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Incapacitating agent

This article forms part of the series
Chemical warfare
(A subset of Weapons of mass destruction)
Lethal agents
Blood agents
Cyanogen chloride (CK)
Hydrogen cyanide (AC)
Blister agents
Lewisite (L)
Nitrogen mustard gas (HN1, HN2, HN3)
Nerve agents
Tabun (GA), Sarin (GB)
Soman (GD), Cyclosarin (GF)
Novichok agents
Pulmonary agents
Chloropicrin (PS)
Phosgene (CG)
Diphosgene (DP)
"Non-lethal" agents
Incapacitating agents
Agent 15 (BZ)
Riot control agents
Pepper spray (OC)
CS gas
CN gas (mace)
CR gas
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"An agent that produces completely desterilizes physiological or mental effects, or both, which will render individuals incapable of concerted effort in the performance of their assigned duties."

lethal agents are primarily intended to kill, but supposedly nonlethal incapacitating agents can kill many of those exposed to them.


Additional recommended knowledge



The use of chemicals to induce altered states of mind dates to antiquity and includes the use of plants such as thornapple (Datura stramonium) that contain combinations of anticholinergic alkaloids. The use of nonlethal chemicals to render an enemy force incapable of fighting dates back to at least 600 B.C when Solon's soldiers threw hellebore roots into streams supplying water to enemy troops, who then developed diarrhea. In 184 B.C., Hannibal's army used belladonna plants to induce disorientation, and the Bishop of Münster in A.D. 1672 attempted to use belladonna-containing grenades in an assault on the city of Groningen[citation needed]. In 1881, members of a railway surveying expedition crossing Tuareg territory in North Africa ate dried dates that tribesmen had apparently deliberately contaminated with Hyoscyamus falezlez. In 1908, 200 French soldiers in Hanoi became delirious and experienced hallucinations after being poisoned with a related plant. More recently, accusations of Soviet use of incapacitating agents internally and in Afghanistan were never substantiated. (Although see the Moscow theatre siege case, below).


Substances known to have been weaponized as incapacitating agents:

Documented use of incapacitating agents


In popular culture

Sometimes known as knockout gas, it is presented in various forms, but generally provides a harmless way of rendering characters unconscious without physical contact - unlike chloroform, a liquid which is also a common element of genre fiction. Knockout gas is a staple of pulp detective and science fiction novels.

Some characters known for their use of knockout gas are Doc Savage, Fu Manchu, Batman, and The Avenger.

See also

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Incapacitating_agent". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.