Chemical Agent Identification Sets (CAIS), known by several other names, were sets of glass vials or bottles that contained small amounts of chemical agents. They were employed by all branches of the United States Armed Forces

Military of the United States

The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...

 from 1928-1969 for the purpose of training in detection, handling and familiarization with chemical warfare

Chemical warfare

Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. This type of warfare is distinct from Nuclear warfare and Biological warfare, which together make up NBC, the military acronym for Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical...

. Most CAIS were destroyed in the 1980s but the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency still occasionally demilitarizes CAIS that are found buried.

Nomenclature

Throughout the military's use of CAIS they were known by several different common names aside from Chemical Agent Identification Sets. The other names were: Toxic Gas Sets, Chemical Agent Identification Training Sets, Instructional War Gas Identification Sets, Detonation War Gas Identification Sets, and Instructional Gas Identification Replacement Sets.

General history

CAIS were used by all branches of the United States military for training in detection, handling and familiarization with chemical warfare agents between the 1930s and 1960s. The U.S. Army used CAIS to train its soldiers from 1928 until 1969. During this time period more than 100,000 CAIS units were produced by all branches of the military. CAIS were declared obsolete in 1971 and systematically recalled from military installations during two operations. The first recall operation, Operation Set Consolidation I (SETCON I), was in 1978; SETCON II followed on in 1980.

Specifications

Chemical Agent Identification Sets were small glass vials, ampules or bottles which contained small amounts of chemical warfare agents or industrial chemicals. Each set contained more than two dozen glass ampules, each ampule contained about 100 milliliters of chemical agent. There were three subsets of CAIS, distributed in 18 different set configurations. These subsets included bottles of sulfur mustard

Sulfur mustard

The sulfur mustards, or sulphur mustards, commonly known as mustard gas, are a class of related cytotoxic, vesicant chemical warfare agents with the ability to form large blisters on exposed skin. Pure sulfur mustards are colorless, viscous liquids at room temperature...

 used to purposely contaminate equipment or terrain for decontamination

Decontamination

Decontamination is the process of cleansing the human body to remove contamination by hazardous materials including chemicals, radioactive substances, and infectious material...

 training. Another type of CAIS were known as "sniff sets" and were used to train soldiers to recognize the color and odor of chemical agents. Used indoors, the sniff sets contained agent-impregnated charcoal and agent simulants; they contained very little actual chemical warfare agent.

Chemical agents

Each of the CAIS held between one and five different chemical agents. The agents used in CAIS were phosgene

Phosgene

Phosgene is the chemical compound with the formula COCl2. This colorless gas gained infamy as a chemical weapon during World War I. It is also a valued industrial reagent and building block in synthesis of pharmaceuticals and other organic compounds. In low concentrations, its odor resembles...

, adamsite

Adamsite

Adamsite or DM is an organic compound; technically, an arsenical diphenylaminechlorarsine, that can be used as a riot control agent. DM belongs to the group of chemical warfare agents known as vomiting agents or sneeze gases...

, lewisite

Lewisite

Lewisite is an organoarsenic compound, specifically an arsine. It was once manufactured in the U.S. and Japan as a chemical weapon, acting as a vesicant and lung irritant...

, cyanogen chloride

Cyanogen chloride

Cyanogen chloride is an inorganic compound with the formula NCCl. This linear, triatomic pseudohalogen is an easily condensed colorless gas. More commonly encountered in the laboratory is the related compound cyanogen bromide, a room-temperature solid that is widely used in biochemical analysis and...

, chloroacetophenone, sarin

Sarin

Sarin, or GB, is an organophosphorus compound with the formula [2CHO]CH3PF. It is a colorless, odorless liquid, which is used as a chemical weapon. It has been classified as a weapon of mass destruction in UN Resolution 687...

, nitrogen mustard

Nitrogen mustard

The nitrogen mustards are cytotoxic chemotherapy agents similar to mustard gas. Although their common use is medicinal, in principle these compounds can also be deployed as chemical warfare agents. Nitrogen mustards are nonspecific DNA alkylating agents. Nitrogen mustard gas was stockpiled by...

, sulfur mustard and chloropicrin

Chloropicrin

Chloropicrin, also known as PS, is a chemical compound with the structural formula Cl3CNO2. This colourless highly toxic liquid was once used in chemical warfare and is currently used as a fumigant and nematocide.-History:...

. In addition, triphosgene

Triphosgene

Triphosgene is a chemical compound that is used as a safer substitute for phosgene, because at room temperature it is a solid crystal, as opposed to phosgene which is a gas. Triphosgene crystals decompose at around 130 °C, although, the decomposition temperature of impure samples can be much lower...

, a phosgene simulant, and ethyl malonate, a tabun

Tabun (nerve agent)

Tabun or GA is an extremely toxic chemical substance. It is a clear, colorless, and tasteless liquid with a faint fruity odor. It is classified as a nerve agent because it fatally interferes with normal functioning of the mammalian nervous system...

 simulant were also used. Sarin was the only nerve agent

Nerve agent

Nerve agents are a class of phosphorus-containing organic chemicals that disrupt the mechanism by which nerves transfer messages to organs...

 used in CAIS.

Disposal programs

Following the recall operations of the late 1970s and early 1980s, 21,400 CAIS were sent to Rocky Mountain Arsenal

Rocky Mountain Arsenal

The Rocky Mountain Arsenal was a United States chemical weapons manufacturing center located in the Denver Metropolitan Area in Commerce City, Colorado...

 where they were destroyed by incineration

Incineration

Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of organic substances contained in waste materials. Incineration and other high temperature waste treatment systems are described as "thermal treatment". Incineration of waste materials converts the waste into ash, flue gas, and...

. The destroyed CAIS represented the entire stockpile then in storage. This initial disposal took place from May-October 1979 and again from May 1981-December 1982.

Though the stockpile of CAIS were destroyed decades ago, there remained the problem of what to do with CAIS found buried underground. Most of the other 80,000 or so CAIS were used during training but some were disposed of, the primary method of disposal was burial. The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency was assigned the task of destroying CAIS as they were found, usually through ongoing construction projects. When CAIS items are found the Chemical Materials Agency's Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Project (NSCMP) is tasked to destroy them via one of two mobile treatment systems.

External links

• U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency, Non-Stockpile Chemical Materiel Project (NSCMP)