◆ SpookStack

Approved For Release 200X/0E7F NF (A-RDP96-00788R001300020001-6 ST~CS-01-169-72 July 1972 important to the social insects, which manufacture a variety of scents to coordinate the activities of their colonies; they employ odors to warn their kind of impending danger, to recognize intruders to mark trails leading to food, to move their nests, and to enlist the help of other colony members. Because of this phenomenon, man may be able to control insects through the use of different chemical attractants (249). It may some day be possible for men to control other men by using pheromones. SECTION II - Behavioral Altering Possibilities 1. (C/CD/NDA) A paper presented at the Ciba Foundation Symposium on Mechanisms of Taste and Smell in Vertebrates by M.G.J. Beets is of interest because of the implications of possible chemical warfare use (250). The paper by Beets reports a new line of syn- thetic odor producing substances with odors closely related to those of some of the steroids. The steroids are very complex, expensive to produce, naturally-occurring substances with strong odors which are quite important in controlling behavior, particu- larly in lower animals. Steroids are used in contraceptive medica- ments, and perfumers have been looking among them for years for a substance to insert into perfumes as an aphrodisiac. Beets. and his group have come up with a very simple artificial product which is easy to synthesize chemically and which has the identi- cal smell of the natural substance it mimics. Instead of having. a large, complicated chemical structure with, say four rings, Beets has produced a structure with a single ring but with so many groups attached to it chemically that it is the same shape of molecule as the natural substance. The accomplishment supports the theory that odors of chemicals depend upon the shapes of their molecules (251). 2. (C/CD/NDA) Beets' paper reports an innocent development, but the principle of the development applies in chemical warfare with regard to the search for "mind benders." In fact, Beets observed that the basic idea of his accomplishment could be extended to drugs, hormones and some other substances, making their synthesis much easier by simplifying the steps of production while retaining the overall shape of the molecule (251). 3. (C/CD/NDA) There are at least two problems in using this synthetic mimicry for a placating or confusing effect in chemical warfare. One is getting the substances sufficiently volatile for dispersal in the air. The natural substances are generally not 88 CONTROLLED DISSEMINATION NO DISSEMINATION ABROAD CONFIDENTIAL