US takes action to destroy its stock of chemical weapons like mustard gas and nerve gas

#chemicalweapons #mustardgas #nervegas #chlorinegas The US is stepping up action to destroy its stock of chemical weapons like mustard gas and chemical-laden artillery shells and that would mark a major milestone in the campaign to eradicate the debilitating weapon from war as reported in foxnews.com dated 4 February 2015.
There are stocks held in the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado and it is planned to start neutralizing 2,600 tons of aging mustard agent beginning March. Such destruction would mean complying with a 1997 treaty that outs a ban on all types of chemical weapons.
This work to neutralize the mustard agent has been taken up less than a year after it was determined that chlorine gas had killed 13 people in Syria in April 2014. Earlier to that, a 2013 nerve gas attack killed 1,400 in Syria.
Pueblo is reported to be holding 780,000 shells containing mustard agent – these can result in injuries like maiming or even killing apart from blistering of skin, scarring the eyes and inflaming airways.
Mustard agent is actually a thick liquid and is not a gas as commonly believed. It is colorless and almost odorless and it owes its name to its mustard like smell.
It may be recalled that after nightmarish gas attacks in World War I, a 1925 treaty put a ban on the use of chemical weapons. Subsequently, the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention set a 2012 deadline to destroy them.
Four major nations had acknowledged having stocks of chemical weapons and have missed the deadline: the countries are U.S., Russia, Libya and Iraq.
It is understood that the U.S. has a total of 30,600 tons of chemical weapons, both mustard and deadly nerve agents. These were acquired during the Cold War and has never been used in any war. Moreover, nearly 90 percent of the stockpile has been destroyed at depots in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Maryland, Oregon, Utah and Johnson Atoll in the Pacific.

2014 – The year of destruction of Syrian chemical weapons

#syriaassad #chemicalweapons In the civil war in Syria, thousands of people have died in the violence between the army of President Bashar al-Assad and the Free Syrian Army. Both the warring sides resorted to indiscriminate use of different types of weapons from firearms and missiles to aerial bombing.
At the height of fighting, reports surfaced about use of chemical weapons like mustard gas in certain localities of Syria. Both the sides blamed the other and when things came to a head, US President Barack Obama ruled that if chemical weapons were not surrendered, he would take it as a violation of the red line and would launch an attack on Syria.
Finally, after the involvement of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Syrian administration agreed to hand over the chemical weapons in a phased manner to a central agency.
Finally, President Bashar al-Assad agreed to hand over Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons which were to be destroyed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
The Special Coordinator for the Joint Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations has finally confirmed to the U N Security Council that 96 percent of Syria’s declared stockpile, including the most dangerous chemicals, had been destroyed and preparation were underway to destroy the remaining 12 production facilities.
“This is a chemical weapons disarmament process, it’s been unique,” said Sigrid Kaag after her final briefing to the Security Council in her capacity as the head of the joint mission dealing with Syria’s chemical weapons, which wound up its work at the end of September. The mission had overseen the destruction of 100 percent of “priority chemicals” and 96 percent of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.