The Respiratory System
and How It Is Effected By Gases
The respiratory system is a system found in mammals that allows them to breathe. It is a collection of organs, and muscles that's main job is to take in oxygen. The secondary function is to remove the waste gases produced in the body such as carbon dioxide. Some of the parts involved in the respiratory system are the nose, mouth and lungs. And, it may seem like it is, but the esophagus is not a part of the respiratory system. The nose and mouth are used to take in air and the lungs take that air in and then remove the carbon dioxide. These are only a few of the many pieces that allow us to breathe and if you want to learn more, here is a website dedicated to the lungs and respiratory system, click here.
Gases can affect the respiratory system in different ways depending on the gas. There are many different kinds of gases, but the main ones used in WWI were chlorine and mustard gases. The chlorine gas, if breathed in, would damage the respiratory tract and cause the victim to choke, which allowed for chlorine gas to be classified as a choking gas along with phosgene and diphosgene, two other gases used in WWI. The other type of gas was mustard gas. It wasn't really a gas, but it was considered one. The mustard gas was a blistering gas, meaning that it would only cause severe irritation, and it was only lethal in large amounts, but it did incapacitate the enemy. If breathed in the effects were even worse as they would happen on both the inside and outside of the body, and it would cause more serious effects to the respiratory system like swelling of the tracts, causing suffocation.
By: Matt R.