Yet botulism toxin is one of the most toxic substances known. It acts by inhibiting nerve impulses and produces progressive paralysis, often leading to death if untreated. In biological warfare it could be dispersed as a toxic cloud. US experts say that although a terrorist could possibly sabotage food or water supplies with botulism toxin, a toxic cloud is a much more likely method of delivery. Gas masks would effectively keep out the toxin, and contaminated articles could be disinfected with bleach.
Victims suffer progressive paralysis from the head down but remain mentally alert.
First symptoms are drooping eyelids, dry mouth and throat, difficulty talking and swallowing, blurred and double vision. Muscle weakness progresses from the head down, eventually leading to paralysis of the muscles used for breathing. Fortunately there are antitoxins to combat it, based on horse serum and used after exposure. Antibiotics are not an effective treatment. Bubonic plague, another potential weapon of death in Saddam's arsenal, killed vast numbers of people in 14th-century Europe, Asia and Africa and was known as the Black Death.