a. The umbilical vein transports blood rich in oxygen and nutrients from the placenta to the fetal body.

This vein travels along the anterior abdominal wall

of the fetus to the liver, and at the porta hepatis, the umbilical vein divides into two branches.

b. About 1/2 of the blood passes into the liver and the rest enters a shunting vessel called the ductus venosus that bypasses the liver. The ductus
venosus travels a short distance and joins the inferior vena cava.

c. There, the oxygenated blood from the placenta is mixed with deoxygenated blood from the lower parts of the fetal body. This blood continues through
the vena cava to the right atrium.

d. As the blood relatively high in oxygen enters the right atrium of the fetal heart, a large proportion of it is shunted directly into the left atrium through an
opening in the atrial septum called the foramen ovale.

e. The more highly oxygenated blood that enters the left atrium through the foramen ovale is mixed with a small amount of deoxygenated blood returning
from the pulmonary veins. This mixture moves into the left ventricle and is pumped into the aorta.

f. Some of this blood reaches the myocardium by means of the coronary arteries and some reaches the tissues of the brain through the carotid arteries.

g. The rest of the blood entering the right atrium, as well as the large proportion of the deoxygenated blood entering from the superior vena cava, passes
into the right ventricle and out through the pulmonary artery.

h. Enough blood reaches the lung tissues to sustain them.

i. Most of the blood in the pulmonary artery bypasses the lungs by entering the ductus arteriosus, which connects the pulmonary artery to the
descending portion of the aortic arch.

j. Some of the blood carried by the descending aorta leads to the various parts in the lower regions of the body.

k. The rest of the blood passes into the umbilical arteries which branch from the internal iliac arteries and lead to the placenta

a. The umbilical vein is obliterated and becomes the round ligament of the liver.

b. The umbilical arteries are obliterated and ultimately become ligaments.

c. The ductus venosus is obliterated and becomes a ligament. Anatomic closure is completed at the end of 2 months. The ductus venosus is superficially
embedded in the wall of the liver.

d. The ductus arteriosus is obliterated and becomes a ligament. Functional closure takes 3-4 days; anatomic closure is completed by 3 weeks. The
constriction seems to be stimulated by a substance called Bradykinin, which is released from the lungs during their initial expansions.

e. The foramen ovale closes after the umbilical cord is tied and cut. A large amount of blood is returned to the heart and the lungs. With the lungs now
functioning, there is equal pressure on both atria as the vessels constrict. Failure of the foramen ovale to close spontaneously results in an atrial septal
defect, which may or may not require surgery later.

During pregnancy, the fetal circulatory system works differently than after birth:

• The fetus is connected by the umbilical cord to the placenta, the organ that develops and implants in the mother's uterus during pregnancy.
• Through the blood vessels in the umbilical cord, the fetus receives all the necessary nutrition, oxygen, and life support from the mother
through the placenta.
• Waste products and carbon dioxide from the fetus are sent back through the umbilical cord and placenta to the mother's circulation to be
eliminated.
• Blood from the mother enters the placenta and comes in close proximity to the fetal blood that has returned from the fetus to the placenta
through the umbilical arteries. Once the two circulations are in close proximity in the placenta, the oxygen (O2) and nutrients, like sugar,
protein and fat molecules can move from maternal to fetal blood, and carbon dioxide (CO2) and waste products can move from fetal to
maternal blood. The maternal blood returns from the placenta to the mother's veins for her systems to take care of the waste. The new well
nourished fetal blood returns to the baby through the umbilical vein. The umbilical vein goes to the liver and splits in to three branches, one of
which connects to the inferior vena cava, a major vein connected to the heart. In this way the well nourished blood reaches the fetal heart to
be sent to the rest of the body.

Inside the fetal heart:

• Blood enters the right atrium, the chamber on the upper right side of the heart. Most of the blood flows to the left side through a special fetal
opening between the left and right atria, called the foramen ovale.
• Blood then passes into the left ventricle (lower chamber of the heart) and then to the aorta, (the large artery coming from the heart).
• From the aorta, blood is sent to the head and upper extremities. After circulating there, the blood returns to the right atrium of the heart
through the superior vena cava.
• About one-third of the blood entering the right atrium does not flow through the foramen ovale, but, instead, stays in the right side of the heart,
eventually flowing into the pulmonary artery.

Because the placenta does the work of exchanging oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) through the mother's circulation, the fetal lungs are not used
for breathing. Instead of blood flowing to the lungs to pick up oxygen and then flowing to the rest of the body, the fetal circulation shunts (bypasses) most
of the blood away from the lungs. In the fetus, blood is shunted from the pulmonary artery to the aorta through a connecting blood vessel called the
ductus arteriosus.

Blood circulation after birth:

With clamping of the cord, the detachment from the placenta and the first breaths of air the baby takes at birth, the fetal circulation changes. By
removing the placenta reservoir, the baby's venous resistance/blood pressure goes up. By filling the lungs with air, the blood pressure in the lung
arteries goes down. This eventually leads to the closing of the two areas for shunting, the patent foramen ovale (PFO) and the patent ductus arteriosus
(PDA).

• Because the ductus arteriosus (the normal connection between the aorta and the pulmonary artery) is no longer needed, it begins to constrict
and close off.
• The circulation in the lungs increases and more blood flows into the left atrium of the heart. This increased pressure causes the foramen ovale
to close and blood circulates normally.

Extensive water pollution in the United States began in the nineteenth century as a result of urbanization, industrial development, and modern
agricultural practices. Although lumbering and mining despoiled individual lakes and rivers, the nation's cities were the sites of the most severe pollution.
Early industrial by-products joined human sewage and animal waste to foul drinking water supplies. By the early 1800s, even horses declined New York
City's public water, and one quarter of Boston's wells produced undrinkable water. Severe epidemics of the waterborne diseases cholera and typhoid
fever swept through major cities, most notably New York in 1832.

The early response to such pollution was not so much to clean the water but rather to build reservoirs and aqueducts to import fresh water for direct
delivery to neighborhoods and even some individual homes. Cities built large sewer systems to flush these waters away, usually either out to sea or
down a near by river. Sewers thus spread the previously more localized pollution, often fouling the water sources of other cities.

In the 1890s, scientists decisively linked many diseases, including typhoid and cholera, to the presence of human waste in water supplies. Cities began
to filter their drinking water with remarkable results. The national urban death rate from typhoid, 36 per 100,000 in 1900, dropped to only 3 per 100,000
by 1935 and was virtually nonexistent by the twentieth century's end. The urban water projects that combined filtration, delivery, and disposal ranked
among the largest public works projects in the nation's history. Chicago, for example, reversed the direction of the Chicago and Calumet Rivers, so by
1900 they no longer carried the city's waste into Lake Michigan, its primary source of fresh water. By the end of the twentieth century, New York City
moved about 1.5 billion gallons of fresh water through more than 300 miles of aqueducts and 27 artificial lakes.

The industrial pollution of bodies of water not used for drinking proved more difficult to control. In 1912, Congress charged the Public Health Service
(PHS) with investigating water pollution. Two years later, the PHS established the first water quality standards. In the 1920s, the service investigated
industrial pollution but with little effect. State governments retained the primary responsibility for water regulation. Following the lead of Pennsylvania,
many states sought to balance environmental quality with the needs of industry by giving relatively high protection to waters used for drinking supplies
while allowing others to be freely used for waste disposal. New Deal programs provided significant federal funds to water pollution control, and over the
course of the 1930s the population served by sewage treatment nearly doubled. But those programs left pollution control in the hands of state
governments.

Examples for potential bioweapon agents and their use in history

•
• Anthrax: Perhaps the best known biological weapon is anthrax, the Bacillus anthracis bacterium. Research to weaponize anthrax was
performed by the UK during World War II. The UK produced million of cattle cakes spiked with anthrax to retaliate in case the Nazis would
have used biological weapons. After field trials with anthrax bombs on Gruinard Island in Scotland, this isle was lethally contaminated and off
limits for any human being for nearly 50 years.

• Tularemia is another first choice biological weapon agent, as it is – like anthrax – relatively stable in the environment and can be delivered
through airborne particles (aerosols).

• Plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, was one of the first infectious diseases that have been used for military purposes. In 1346,
after three years of blockading the city of Kaffa, the Tartars catapulted their plague-victims into the city, causing a deadly epidemic within
weeks.
•
• Smallpox has been globally eradicated in 1977. However, smallpox virus (called Variola) is still kept in research institutions. Biowarfare with
smallpox goes back to the 18th century, when the British sold horse blankets contaminated with smallpox to Native Americans in the USA.
The former USSR is alleged to have produced weaponized smallpox virus in a facility called Vector near Novosibirsk. As smallpox
vaccinations were stopped some 20 years ago, especially the youth is extremely vulnerable to smallpox today.

• Ebola, one of the most deadly viruses, is a potential bioweapon. The Japanes Aum sect, known for the poisonous gas attack on the Tokyo
Metro, allegedly attempted to get hold of Ebola samples by sending cult members to Zaire during an Ebola outbreak.

• Foot and mouth disease is an example for anti-animal weapons. Biological weapons are not restricted to human pathogens. Any living agent
that is used for hostile purposes – regardless of its origin and target – is considered a biological weapon under the BTWC.

• Also anti-crop bioweapons have been developed. For example, the USA had an arsenal of 900kg of a rice pathogen during the Vietnam war,
before the US biowarfare program was dismantled in the late 1960s. (See Dr. Mark Wheelis' paper at the Edmonds Institute.)

• Toxins are also covered by the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. Toxins are highly lethal substances that are usually produced by
living organisms, such as fungi, algae or bacteria. One of most deadly toxins known to humankind is botulinum toxin, which has been
weaponized in the past in offensive biological weapons programs.