Download or read book Convention on the Prohibition of the Development Production Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction written by and published by Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. This book was released on 1993 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book One Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare Research Deployment Consequences written by Bretislav Friedrich and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-11-26 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. On April 22, 1915, the German military released 150 tons of chlorine gas at Ypres, Belgium. Carried by a long-awaited wind, the chlorine cloud passed within a few minutes through the British and French trenches, leaving behind at least 1,000 dead and 4,000 injured. This chemical attack, which amounted to the first use of a weapon of mass destruction, marks a turning point in world history. The preparation as well as the execution of the gas attack was orchestrated by Fritz Haber, the director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in Berlin-Dahlem. During World War I, Haber transformed his research institute into a center for the development of chemical weapons (and of the means of protection against them). Bretislav Friedrich and Martin Wolf (Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, the successor institution of Haber’s institute) together with Dieter Hoffmann, Jürgen Renn, and Florian Schmaltz (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science) organized an international symposium to commemorate the centenary of the infamous chemical attack. The symposium examined crucial facets of chemical warfare from the first research on and deployment of chemical weapons in WWI to the development and use of chemical warfare during the century hence. The focus was on scientific, ethical, legal, and political issues of chemical weapons research and deployment — including the issue of dual use — as well as the ongoing effort to control the possession of chemical weapons and to ultimately achieve their elimination. The volume consists of papers presented at the symposium and supplemented by additional articles that together cover key aspects of chemical warfare from 22 April 1915 until the summer of 2015.
Download or read book Dew of Death written by Joel A. Vilensky and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2005-09-07 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Dr. Vilensky raises important concerns regarding the threats posed by lewisite and other weapons of mass destruction. As he describes, non-proliferation programs are a vital component in the War on Terror." -- Richard G. Lugar, United States Senator "Joel Vilensky's book is a detailed and immensely useful account of the development and history of one of the major chemical weapons.... We will always know how to make lewisite, the 'Dew of Death,' but that does not mean that we should, or be compelled to accept such weapons in our lives." -- from the Foreword by Richard Butler, former head of UN Special Commission to Disarm Iraq In 1919, when the Great War was over, the New York Times reported on a new chemical weapon with "the fragrance of geranium blossoms," a poison gas that was "the climax of this country's achievements in the lethal arts." The name of this substance was lewisite and this is its story -- the story of an American weapon of mass destruction. Discovered by accident by a graduate student and priest in a chemistry laboratory at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., lewisite was developed into a weapon by Winford Lewis, who became its namesake, working with a team led by James Conant, later president of Harvard and head of government oversight for the U.S.'s atomic bomb program, the Manhattan Project. After a powerful German counterattack in the spring of 1918, the government began frantic production of lewisite in hopes of delivering 3,000 tons of the stuff to be ready for use in Europe the following year. The end of war came just as the first shipment was being prepared. It was dumped into the sea, but not forgotten. Joel A. Vilensky tells the intriguing story of the discovery and development of lewisite and its curious history. During World War II, the United States produced more than 20,000 tons of lewisite, testing it on soldiers and secretly dropping it from airplanes. In the end, the substance was abandoned as a weapon because it was too unstable under most combat conditions. But a weapon once discovered never disappears. It was used by Japan in Manchuria and by Iraq in its war with Iran. The Soviet Union was once a major manufacturer. Strangely enough, although it was developed for lethal purposes, lewisite led to an effective treatment for a rare neurological disease.
Download or read book The Chemical Weapons Convention written by Walter Krutzsch and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 763 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chemical Weapons Convention is one of the cornerstone disarmament and arms control agreements, and the only global and comprehensive disarmament treaty that is being verified by an international agency. This Commentary assesses the provisions of the Convention and its implementation, with cross-cutting chapters providing a broader analysis.
Download or read book Red Line written by Joby Warrick and published by Doubleday. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Red Line, Joby Warrick, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Black Flags, shares the thrilling unknown story of America’s mission in Syria: to find and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons and keep them out of the hands of the Islamic State. In August 2012, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was clinging to power in a vicious civil war. When secret intelligence revealed that the dictator might resort to using chemical weapons, President Obama warned that doing so would cross “a red line.” Assad did it anyway, bombing the Damascus suburb of Ghouta with sarin gas, killing hundreds of civilians, and forcing Obama to decide if he would mire America in another unpopular war in the Middle East. When Russia offered to broker the removal of Syria’s chemical weapons, Obama leapt at the out. So began an electrifying race to find, remove, and destroy 1,300 tons of chemical weapons in the midst of a raging civil war. The extraordinary little-known effort is a triumph for the Americans, but soon Russia’s long game becomes clear: it will do anything to preserve Assad’s rule. As America’s ability to control events in Syria shrinks, the White House learns that ISIS, building its caliphate in Syria’s war-tossed territory, is seeking chemical weapons for itself, with an eye to attack the West. Drawing on astonishing original reporting, Warrick crafts a character-driven narrative that reveals how the United States embarked on a bold adventure to prevent one catastrophe but could not avoid a tragic chain of events that led to another.
Download or read book War of Nerves written by Jonathan Tucker and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this important and revelatory book, Jonathan Tucker, a leading expert on chemical and biological weapons, chronicles the lethal history of chemical warfare from World War I to the present. At the turn of the twentieth century, the rise of synthetic chemistry made the large-scale use of toxic chemicals on the battlefield both feasible and cheap. Tucker explores the long debate over the military utility and morality of chemical warfare, from the first chlorine gas attack at Ypres in 1915 to Hitler’s reluctance to use nerve agents (he believed, incorrectly, that the U.S. could retaliate in kind) to Saddam Hussein’s gassing of his own people, and concludes with the emergent threat of chemical terrorism. Moving beyond history to the twenty-first century, War of Nerves makes clear that we are at a crossroads that could lead either to the further spread of these weapons or to their ultimate abolition.
Download or read book Veterans at Risk written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1993-02-01 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recently, World War II veterans have come forward to claim compensation for health effects they say were caused by their participation in chemical warfare experiments. In response, the Veterans Administration asked the Institute of Medicine to study the issue. Based on a literature review and personal testimony from more than 250 affected veterans, this new volume discusses in detail the development and chemistry of mustard agents and Lewisite followed by interesting and informative discussions about these substances and their possible connection to a range of health problems, from cancer to reproductive disorders. The volume also offers an often chilling historical examination of the use of volunteers in chemical warfare experiments by the U.S. militaryâ€"what the then-young soldiers were told prior to the experiments, how they were "encouraged" to remain in the program, and how they were treated afterward. This comprehensive and controversial book will be of importance to policymakers and legislators, military and civilian planners, officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs, military historians, and researchers.
Download or read book Chemical and Biological Terrorism written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1999-03-12 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The threat of domestic terrorism today looms larger than ever. Bombings at the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City's Federal Building, as well as nerve gas attacks in Japan, have made it tragically obvious that American civilians must be ready for terrorist attacks. What do we need to know to help emergency and medical personnel prepare for these attacks? Chemical and Biological Terrorism identifies the R&D efforts needed to implement recommendations in key areas: pre-incident intelligence, detection and identification of chemical and biological agents, protective clothing and equipment, early recognition that a population has been covertly exposed to a pathogen, mass casualty decontamination and triage, use of vaccines and pharmaceuticals, and the psychological effects of terror. Specific objectives for computer software development are also identified. The book addresses the differences between a biological and chemical attack, the distinct challenges to the military and civilian medical communities, and other broader issues. This book will be of critical interest to anyone involved in civilian preparedness for terrorist attack: planners, administrators, responders, medical professionals, public health and emergency personnel, and technology designers and engineers.
Download or read book Chemical Weapon Destruction in Russia written by John Dickerman Hart and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A meeting of 30 experts was held in Bonn, Germany, in November 1996 to discuss various aspects of the destruction of chemical weapons in the Russian Federation. This volume reviews the Russian chemical weapon destruction efforts, the factors which have hindered them, and the reasons why Russian ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) was postponed until 5 November 1997.
Download or read book Toxicologic Assessment of the Army s Zinc Cadmium Sulfide Dispersion Tests written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1997-05-30 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. Army conducted atmospheric dispersion tests in many American cities using fluorescent particles of zinc cadmium sulfide (ZnCdS) to develop and verify meteorological models to estimate the dispersal of aerosols. Upon learning of the tests, many citizens and some public health officials in the affected cities raised concerns about the health consequences of the tests. This book assesses the public health effects of the Army's tests, including the toxicity of ZnCdS, the toxicity of surrogate cadmium compounds, the environmental fate of ZnCdS, the extent of public exposures from the dispersion tests, and the risks of such exposures.
Download or read book Review of International Technologies for Destruction of Recovered Chemical Warfare Materiel written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2006-11-02 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Chemical Weapons Convention requires, among other things, that the signatories to the conventionâ€"which includes the United Statesâ€"destroy by April 29, 2007, or as soon possible thereafter, any chemical warfare materiel that has been recovered from sites where it has been buried once discovered. For several years the United States and several other countries have been developing and using technologies to dispose of this non-stockpile materiel. To determine whether international efforts have resulted in technologies that would benefit the U.S. program, the U.S. Army asked the NRC to evaluate and compare such technologies to those now used by the United States. This book presents a discussion of factors used in the evaluations, summaries of evaluations of several promising international technologies for processing munitions and for agent-only processing, and summaries of other technologies that are less likely to be of benefit to the U.S. program at this time.
Download or read book Tear Gas written by Anna Feigenbaum and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One hundred years ago, French troops fired tear gas grenades into German trenches. Designed to force people out from behind barricades and trenches, tear gas causes burning of the eyes and skin, tearing, and gagging. Chemical weapons are now banned from war zones. But today, tear gas has become the most commonly used form of "less-lethal" police force. In 2011, the year that protests exploded from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street, tear gas sales tripled. Most tear gas is produced in the United States, and many images of protestors in Tahrir Square showed tear gas canisters with "Made in USA" printed on them, while Britain continues to sell tear gas to countries on its own human-rights blacklist. An engrossing century-spanning narrative, Tear Gas is the first history of this weapon, and takes us from military labs and chemical weapons expos to union assemblies and protest camps, drawing on declassified reports and witness testimonies to show how policing with poison came to be.
Download or read book The Chemical Weapons Convention written by Ramesh Chandra Thakur and published by United Nations Univ. This book was released on 2006 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most complex and comprehensive disarmament treaty ever to be adopted, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is intended to provide robust assurance that chemical weapons will not be developed, produced, stockpiled, used or transferred. To implement and enforce the CWC and verify the ongoing elimination of declared chemical weapons production capacity and stockpiles, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) inspects military and industrial sites in dozens of countries. OPCW membership now embraces over 95 percent of the world's population and 98 percent of the relevant global chemical industry. This book provides an in-depth explanation of the notable achievements of the CWC in a relatively short span since 1997, and examines the issues that must be addressed to ensure the regime's continuing vitality in the context of dynamic changes in the security environment, and in science, industry and technology. Featuring contributions from government and OPCW officials and experts in international law, industry, government and media, this volume highlights the challenges in implementation and assesses and recommends the means necessary to preserve the global ban on chemical weapons perpetually.
Download or read book Public Health Response to Biological and Chemical Weapons written by World Health Organization and published by World Health Organization. This book was released on 2004-01-21 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the second edition of this publication which focuses on the public health aspects of the possible deliberate use of biological or chemical agents. Issues discussed include: the key principles for public health planning, risk assessment, hazard identification and evaluation, risk management strategies, and response planning as part of existing national emergency plans, disease surveillance and early warning systems, the national and international legal framework, and international sources of assistance. Technical annexes cover a range of issues including chemical agents, toxins, biological agents, principles of protection, precautions against the sabotage of drinking water, food and other products, information resources and the affiliation of WHO Member States to the international treaties on biological and chemical weapons.
Download or read book Preventing Chemical Weapons written by Michael Crowley and published by Royal Society of Chemistry. This book was released on 2018-08-20 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The life and chemical sciences are in the midst of a period of rapid and revolutionary transformation that will undoubtedly bring societal benefits but also have potentially malign applications, notably in the development of chemical weapons. Such concerns are exacerbated by the unstable international security environment and the changing nature of armed conflict, which could fuel a desire by certain States to retain and use existing chemical weapons, as well as increase State interest in creating new weapons; whilst a broader range of actors may seek to employ diverse toxic chemicals as improvised weapons. Stark indications of the multi-faceted dangers we face can be seen in the chemical weapons attacks against civilians and combatants in Iraq and Syria, and also in more targeted chemical assassination operations in Malaysia and the UK. Using a multi-disciplinary approach, and drawing upon an international group of experts, this book analyses current and likely near-future advances in relevant science and technology, assessing the risks of their misuse. The book examines the current capabilities, limitations and failures of the existing international arms control and disarmament architecture – notably the Chemical Weapons Convention – in preventing the development and use of chemical weapons. Through the employment of a novel Holistic Arms Control methodology, the authors also look beyond the bounds of such treaties, to explore the full range of international law, international agreements and regulatory mechanisms potentially applicable to weapons employing toxic chemical agents, in order to develop recommendations for more effective routes to combat their proliferation and misuse. A particular emphasis is given to the roles that chemical and life scientists, health professionals and wider informed activist civil society can play in protecting the prohibition against poison and chemical weapons; and in working with States to build effective and responsive measures to ensure that the rapid scientific and technological advances are safeguarded from hostile use and are instead employed for the benefit of us all.
Download or read book Handbook of Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents written by D. Hank Ellison and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2010-12-12 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With terrorist groups expanding their weapons of destruction beyond bombs and bullets, chemical and biological warfare agents aren't merely limited to the battlefield anymore. In some cases, they are now being used on a new front: major metropolitan cities. And in the Handbook of Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents, emergency response personnel-from HazMat and Police SWAT teams to Explosive Ordinance Disposal units-will find a myriad of information on how to deal with such incidents involving dangerous chemical and biological agents. The 504-page book is formatted into a series of indices developed to facilitate rapid access to key information on chemical, biological and toxin agents, with each index cross-referenced to all others. The wealth of data not only include the physical appearance, odor, signs and symptoms of dangerous materials such as nerve agents and vesicants, but the detection and removal of such agents and the treatment of victims. Author D. Hank Ellison, a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emergency responder and officer in the Chemical Corps who provides chemical and biological counterterrorism training to HazMat, Police SWAT and Explosive Ordinance Disposal teams, also includes a litany of guidelines from such sources as the US Army, DOT and other agencies.
Download or read book Weapons of Terror written by Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (Stockholm, Sweden) and published by Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC). This book was released on 2006 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nuclear, biological and chemical weapons are designed to cause destruction on a vastly greater scale than any conventional weapons, with the potential to kill thousands in a single attack and with effects that may persist in the environment and in our bodies indefinitely. This report by the independent Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, chaired by Dr Hans Blix, sets out 60 recommendations on how the world community, national governments and civil society should address this global challenge under the following headings: preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons; preventing nuclear terrorism; reducing the threat and numbers of existing nuclear weapons; moving from regulating nuclear weapons to outlawing them; biological and toxin weapons; chemical weapons; weapons of mass destruction (WMD) delivery means, missile defences and weapons in space; export controls, international assistance and non-governmental actors; compliance, verification, enforcement and the role of the United Nations.
