Europe Plans Chemical Terror Alert
European states are preparing to deal with possible chemical terrorism attacks, including a chemical incident alert system.
June 4, 2002
by Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent Europe is preparing itself to cope with the possibility of attack by terrorists using chemicals.
The initiative would not have been launched were it not for last September's terrorist attacks on the Unites States.
Preparation saves time and saves lives - Roberto Bertollini, WHO Europe
It involves improving and streamlining individual countries' ability to cope with chemical incidents, whatever their cause.
Beyond that, though, it takes European collaboration on chemical threats to a new level.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Europe office, based in Denmark, is taking the lead in preparing the plan, with the backing of other international bodies including the European Union and the G-8 group of leading industrialised countries.
Roberto Bertollini, director of technical support for WHO Europe, said: "We do not know when or if there will be a chemical attack, but we know from our experience in handling other crises involving chemical accidents that preparation saves time and saves lives."
Close collaboration
Professor Gary Coleman speaks for the International Clearing House for Major Chemical Incidents in Cardiff, UK.
He said: "Fighting chemical terrorism involves not only international cooperation, but close collaboration, planning and integration across a host of different sectors and experts."
An accidental chemical explosion in Toulouse killed 31 last year
"This allows a fast and efficient response in emergencies, and it also strengthens public services overall."
WHO and the International Programme on Chemical Safety (IPCS) have already built up experience in dealing with chemical incidents.
Work has now begun to devise an international incident scale which will quickly establish the severity of any incident, a parallel to the existing nuclear incident scale.
Chemical threat
WHO says there are significant chemical incidents of some kind every month.
In the UK, in the last six-month period for which figures are available, there were 704 incidents, three of which affected more than 50 people.
Recent major incidents in Europe include the explosion in a warehouse at a fertiliser factory in Toulouse, France, in September 2001, which killed 31 people and injured over 2,000, and another in a fireworks factory in the Dutch town of Enschede in May 2000 which killed 20 people and injured hundreds.
Chemical terrorism could also threaten people through food, air or other routes.
Europe wants to learn from the US anthrax scare
BBC News Online has learnt that the planners' underlying assumption is that it is not a question of whether Europe will undergo chemical attack, but when.
Some countries have already developed substantial expertise - the UK is seen as a model in this respect.
But without the events of 11 September the European initiative, which takes cross-border co-operation throughout the continent to a new pitch, would not have been launched.
At a national level, Europe believes it has plenty to learn from the US experience of coping with the anthrax scares since September.
Different agencies and services are said to have operated according to their own mandates, without the degree of integration the planners believe will be essential in any future attack.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2025000/2025014.stm