31.   Skin cream to block out nerve agents, inhalants to scavenge the blood for chemical invaders and drugs to halt chemical-induced seizures are among innovations under development.

32.   The drug protects against nerve gas by temporarily shielding the target of nerve agents, another bloodstream enzyme called acetylcholinesterase, or AChE, which regulates the nervous system.

33.   The committee recommended further research on the long-term health effects of low-level exposure to nerve agents such as sarin and various pesticides.

34.   The fatal nerve agent, which enters the body through the skin, cuts off nervous transmissions and ultimately causes victims to stop breathing.

35.   The nerve agents are stored in a controlled environment and can only be released in predetermined amounts under controlled conditions.

36.   The nerve agents also include a number of common pesticides.

37.   The Pentagon said last week that it would not use PB in future unless it had intelligence reports that nerve agents were being used against U.S. troops.

38.   The United States had halted research on the nerve agent, called GJ, and it had never been developed into a weapon.

39.   The United States attacked a pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum last week and says it was because the factory was making a rare chemical used for the nerve agent VX.

40.   The United States has insisted that the chemical found outside the plant could only mean that the plant was intended to make the nerve agent VX.