Death by Mustard Gas

Download or read book Death by Mustard Gas written by Geoff Plunkett and published by . This book was released on 2014-10-10 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1943 a top secret consignment of chemical weapons, includingdeadly mustard gas, arrived in Australia by ship. But there wasa problem -- it was leaking. Military authorities quickly realisedthis but, in the interests of secrecy, sent unprotected andunsuspecting wharf labourers into a lethal environment. The resultwas catastrophic: permanent disability and death. This shockingnarrative includes accounts of official deceit, intimidation ofgassed labourers and denial of natural justice. The truth, buriedin classified documents and the testimony of the few survivors, isthat human life was sacrificed for the sake of secrecy.Almost 70 years after war stocks of chemical weapons wereapparently totally destroyed, mustard gas is still present on theAustralian mainland, in her oceans and along her coastal fringes.The total destruction of chemical stocks is simply anothermilitary assumption. The truth is that these deadly weapons wereincompletely destroyed, buried or simply lost. Many retain theireffectiveness despite the passing of time, a fact that cost oneman his life and saw staff and children at a school badly burned.Mustard gas weapons have been retrieved as recently as 2012and more may lie in shallow graves waiting to be