Containing chemical warfare: anti-gas measures for factory workers, health staff and the general population in Spain during the Rif War (1921-1927)

Medical History Unit, Medical School, University of Zaragoza, Spain

Abstract

Studies on chemical warfare have only recently focused on the containment of the domestic impacts of the production, transport, storage, and use of chemical weapons. Beyond the protection of soldiers in the battlefield, “containing” chemical warfare demanded a much larger set of material measures that reached into various spheres of society. In this paper, we propose an inclusive definition of “military containment” comprising those measures and we try to apply it to the particular case of Spain during Morocco’s Rif War (1921-1927), one of the main armed conflicts of the interwar period. We will deal with three types of measures: a) those preventing that the workers of military complexes and/or civilian factories manufacturing chemical weapons suffered from intoxications and accidents that could hinder or stop production; b) those seeking that the healthcare staff of military and civil hospitals took care of the gassed soldiers and workers without exposing themselves to the effects of chemical substances; and c) those needed to keep the general population “distanced” from the hazards and accidents associated with the production, transport and storage of gases.