TYPE OF AGENT – Lacrimatory

NAME (CHEMICAL) – Chloracetone

NAME (COMMON) – Chloroacetone,  Tonite (French)

MOLECULAR FORMULA – C₃H₅ClO

MOLECULAR WEIGHT – 92.52 g/mol

PHYSICAL STATE @ 20° C. (68° F.)  – Liquid

VAPOR DENSITY (AIR = 1.0) – 3.7

FLASH POINT – 32° C. (90° F.)

FREEZING/MELTING POINT – -44.5° C. (-48° F.)

BOILING POINT – 119° C. (246° F.)

LIQUID DENSITY – 1.123 g/cc

VAPOR PRESSURE (mm/Hg) – 12 mm/Hg

ODOR – Pungent

APPEARANCE – Clear or amber liquid, turns dark on exposure to light

SOLUBILITY – 124 g/L @ 20° C. (68° F.)

MEDIAN INCAPACITATING DOSAGE (ID50) – 0.018 mg/L, 0.10 mg/L intolerable after 1 minute

MEDIAN LETHAL DOSAGE (LD50) – 2.30 mg/L for 10 minutes exposure

PERSISTENCY – 8 hours up to 2 days in environment

INHALATION TOXICITY – Highly irritating, fatal from large exposures

SKIN TOXICITY – Irritating, can cause skin burns

EYE TOXICITY – Highly irritating

RATE OF ACTION – Very rapid

SYMPTOMS (PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION) – Redness and watering of the eyes with pain, may cause blisters on skin along with redness and pain, sore throat, cough, burning sensation in lungs, shortness of breath

TREATMENT – Remove from contaminated area, wash out eyes with water, wash exposed skin with soap and water, supplemental oxygen in needed

PROTECTION –Gas mask

DECONTAMINATION – Soak up agent in absorbent material and dispose in sealed container

USE – artillery shells, grenades

    This was the more easily produced lacrimatory that replaced ethylbromoacetate in French military tear gas grenades. It is easily produced by the chlorination of acetone and does not require the more costly, and less available, Bromine. It can create explosive concentrations in air, but that danger was not considered detracting from its military usefulness. Even early style gas masks proved to be adequate troop protection from Chloroacetone. Along with Bromoacetone and other agents having proved to be better tear gases in the trenches, by later in 1915, Chloroacetone had been replaced.