U.S. Disposal of Chemical Weapons in the Ocean PDF Download

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ISBN:
Category : Chemical agents (Munitions)
Languages : en
Pages :

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Author:
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Languages : en
Pages : 0

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The U.S. Armed Forces disposed of chemical weapons in the ocean from World War I through 1970. At that time, it was thought that the vastness of ocean waters would absorb chemical agents that may leak from these weapons. However, public concerns about human health and environmental risks, and the economic effects of potential damage to marine resources, led to a statutory prohibition on the disposal of chemical weapons in the ocean in 1972. For many years, there was little attention to weapons that had been dumped offshore prior to this prohibition. However, the U.S. Army completed a report in 2001 indicating that the past disposal of chemical weapons in the ocean had been more common and widespread geographically than previously acknowledged. The Army cataloged 74 instances of disposal through 1970, including 32 instances off U.S. shores and 42 instances off foreign shores. The disclosure of these records has renewed public concern about lingering risks from chemical weapons still in the ocean today. The risk of exposure to chemical weapons dumped in the ocean depends on many factors, such as the extent to which chemical agents may have leaked into seawater and been diluted or degraded over time. Public health advocates have questioned whether contaminated seawater may contribute to certain symptoms among coastal populations, and environmental advocates have questioned whether leaked chemical agents may have affected fish stocks and other marine life. There also has been public concern that chemical weapons could wash ashore or be accidentally retrieved during activities that disturb the seabed, such as dredging and trawl fishing. Although such incidents have occurred domestically and abroad, they are rare relative to the thousands of weapons dumped in the ocean. Assessing the degree of risks is difficult because of a lack of information. Whether the risks are low or high, how to respond to them is fraught with many challenges. The primary obstacle is locating the weapons in the ocean. The lack of coordinates for most of the disposal sites, and the possibility that ocean currents may have moved weapons beyond these areas, makes finding the weapons difficult at best, if not impracticable in some cases. As signed into law, H.R. 5122 (P.L. 109-364) requires further review of historical records to attempt to identify where chemical and conventional weapons were dumped off U.S. shores, research of the effects of these weapons on the ocean environment, and monitoring if contamination or health or safety risks are present. As introduced, H.R. 4778 and S. 2295 include similar requirements for chemical weapons disposal sites off the coast of Hawaii. In the event that the weapons are located, retrieving them from the seabed could be technically challenging and could introduce new risks during retrieval and transport for onshore disposal. Leaving located weapons in place, and warning the public to avoid these areas, may be more feasible and involve fewer immediate risks. However, long-term risks would remain. Responding to potential risks is further complicated by insufficient information to reliably estimate response costs and by the uncertain availability of federal funding to pay for such actions.

Author: H. Lindsey Arison III
Publisher: H. Lindsey Arison III
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Ticking Time Bomb. Between 1946 and 1990, on the order of 754,975 tons (over 1.5 billion pounds or 684 million kilograms) of chemical weapons were disposed in European waters. At least 21 European Nations are now potentially at risk because of the expected toxic effect on marine life and the food chain. Critical research revealed in over 400 print pages contains 111 images including 23 declassified TOP SECRET, SECRET, CONFIDENTIAL, and RESTRICTED documents, 40 photographs, and 17 maps. Principal Chapters: - Evolution of Plans for the Disposition of Captured Chemical Weapons - Accounting of All Captured Chemical Weapons - Accounting of All Sea-Disposed Chemical Weapons - Locations of the Scuttled Ships - Estimated Total Chemical Warfare Agents Disposed in European Waters - Legal Responsibilities of States - Conclusion and The Imperative for an International Strategy “Bottom Line”: The environmental and public health problems facing European nations incident to the anticipated release of potentially massive amounts of slowly hydrolyzing nerve and blister agents into the marine environment are more critical and urgent than generally supposed. Increased incidents of human and marine injury in recent years have convinced many the threat of chemical poisons leaking from the deteriorating shells, canisters, and containers on the ocean floor is an imminent and insoluble problem. The fundamental premise of this study is that when the these sea disposals occurred, dumping of toxic CW into the ocean was the preferred disposal method and was not an act of malevolence or ill will. Such dumping was not prohibited and the effect on the environment was simply not considered important at that time. It is therefore not the intent of this book to affix blame or culpability. Rather, a detailed analysis of principal findings underscores the imperative for an international strategy and a proposal for international collaboration and cooperation in addressing the potential problem is advanced.

Author: H. Lindsey Arison, III
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
ISBN: 9781481250993
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Between 1946 and 1990, on the order of 754,975 tons (over 1.5 billion pounds or 684 million kilograms) of chemical weapons were disposed in European waters. At least 21 European Nations are now potentially at risk because of the expected toxic effect on marine life and the food chain.Critical research revealed in over 400 print pages contains 111 images including 23 declassified TOP SECRET, SECRET, CONFIDENTIAL, and RESTRICTED documents, 40 photographs, and 17 maps.Principal Chapters:• Evolution of Plans for the Disposition of Captured Chemical Weapons• Accounting of All Captured Chemical Weapons• Accounting of All Sea-Disposed Chemical Weapons• Locations of the Scuttled Ships• Estimated Total Chemical Warfare Agents Disposed in European Waters• Legal Responsibilities of States• Conclusion and The Imperative for an International Strategy“Bottom Line”The environmental and public health problems facing European nations incident to the anticipated release of potentially massive amounts of slowly hydrolyzing nerve and blister agents into the marine environment are more critical and urgent than generally supposed. Increased incidents of human and marine injury in recent years have convinced many the threat of chemical poisons leaking from the deteriorating shells, canisters, and containers on the ocean floor is an imminent and insoluble problem. The fundamental premise of this study is that when the these sea disposals occurred, dumping of toxic CW into the ocean was the preferred disposal method and was not an act of malevolence or ill will. Such dumping was not prohibited and the effect on the environment was simply not considered important at that time. It is therefore not the intent of this book to affix blame or culpability.Rather, a detailed analysis of principal findings underscores the imperative for an international strategy and a proposal for international collaboration and cooperation in addressing the potential problem is advanced. THIS IS THE BLACK & WHITE VERSION.THE FULL COLOR VERSION IS ALSO AVAILABLE.Key Links:• The Institute for Sea-Disposed Chemical Weapons:http://www.isdcw.org• Facebook Sites: o Book: “The Sea Disposal of Chemical Weapons”: http://www.facebook.com/TSDCW o Institute for Sea-Disposed Chemical Weapons: http://www.facebook.com/157185534305736

Author: A.V. Kaffka
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401587132
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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This volume summarises the materials presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Sea-Dumped Chemical Munitions, held in Kaliningrad (Moscow Region), Russia, in January 1995. The conference was sponsored by the NATO Division of Scientific and Environmental Affairs in the framework of its outreach programme to develop co-operation between NATO member countries and the Cooperation Partner countries in the area of disarmament technologies. The problem of the ecological threat posed by chemical weapons (CW) dumped in the seas after the Second World War deserves considerable international attention: the amount of these weapons, many of them having been captured from the German Army, is assessed at more than three times as much as the total chemical arsenals reported by the United States and Russia. They were disposed of in the shallow depths of North European seas - areas of active fishing - in close proximity to densely populated coastlines, with no consideration of the long-term consequences. The highly toxic material have time and again showed up, for instance when retrieved occasionally in the fishing nets, attracting local media coverage only. Nevertheless, this issue has not yet been given adequate and comprehensive scientific analysis, the sea-disposed munitions are not covered by either the Chemical Weapons Convention or other arms control treaties. In fact, the problem has been neglected for a long time on the international level. Only recently were official data made available by the countries which admitted conducting dumping operations.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Chemical weapons disposal
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Author: Jon Mitchell
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538130343
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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In this devastating exposé, investigative journalist Jon Mitchell reveals the shocking toxic contamination of the Pacific Ocean and millions of victims by the US military. For decades, US military operations have been contaminating the Pacific region with toxic substances, including plutonium, dioxin, and VX nerve agent. Hundreds of thousands of service members, their families, and residents have been exposed—but the United States has hidden the damage and refused to help victims. After World War II, the United States granted immunity to Japanese military scientists in exchange for their data on biological weapons tests conducted in China; in the following years, nuclear detonations in the Pacific obliterated entire islands and exposed Americans, Marshallese, Chamorros, and Japanese fishing crews to radioactive fallout. At the same time, the United States experimented with biological weapons on Okinawa and stockpiled the island with nuclear and chemical munitions, causing numerous accidents. Meanwhile, the CIA orchestrated a campaign to introduce nuclear power to Japan—the folly of which became horrifyingly clear in the 2011 meltdowns in Fukushima Prefecture. Caught in a geopolitical grey zone, US territories have been among the worst affected by military contamination, including Guam, Saipan, and Johnston Island, the final disposal site of apocalyptic volumes of chemical weapons and Agent Orange. Accompanying this damage, US authorities have waged a campaign of cover-ups, lies, and attacks on the media, which the author has experienced firsthand in the form of military surveillance and attempts by the State Department to impede his work. Now, for the first time, this explosive book reveals the horrific extent of contamination in the Pacific and the lengths the Pentagon will go to conceal it.

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309049466
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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The U.S. Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program was established with the goal of destroying the nation's stockpile of lethal unitary chemical weapons. Since 1990 the U.S. Army has been testing a baseline incineration technology on Johnston Island in the southern Pacific Ocean. Under the planned disposal program, this baseline technology will be imported in the mid to late 1990s to continental United States disposal facilities; construction will include eight stockpile storage sites. In early 1992 the Committee on Alternative Chemical Demilitarization Technologies was formed by the National Research Council to investigate potential alternatives to the baseline technology. This book, the result of its investigation, addresses the use of alternative destruction technologies to replace, partly or wholly, or to be used in addition to the baseline technology. The book considers principal technologies that might be applied to the disposal program, strategies that might be used to manage the stockpile, and combinations of technologies that might be employed.

Author: Thomas Stock
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
In October 1993, eighteen experts from ten countries met in Munster, Germany to discuss various aspects of the problem of old chemical munitions and toxic armaments wastes. This comprehensive study discusses the characteristics of chemical warfare agents and toxic armament wastes, past chemical weapons production activities, chemical weapons disposal and destruction, sea dumping of chemical weapons, and legal issues related to old chemical munitions and toxic armament wastes.

Author: Egbert Klaas Duursma
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN: 9781496077240
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 70

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Baltic Sea *Although leaked chemical warfare (CW) gases rapidly hydrolyse in sea water, potential risks of serious contamination will exist for many decades for sailors, fishermen and coastal visitors of the Baltic Sea, in particular concerning contact with lumps of mustard gas. *Since 72% of the CW agents is contained in aircraft bombs, which are already in various stages of corrosion and 63% of all CW agents is S-mustard gas, the loss by lumps of mustard, spread over the seabed in the neighbourhood of dump sites, represents the greatest danger. *There remain sites at risk outside the Allied Forces dump sites, since during the disposal procedures before 1948, ammunition was thrown overboard between the discharge ports of Wolfgast and Peenemunde and the dump sites east of Bornholm and south of Gotland. *Blue prints of emergency plans should be available in order to confine, bury or destroy ammunition at risk. Skagerak *Most dumped CW ammunition is contained in deliberately sunken vessels. *Implosion of the chemical weapon's cargo in these vessels, due to its own weight, may increase loss of CW agents, in particular from corroded aircraft bombs. *Several wrecked ships have been located outside the dump site as indicated on the nautical charts. *Steps should be taken to sarcophage the wrecked ships in order to avoid an eventual contamination of the eastern North Sea and coastal waters of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. General *Although the Helsinki Commission, through its ad hoc Working Group HELCOM CHEMU has correctly evaluated the present risks of the dumped CW ammunition, it is obvious that the authorities of the Baltic States and Norway should be prepared to act jointly in emergency situations.