During the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, Iraq on scores of occasions shelled Iranian soldiers and villagers with sulfur mustard. And for the first time ever on a battlefield, nerve agents including sarin and tabun were unleashed by Iraqi forces. All told, the chemical onslaught killed nearly 5000 Iranians and sickened more than 100,000. Three decades later, about 56,000 Iranians are coping with lingering health effects from mustard, ranging from skin lesions and failing corneas to chronic obstructive lung disease and possibly cancer. The scale of the atrocities means that Iran has a unique opportunity to study the long-term effects of chemical weapons. A dozen research centers across the nation are seeking to uncover how wartime mustard exposures wreaked molecular mayhem that, decades later, triggers illnesses and death. They also may soon begin probing for long-term health effects of nerve agents.

中文翻译：

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化学烈士

在1980年代的伊伊战争期间，伊拉克曾多次用硫芥子轰击伊朗士兵和村民。而且这是有史以来第一次在战场上，伊拉克部队释放了沙林和塔邦等神经毒剂。这场化学袭击总共杀死了近5000名伊朗人，使10万多人患病。三十年后，约有56,000名伊朗人正在应对芥末对健康的持久影响，从皮肤损害和角膜衰竭到慢性阻塞性肺病甚至癌症。暴行的规模意味着伊朗有一个独特的机会来研究化学武器的长期影响。全国各地的十几个研究中心都在寻找揭露战时芥末暴露如何造成分子混乱的原因，几十年后，这种分子混乱引发了疾病和死亡。