Chemical weapons destruction history

The history of chemical warfare is important so we can learn lessons for the future. Dr Coleman has provided a well-referenced account of the history. Readers should form their own judgements on the threat chemical weapons pose - whether they really are weapons of mass destruction, their attractiveness to terrorists and the strengths and weaknesses of the Chemical Weapons Convention. 

Information about the destruction of India s declared chemical weapons stockpile is sparse. One may speculate that India, having been the site of the worst industrial chemical accident in history at the Union Carbide facility in Bhopal, is extremely sensitive to legitimate public opinion. India has consistently completed destruction ahead of the Convention s deadlines at its one declared destruction facUity. Understandable pride has been expressed in the rate at which stockpile destruction has been ac-comphshed, with more than 40 per cent having been eliminated. ... 

The NRC has provided scientific and technical advice and counsel to the Army concerning the destruction of chemical weapons since the beginning of the CSDP. The history of this involvement was summarized in the first NRC report by the ACWI Committee (NRC, 1999) and will not be repeated here. The following discussion addresses only the role of the NRC in the ACWA program. 

Schmaltz, E, Neurosciences and Research on Chemical Weapons of Mass Destruction in Nazi Gennzay, Journal of the History of Neurosciences, 15 (2006a), pp. 186-209. 

I would like to begin my talk with a short introduction of the Army Materiel Command Treaty Laboratory (AMCTL) and a short history of how we became irtvolved in developing analytical technology to support the Alternatives to Incineration Program for the Destruction of Chemical Agents (Alt Tech). The AMCTL was founded in the Spring of 1994 to protect the assets of the U.S. Army during chemical weapons inspections. 

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