Mustard gas can cause bodily damage and has been used primarily as a chemical weapon, during combat in World War I and World War II, and during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
Some Operation Iraqi Freedom Servicemembers who demolished or handled explosive ordinance may have been exposed to mustard agents.
Talk to your health care provider or local VA Environmental Health Coordinator if you have health concerns.
What mustard gas is
Mustard gas belongs to a class of organic compounds that include sulfur mustard (Yperite) and nitrogen mustard. Lewisite is an arsenic-containing agent in this class.
As gases, these agents appear yellow-brown in color and smell like mustard, garlic, or horseradish. In pure form at room temperature, they are thick and almost-odorless liquids.
Mustard gas experiments
In the 1940s, the Department of Defense recruited "volunteer soldier" subjects for experiments using mustard agents to evaluate clothing, ointments and equipment to protect American troops from mustard agent attacks.
- Nearly 60,000 military personnel were involved in a wide range of exposures, most of them participating in mild exposures (a drop of agent on the arm in "patch" tests).
- About 4,000 soldiers were subjected to severe, full-body exposures as a part of field exercises over contaminated ground areas.
Since the early 1990s, VA has conducted outreach efforts to reach Veterans identified by the Department of Defense as participants in these tests and inform them about their benefits.
If you are concerned about health problems associated with exposure to mustard gas during your military service, talk to your health care provider or local VA Environmental Health Coordinator.
Compensation benefits for health problems
Veterans may file a claim for disability compensation for health problems they believe are related to exposure to mustard gas during military service. VA decides these claims on a case-by-case basis. File a claim online.
Learn more about VA benefits.