Chemical weapon destruction takes float

As a chemist and a journalist, I can frequently be found on my soapbox when chemicals are unfairly portrayed as ‘bad’ by the media.  But there are a handful of chemicals out there that are bad. Appallingly, irredeemably, bad. The world received a shocking reminder of that last year when chemical weapons were used to gas civilians in Syria.

After five apparent practice runs earlier in the year, on 21 August 2013 an estimated 1500 Syrian’s were killed by exposure to the nerve gas sarin in the suburbs of Damascus. Backlash from the international community over this attack led to Syria finally agreeing to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention. Implemented by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, this convention prohibits the use, production and stockpiling of chemical weapons in all its signature countries. Syria has agreed to the destruction of its entire chemical weapons programme by 30 June 2014. This is phenomenally fast, when you consider that the US is not estimated to complete destroying its own stockpile until 2023.