According to a report by ABC News, UN weapons inspectors found six to eight vials of a dangerous nerve gas, phosgene, a potentially hazardous chemicals, which originates from an Iraqi chemical facility have been found in a UN building while cleaning the office. UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said, “discovered what was yesterday identified as gram quantity of certain liquid substances, including phosgene, …which could be potentially hazardous”
Phosgene is a highly toxic chemical compound with the formula COCl2.
This gas gained infamy as a chemical weapon during World War I, but it is also a valuable industrial reagent and building block in organic synthesis. It is colourless, but can appear as a white or yellowish haze when released into air, due to refraction of light. In low concentrations, its odor resembles recently cut hay or green corn (maize): at higher concentrations, it may be strongly unpleasant. In addition to its industrial production, small amounts occur naturally from the breakdown of chlorinated compounds and the combustion of chlorine-containing organic compounds.

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