COMPARISON OF SEVERAL OXIMES AGAINST POISONING BY SOMAN, TABUN AND GF

Three oximes currently being evaluated for adoption as replacement nerve agent therapy by various countries were compared for therapeutic efficacy against the toxic organophosphate inhibitors soman and tabun under a standard set of conditions. These oximes together with PAM-Cl and toxogonin, were also compared for efficacy against GF, an agent weaponized by Iraq. The order of effectiveness against soman was HI-6 > HLo-7 > pyrimidoxime. HLo-7 was very effective against tabun poisoning while HI-6 and pyrimidoxime were of moderate value. Against GF, HI-6 and HLo-7 were extremely effective, toxogonin was moderately effective, and PAM-Cl and pyrimidoxime were the least effective. HI-6 provided a high level of protection against all of the agents tested as did HLo-7 to a slightly lesser degree. The other oximes suffered from their lack of effects against one or more of the organophosphates.