Ecological Risks Associated with the Destruction of Chemical Weapons: Proceedings of the NATO ARW on Ecological Risks Associated with the Destruction ... (Nato Security through Science Series C:) - Tapa blanda

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1 2 Prof. Dr. Vladimir Mikhailovitsh Kolodkin , Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Ruck 1 Institute of Natural and Technogenic Disasters, Udmurt State University, Izhevsk (Russia), 2 Institute of Ecology and Environmental Chemistry, University Lüneburg (Germany) During the Cold War a whole arsenal of deadly chemical weapons was allowed to build up on both sides of the ideological divide. Happily, today the problems are reversed. Expertise is now required in the field of safe and environment-friendly disposal of chemical weapons and cleaning up of contaminated sites all around the world, but not least in the ex-Soviet-led countries. The participants and speakers to the NATO-Russia advanced research workshop on the "Ecological Risks Associated with the Destruction of nd th Chemical Weapons", hosted by the University of Lüneburg on 22 - 26 October, 2003, therefore, came from many different parts of the world. Of the eight countries represented at the workshop, two were ex-Eastern- Block, and six were Western countries. Yet the West was by no means overrepresented. On the contrary, the Russian expert-speaker contingent, with 33 participants, did justice to the size of their country - and to their chemical-weapons problem - and provided the majority of active participants. In all, there were 57 participants, of which 11 dispatched from the TACIS project "The development of the chemical weapons" facility at the detached plant No 4 of OAO Khimprom, Novocheboksarsk.

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The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and their Destruction provides for the elimination of chemical weapons arsenals amassed during the Cold War. The easier-said-than-done task of removing these deadly weapons, however, poses huge environmental problems. This book is the compendium of the workshop on the "Ecological Risks Associated with the Destruction of Chemical Weapons", hosted by the University of Lüneburg in October 2003, which brought the former enemies NATO and Russia together to discuss, reflect on, and exchange their experiences in the laudable mission of environmentally friendly disposal of chemical weapons.

This four-day workshop received contributions from 57 experts from North America, Russia, and European countries. Most of them are recognized authorities in the field of chemical weapons disposal as well as in related fields.

The speeches by those who share the burden of this terrible undertaking concentrated on cleaning up contaminated sites, the ethics, political and international law aspects of the destruction of chemical weapons, and on issues related to human health, pathogenesis, toxicity, and exposure to the polluted environment. Contributions were also made on lewisite detection, risk prevention, insurance, safety, monitoring of old chemical weapons destruction as well as public awareness for this problem.