Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
White phosphorus is pyrophoric (it is ignited by contact with air); burns fiercely; and can ignite cloth, fuel, ammunition, and other combustibles. White phosphorus is a highly efficient smoke-producing agent, reacting with air to produce an immediate blanket of phosphorus pentoxide vapour.
People exposed to white phosphorus can suffer severe and sometimes deadly bone-deep burns. It can cause organs to shut down, and burns on just 10% of the body can be fatal, HRW said.
The Pentagon recommended providing the white phosphorus shells to Ukraine as part of several aid packages, including a recent one, as a Presidential Drawdown Authority, according to the officials.
Many incendiary weapons developed and deployed during World War II were in the form of bombs and shells whose main incendiary component is white phosphorus (WP), and can be used in an offensive anti-personnel role against enemy troop concentrations, but WP is also used for signalling, smoke screens, and target-marking purposes.
Russian phosphorus bombs. Adults were killed again, children were killed again". [1] At the end of the month, the deputy head of the Kyiv police reported about the shelling of Kramatorsk with incendiary shells with phosphorus. And in the media there were photos showing characteristic flashes over Kyiv.
What exactly does white phosphorus do? White phosphorus has multiple uses. It can be used for essentially signaling, obscuring, or marking. Or it can be used as a weapon that burns people and objects.
White phosphorus, yellow phosphorus, or simply tetraphosphorus (P 4) is an allotrope of phosphorus. It is a translucent waxy solid that quickly yellows in light (due to its photochemical conversion into red phosphorus ), [ 2 ] and impure white phosphorus is for this reason called yellow phosphorus.
It can cause “excruciating burns and lifelong suffering,” a Human Rights Watch spokesperson said. What is white phosphorus — and why is it so controversial? Israel accused of using it in Gaza