Agent causes pulmonary edema after inhalation and after skin contact. Some data suggest that CX may cause hemorrhagic inflammatory changes in the GI tract. This allows the red blood cells to acquire oxygen but prevents the transfer oxygen to other cells. Body tissue decays rapidly due to lack of oxygen and retention of carbon dioxide, first affecting the heart and then the brain. However, at high concentrations, cyanide kills quickly.
Cyanides are in liquid state in munitions but rapidly vaporize upon detonation of the munitions.
Japan allegedly used cyanide against China before and during WWII, and Iraq may have used cyanide against the Kurds in the 1980s. The widespread distribution of absorbed nerve agents and vesicants via the blood invalidates this term as a specific designator for cyanide. Cyanogen bromide was used briefly in World War I, but is of no present interest. After exposure to heavy dose, seizures, respiratory failure, and cardiac arrest appear. The organs most susceptible to cyanide are the central nervous system and the heart.