Table 1.

Historical evolution

Year	Event	Reference no.
1822	A type of Mustard gas was developed by César-Mansuete Despretz, the Belgian scientist.	[8]
1860	Frederick Guthrie noted its blistering properties	[1,8]
1886	Victor Meyer produced pure sulfur mustard.	[1]
1917-1918	First use in World War I by the German army - along 10 days about 1 million sulfur mustard shells were poured on Belgian soldiers. 1.3-2.5 million people in Belgium and France and thousands of British soldiers were injured.	[1,8,10]
1919	Production of mustard gas in American factories reached 19 tons a day.	[7]
1925	Use of these agents was banned in Geneva Gas Protocol.	[8]
1935- 1936	Italy breached the Geneva Protocol treaty and used sulfur mustard gas against Ethiopia when conquering the Ethiopian plane.	[8]
1943	A cargo ship carrying a large amount of sulfur mustard exploded in the harbor of Bari, Italy. The gas was disseminated in the area injuring more than 600 people.	[1]
1937-1945	Japan used sulfur mustard gas against China.	[8,10]
1945-1948	A large amount of sulfur mustard was poured in the Baltic Sea. Exposure of Scandinavian fishermen to this agent resulted in development of skin blisters	[1]
1963-1967	Egypt used sulfur mustard bombs against Yemeni pro-monarchy supporters.	[1,8]
1983-1988	Iraq extensively used SM and nerve agents against Iran and injured more than 50,000 victims.	[8,9]
1988	Iraqi army killed 5,000 Iraqi civilians in Halabcheh using SM. In this attack, nerve agents like sarin were also used.	[1,8]