By the 18th Century the Textile Industry demanded high quantities of chemicals for dyes, soaps and processing the materials. Production of the vital sulphuric acid had begun on an industrial scale and by the 19th Century it was a major export earner for the UK.
Chlorine production had also begun in France and its bleaching properties were also utilised in the UK Textile industry.
In the 19th Century soda production using salt and sulphuric acid began to have environmental effects in the UK but by then the industry was of such great importance that the environmental damage, at first falsely blamed on sea winds, became an acceptable price for commercial success. Much the same approach as we see today.
Large scale phosphorus production began in the UK in the 19th Century and its use in match production and for military purposes heralded the beginning of a horrific tale of human misery. The injuries to the match makers and deaths by deliberate or accidental ingestion of phosphorus are legendary. Eventually Phosphorus ceased to be used in matchmaking but the deaths it was to cause did not stop there.
Carl Von Clausewitz declared that war was simply a continuation of
commercial competition and the 20th Century saw how the politics of war
was dependent on the interests of big business.
The two World Wars brought with them a revolution in the way that the
chemical Industry developed and with them they brought new ways for
man to inflict death on his fellow man.
The trenches of the First World War saw the first use of chemical gas in battle and it became some of the most feared of weapons. This triggered more research on both sides and provided the means to rapidly advance scientific knowledge.
The organochlorine DDT became the most common insecticide used around the world and it brought relief to millions from a variety of insect pests from bed bugs to malaria carrying mosquitoes. Government Ministers were even filmed eating DDT with a spoon to demonstrate the safety of the chemical to African tribesmen.
During the Second World War a more sinister use for chemicals was found
in the gas chambers of the concentration camps.
When the allies defeated the German army they discovered massive stocks
of deadly chemical weapons and they realised the value of the research
done by the Nazis.
We may never know what really happened after that discovery but reports
suggest that the British were still clearing nerve gas weapons from the
German sites late into the 20th Century.
Perhaps more worryingly given the condemnation of the Nazi human
experiments recent reports suggest that the scientists involved became
part of the allied scientific establishment so that the full benefit of
their knowledge could be utilised.
We are told that the valuable chemical stocks were destroyed but is this
really what happened?
From the German chemical War Machine was born many of the chemical companies which then produced pesticides used in agriculture.
It is clear that the UK chemical firm ICI was deeply involved in the
experiments from which the chemical weapon "V" agents were evolved.
The UK had signed treaties prohibiting the development of nerve gas for
war but ICI apparently shared equipment and resources at the defence
centre at Nancecuke and they were party to the production of the
deadly VX gas.
At this time Western Governments were experimenting with biological
weapons and means to protect troops from them. They needed to know
how such weapons would react in the real world and they decided to
experiment on their own people.
Reports and evidence available indicate that a variety of dangerous
bacterial organisms were released by the Ministry of Defence on the
unsuspecting public.
Reports suggest that the streets of capital cities became the
play ground of the Ministry researchers as they released bacteria on
the streets from specially modified cars and through the underground
systems.
Brucellosis was reportedly released from Ministry vessels around
the coast of Britain and the early eradication areas illustrate
that the plume effects expected from the prevailing winds
determined the areas infected. Sadly animals and people are moved in
and out of those areas regularly and soon almost the entire British
Isles had to be cleared of the disease by a vaccination programme.
The famous anthrax release in the Western Isles of Scotland left an island contaminated for most of the second half of the last century and there is evidence that E.coli was released in a trial off of the south coast of England. While the authorities claim that the bacteria had been neutralised few believe that they would have needed protective clothing and culture plates with which to grow the bacteria if this statement was true.
In the UK in 1951 warnings of the dangers involved for humans who used organophosphate pesticides were issued. The advice was that hospitals should be informed even before spraying operations began so that they would be prepared should anyone be harmed by the "DEADLY POISONS".
This did not stop the march to develop the chemicals for greater use.
In co-operation with Porton Down and counterparts in the USA at
Edgewood Arsenal large stocks of VX gas were produced.
ICI also developed a range of pesticides which had similar skin
penetrating properties at this time and they were in full use on farms
by the mid-70s.
In Vietnam the link between the pesticide companies and Government Defence systems became more clear with the use of Agent Orange in vain attempts to clear vast areas of countryside and expose the enemy.
Now the world began to see that the chemicals spread so liberally on
the land might not be as safe as the companies claimed.
The words of Rachel Carson in her 1960s book "Silent Spring" were seen
to have a more than expected ring of truth, despite the criticism she
faced.
Organochlorine pesticides were seen as too persistent in the
environment and the damage they were causing to the reproduction
systems of birds in particular resulted in a determined effort to rid
the world of DDT and its sister chemicals.
What was to take its place?
There was one clear and cheap alternative already being mass produced.
It had the advantage that in time of war the production plants could easily be converted for the production of deadly nerve gas.
The organophosphorus pesticide group now came into its own and they
took the place of DDT and the organochlorines with frightening ease.
New formulations enabled the OP compounds to persist for longer in the
environment so making them more useful to agriculture.
The warnings of 1951 were forgotten until sheep farmers, grain and
wool workers and the men acting as ground markers for crop spraying
aircraft began to report adverse reactions to the chemicals.
Now the Government was in a fix because it had scrapped plans drawn up
in the 1970s to restrict the use of such dangerous chemicals in the
hope to reduce the rising costs of food under the EU Common
Agricultural Policy.
Worse still they had licensed the chemicals as safe, despite the
evidence to the contrary which they had known for years.
Denial followed denial and those who were poisoned faced an impossible
task in fighting against the Government machine.
Injured victims fond themselves being examined by men with links to the
Defence nerve gas production and testing teams.
Still denial followed greater denial but the victims came forward in
ever increasing numbers.
Then came the Gulf War and reports that soldiers and civilians alike
had been exposed to a variety of Nerve agents including VX and
pesticides. At first the UK Government denied such exposures.
Then they had to admit to giving misleading information but insisted
that the symptoms experienced by the troops were unrelated to the
chemicals.
Thoughts turned to the preventative treatments given to the troops which, if given at the wrong times, can cause as many health problems as they can prevent.
Again the denials came thick and fast but interestingly at the same time the USA was destroying its well protected stocks of expensively developed VX gas.
Rumour has it that such gas was deployed in the Gulf war - just as had
been almost every other modern weapon devised by man.
Is it a coincidence? Or did they discover the true dangers from OPs?
Meanwhile the fight for recognition of OP poisoning still goes on against the combined might of Governments and their masters in the chemical industry.
But a new and possibly more deadly form of chemical warfare has begun.
Genetically Modified Crops are trumpeted as the means to save a
starving world.
Forget the fact that farmers in Western Countries are being paid
not to grow crops on perfectly good land and encouraged to diversify
into enterprises other than food production.
Forget too that the majority of the GM crops developed to date are not
for the third world farmers but simply to increase sales of a
particular group of OP herbicides.
What is important here is the "Control Factor".
The way things are moving it is clear that the intention is to control
the supply of seeds to the world and then to permit those countries who
are willing to cooperate with the aims of the Government selling the
seed to have a harvest after all their labours.
Those countries who cause difficulties or who refuse to cooperate will
not receive the vital chemical ingredient which will allow the crop to
produce grain or fruit.
This is war without guns, gas or explosives.
It is not war without death but the cause is less obvious since crop failures are common in the natural world.
As OPs mimic natural disease, and have so far thus allowed the poisoners to escape, so will seemingly "natural" crop failures protect the companies and the self-appointed "global elite".
That is until the country growing the Genetically Modified seed has a serious crop failure.
Then those living in the Brave New World will starve just the same.
Dated 16/9/2000