Chemical weapons destruction importance

The Chinese government has indicated that it recognizes the importance of local support for chemical weapons destruction. The issue s visibility in local and national newspapers is important and may join with the burgeoning Chinese environmental movement to shift discussion away from criticism of Japan to focus on the pragmatics of destruction. 

The First Review Conference requested the Council to continue exercising its important role in monitoring progress in the chemical weapons destruction activities. The First Review Conference urged possessor States Parties to provide realistic and required annual chemical weapons destruction plans, and to update these plans as may become necessary. 

On a more general note, the workshop concluded that, although destruction deadlines cannot always be met, they are important. Deadlines help to focus the efforts of States Parties and ensure that sufficient funding for the destruction of chemical weapons is provided. Because of the potential danger to the public involved in the destruction of chemical weapons, which can have a major environmental and health impact on the communities concerned, most speakers stressed the importance of public outreach and information, given that this is a topic of public interest. In addition, the Convention points out that the protection of human health and of the environment is an essential precondition for the conduct of chemical weapons destruction operations. 

In its intellectual dimensions, the NATO ARW was co-sponsored by the Committee on Chemical Weapons Destruction Technologies of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (lUPAC). The work of this Committee was supported importantly by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (U.S.) and by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche dTtalia, and significantly by lUPAC, the UK Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment, the U.S. Army European Research Office, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. 

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. 

The ambient monitoring and biomonitoring of RVX and its destruction products within the areas of chemical weapon storage and destruction facilities is an important task for the State Sanitary Inspection Units of the Russian Federation. In... 

One of the more important U.S. Army programs is the destruction of chemical weapons. It is not only necessary from the standpoint of domestic concerns, but will be required under the bilateral agreements with Russia, and with the Chemical Weapons Convention when ratified by 65 countries. 

In contrast, Fritz Haber, the Nobel laureate chemist who, more than anyone else, was responsible for the development and fielding of chemical weapons for use by Kaiser Wilhelm H s army, downplayed the importance of chemical warfare as a weapon of mass destruction after the surprise was gone. In an interview published in New York in 1921, he concluded Poison gas caused fewer deaths than bullets. 42(pl0)... 

I think that we would do the allied war command an injustice, if we accuse them of such a barbarous decision, from the viewpoint of a present-day man. Indeed, it was necessary to annihilate the chemical weapons as soon as possible, lest anybody felt a wish to use them. At that time, however, methods of destroying contaminants in chemical plants with the observance of rules of safety procedures were not available. Even now, half a century later, there are no developed and completely reliable broad-scale technologies for the industrial destruction of war contaminants. Both concealment in deep mines and combustion of contaminants have more harmful effects on nature and mankind when compared to sinking these at a considerable depth. One important point to remember is also that German depots of chemical weapons were located in densely populated regions of Europe therefore, the chosen method for getting rid of chemical ammunition was apparently the best. 

Recalling further that the Second Review Conference reaffirmed that complete destmction of chemical weapons, and conversion or complete destmction of CWPFs, is essential for the realisation of the object and purpose of the Convention. The Second Review Conference also reaffirmed the importance of the obligation of the possessor States Parties to complete the destruction of their chemical weapons stoclqiiles within the final extended deadlines as established by the Conference at its Eleventh Session. ... 

Recalling also resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly which stress the importance of achieving the universality of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction (hereinafter the Convention ) ... 

The States Parties, furthermore, attached importance to the destruction of abandoned chemical weapons and to the cooperation that has developed between the Territorial and Abandoning States Parties. Such cooperation would also be necessary in regard to any abandoned chemical weapons discovered in the future. 

The Second Review Conference recognised the decrease in the number of remaining Chemical Weapons storage facilities but reiterated the conclusion of the First Review Conference on the importance of possessor States Parties implementing appropriate measures to secure such storage facilities and to prevent movement of their chemical weapons out of the facilities, with the exception of removal for destruction or (in accordance with the provisions of the Convention) withdrawal of Schedule I chemicals for use for research, medical, pharmaceutical, or protective purposes. 

The Second Review Conference reaffirmed the importance of the verification of chemical weapons stockpiles as well as of their destruction in accordance vrith the Convention. This is one of the main activities of the Secretariat and will remain so until stockpile destruction has been completed. It recalled the obligation of possessor States Parties to pay Article IV and V verification costs. It called on the relevant States Parties to pay as-... 

The verification system is one of the most important elements of the Convention. It provides for systematic verification with continuous on-site monitoring of the destruction of chemical weapons and systematic verification of the elimination of CWPFs. It also provides for the verification of activities not prohibited under the Convention. 

Requested the Conference and the Council to continue to keep under review and oversee the completion of destruction of chemical weapons stockpiles and, in this regard, underlined the importance of continuing to receive the Director-General s confirmation that the necessary measures are being undertaken by the possessor States concerned to meet the planned completion dates for their destruction activities ... 

In March the Soviet Union formally admitted for the first time since 1945 to the possession of chemical weapons (see chapter 6). A few weeks later Mr Gorbachev not only stressed the importance of a chemical weapons ban, but went on to claim that the Soviet Union had ceased chemical weapons production, and to deny that other Warsaw Pact countries had either produced or stockpiled chemical weapons. He also announced that the Soviet Union had begun to build a special plant for the destruction of chemical weapons to enable us rapidly to implement the process of chemical disarmament once an international convention is concluded . )... 

While the guidance provided in this book is designed to minimize exposure to weapons of mass destruction, it will not eliminate the possibility for exposure. For this reason, it is important to understand the general characteristics of nuclear, chemical, and biological agents, the symptoms of exposure, and potential treatment options. For additional details on chemical structure, chemical characteristics, pathology, and field behavior, see References 1 through 3. 

We need to have drugs, antidotes, and cures for the weapons of mass destruction that terrorists are likely to use. To develop medicinal countermeasures, the basic science involved must first be understood. For both chemical and biological weapons, the process of molecular recognition by elements of the human body is of utmost importance. However, we do not have a clear understanding of protein surface interactions, the relationship of genes to protein function, and how viruses infect and replicate. All of these processes are chemical in nature and caimot be solved without knowledge of the chemical sciences. 

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