The international organization that has banned chemical weapons is expected to celebrate its first major milestone sometime this year – the complete destruction of the world’s declared stockpile of banned substances. But at the organization’s brand new facility in the Netherlands, scientists from around the world will continue their work to prevent, detect and respond to chemical warfare.
On May 12, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) officially opened its new Center for Chemistry and Technology near The Hague, where the international organization will combine its existing laboratories and add new monitoring and training programs.
Although almost all countries with the exception of Egypt, Israel, North Korea and South Sudan have officially renounced the use of chemical weapons under an international treaty called the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), these chemicals continue to be used illegally.
The OPCW has played a central role in responding to the crises: its investigators found that nerve gas and chlorine were used in the Syrian civil war over the past decade, for example, and in 2018 an OPCW team investigated an Chemical weapons assassination attempt on a Russian dissident. in the United Kingdom, which involved a nerve agent called Novichok.
Developing knowledge, skills and expertise related to chemical weapons
The center “will enable the OPCW to improve the [laboratory] verification regime by maintaining and developing our knowledge, skills and expertise related to chemical weapons,” says OPCW Director General Fernando Arias.
“Today was a historic step forward for the OPCW,” said Paul Walker, vice chairman of the board of the non-governmental organization Arms Control Association in Washington DC, after attending the launch on 12 May. Although the OPCW’s monitoring work had been ongoing for more than a decade, the Syrian civil war catapulted it onto the global stage.
Liquidation of stocks chemical weapons
Since 1997, the OPCW has had a mandate under the CWC to monitor countries’ compliance with the ban, which required signatories to stop producing chemical weapons, declare their existing stockpiles and commit to their destruction.
The organization has so far certified the destruction of more than 70,000 tons of chemical weapons and won the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize for its work. Of the eight countries that have disclosed their possession of such weapons, seven have done so. The eighth the United States expects to finish destroying its stockpiles (mainly artillery containing mustard gas and nerve agents) in the next few months, and is believed to be the last country to do so.
In the new center, the warehouse is stocked with crates of analytical chemical weapons equipment ready for shipment all over the world. In addition to investigating alleged chemical weapons attacks, the OPCW sends inspectors on routine missions to chemical facilities in member countries, often at short notice, to look for evidence of the production of banned chemicals. “Inspectors go to different locations and basically check what those specific locations have declared,” says Hay.
Samples brought back to The Hague are also sent to at least two international laboratories to ensure that the results are checked before being reported to member countries. “It’s really important to have access to really good facilities where the results are indisputable,” notes Hay.
These facilities are part of a network of 25 “OPCW designated” laboratories. The task of the Center for Chemistry and Technology is to put laboratories through a regular certification process to enable participation in the network. The center also trains chemists from laboratories that want to meet its standards and join the list.
In an effort to provide knowledge to as many nations as possible, the OPCW is working for the first time to certify laboratories in African countries: its current trainees include scientists from Algeria, Morocco, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
Increasing the geographic diversity of laboratories can “build global capacity for the benefit of all regions and the international community as a whole,” says Waechter.
Written by: Vaishali Verma
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Reference: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01622-9
