CS's power is illustrated by its ability to cause severed animal muscle tissue to involuntarily contract. If it is simply poured on, regardless of concentration, its potency makes it more deadly rather than less. If breathed in a confined space, where one must inhale CS into the lungs if one is to inhale air into the lungs, the edema and capillary leakage will cause pneumonia and death. The lack of human volunteers for such death precludes determining the human lethal dose by experimentation. Among test animals, it has been shown to vary widely.
Guinea pigs die at half the dose necessary to kill rats or rabbits, for instance.
Other studies indicate that guinea pigs die at one-fifth the dose required to kill mice, and rabbits at half the dose required to kill rats. Punte, et al. A low dose for a longer period may be more lethal than a high dose for a short one. It was also obvious that there are individual variations. All rats and the majority of hamsters which died within 48 hours of exposure presented with moderately severe damage to the lungs and kidney.