine, ready to explode as terrorist worldwide are able to lay their hands on nuclear, biological and chemical agents for mass destruction. The most common chemical warfare agents are Mustard agents include various nitrogen mustards (HN-1, HN-2 & HN-3) and sulfur mustard. They are listed in the Chemical Weapon Convention (CWC), as schedule-1 compounds. Nitrogen mustards are the chemical weapons of historical and current interest. They were not used as chemical warfare agent so far. But they were stockpiled by several countries by the time of World War-II. There is no effective therapeutic or prophylactic therapy available against mustard agents even in this modern genomic era of medicine. In case of nitrogen mustards, its exact mechanism of toxic action is not known till today. Hence these agents are still attractive to developing nations and terrorist groups who do not have sufficient infrastructure to develop nuclear bomb or biological weapons. These weapons are also known as poor man?s nuclear bomb and development of effective antidote against such warfare agents is the need of present time.