| Sarin is a German poison gas discovered in 1938. Properly known as isopropyl methyl phosphoro-fluoridate (or fluoroisoppropoxymethylphosphine oxide), it is the second of the original "nerve gases." Sarin is a slightly persistent gas. The danger of death from Sarin is over thirty times as great as that of phosgene, previously regarded as the most dangerous poison gas. One-tenth of a milligram of Sarin (equivalent to a particle the size of a large grain of sand) is enough to kill a child and three-quarters of a milligram is deadly to an adult. It has been estimated that some 250 tons would have to be distributed over a city the size of Paris to cause lethal concentrations up to an altitude of 50 feet. Over 7,000 tons of Sarin had been stockpiled. However, it is extremely difficult to mass-produce, and thus only a pilot plant existed by the war's end. No operational production was ever reached by Germany during the war. |