Due to historical and legislation reasons, the
category of bioweapons is rather poorly
defined. Authors often disagree on involvin
g or excl
uding agents like hor
mones,
psychochemicals,
certain
plants
and
animals
(such
as weeds or pests) or synthetic
organisms. Applying a wide definition apparently threatens by eroding the regime of
international legislation, while narrow definitions abandon se
veral important issues.
Therefore, I propose a category of ‘biological
weapons
sensu
lato’
(BWsl)
that
is
defined
here
as any
tool
of
human
aggression
whose
acting
principle
is
based on disciplines of
biology in
cluding particularly microbiol
ogy, epidemiolo
gy, medica
l biology, physiology,
psychol
ogy, pharmacology and ecology, but excluding those based on inorganic agents.
Synthetically produced equivalents (not necessarily exact copies) a
nd mock weapons are
also inclu
ded. This definition does not involve any
claim to subject all these weapons to
international legislation but serves a purely scholarly purpose. BWsl may be properly
categorized on the base of the magnitude of the human population potentially targeted
(4 levels: individuals, towns, countries, glo
bal) and the biological nature of the weapons’
intended effects (4 levels: agricultural
-
ecological agents, and non
-
pathogenic,
pathogenic, or lethal agents against humans
