Ethyl bromoacetate is listed by the World Health Organization as a riot control agent, and was first employed for that purpose by French police in 1912.

[4] The French army used rifle grenades 'grenades lacrymogènes'[5] filled with this gas against the Germans beginning in August 1914, but the weapons were largely ineffective, even though ethyl bromoacetate is twice as toxic as chlorine.

[6][a] In the early months of the war the British also used the weaponized use of tear gas agents and more toxic gasses including sulfur dioxide.

[7] The German army then used these attacks to justify their subsequent employment of it as odorant or warning agent in odorless, toxic gases and chemical weapons in 1915 under the German code Weisskreuz (White Cross).

For example, the related Wittig reagent (prepared by reaction with triphenylphosphine) is commonly used to prepare alpha,beta-unsaturated esters from carbonyl compounds such as benzaldehyde:[9] Organic Chemistry