Editing Incapacitating agent (section)

{{Short description|Non-lethal chemical or biological weapon}}
{{Chemical agents sidebar}}
'''Incapacitating agent''' is a chemical or biological agent which renders a person unable to harm themselves or others, regardless of [[consciousness]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/glossary.html|title=CDC - The Emergency Response Safety and Health Database: Glossary - NIOSH|website=www.cdc.gov|language=en-us|access-date=2017-02-15}}</ref>

[[Lethal]] agents are primarily intended to kill, but incapacitating agents can also kill if administered in a potent enough dose, or in certain scenarios.

The term "incapacitation," when used in a general sense, is not equivalent to the term "disability" as used in occupational medicine and denotes the inability to perform a task because of a quantifiable physical or mental impairment. In this sense, any of the [[chemical warfare]] agents may incapacitate a victim; however, by the military definition of this type of agent, incapacitation refers to impairments that are temporary and nonlethal. Thus, [[Riot control|riot-control]] agents are incapacitating because they cause temporary loss of vision due to [[blepharospasm]], but they are not considered military incapacitants because the loss of vision does not last long. Although incapacitation may result from physiological changes such as [[mucous membrane]] irritation, [[diarrhea]], or [[hyperthermia]], the term "incapacitating agent" as militarily defined refers to a compound that produces temporary and nonlethal impairment of military performance by virtue of its psychobehavioral or [[central nervous system|CNS]] effects.

In [[biological warfare]], a distinction is also made between [[bio-agent]]s as '''Lethal Agents''' (e.g., ''[[Bacillus anthracis]]'', ''[[Francisella tularensis]]'', [[Botulinum toxin]]) or '''Incapacitating Agents''' (e.g., ''[[Brucella suis]]'', ''[[Coxiella burnetii]]'', [[Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus]], [[Staphylococcal enterotoxin B]]).<ref>Dembek, Zygmunt (editor), [http://www.cs.amedd.army.mil/borden/Portlet.aspx?ID=66cffe45-c1b8-4453-91e0-9275007fd157 ''Medical Aspects of Biological Warfare''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925233503/https://www.cs.amedd.army.mil/borden/Portlet.aspx?ID=66cffe45-c1b8-4453-91e0-9275007fd157 |date=2021-09-25 }}; Washington, DC: [[Borden Institute]] (2007), pg 5.</ref>