Module 3: CBRN extras

Topic 3.1: CBRN extras

Presentation 3.1.1: Elaborated history: development
of agents, actual incidents from the past & context

Learning objective: To identify historical CBRN events and put them

into context
 Elaborated History: (non)deliberate release
• Elaborated history: development of agents, actual incidents from the past & context

Chemical agents

Biological agents

Radiological & Nuclear agents

MELDOY Presentation 3.1.1: Elaborated history: development of agents, actual incidents from the past & context 3
 Elaborated History: (non)deliberate release
• Elaborated history: development of agents, actual incidents from the past & context

Non-deliberate release:
Accidental or naturally released which has the
Chemical agents
potential to cause physical or psychological harm to
humans, including loss of life, damage or losses of
property, and/or disruption to the environment or of
economic social, political structures
Biological agents
Deliberate release:
Intentional release or dissemination by state-actors or
Radiological & Nuclear agents individuals, to cause fear, illness or death in people, animals
or plants and/or disrupting social, economic or political
stability.

MELDOY Presentation 3.1.1: Elaborated history: development of agents, actual incidents from the past & context 4
 Deliberate release
• Warfare
• Intentional release of agents for the purpose of killing or harming enemy
military personnel or populations
• Terrorism
• The intentional release or dissemination by terrorist of agents to cause fear,
illness or death in people, animals or plants and/or disrupting social,
economic or political stability
• Crime
• The use of an agent to kill or make ill a single individual or a small group of
individuals, motivated by revenge or monetary gain through extortion, rather
by than political, ideological, religious or other beliefs.

MELDOY Presentation 3.1.1: Elaborated history: development of agents, actual incidents from the past & context 5
 Chemical Agents

MELDOY Presentation 3.1.1: Elaborated history: development of agents, actual incidents from the past & context 6
 Chemical warfare: historic perspective
• 429 BC, Greece Peloponnesian War, the siege of Platea
• Spartans burned sulfur, creating toxic gases, resulting
in Plateans abandoning their posts.
• 1456, Siege of Belgrade
• Alchemist created poison clouds by burning rags that
may have contained chlorine gas
• Fifteenth century
• Leonardo da Vinci designed explosive shells filled with arsenic and sulfur for
use against ships

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 Chemical warfare: World War I
• 1915-1918, World War I
• French, German, & British troops
• 22 April 1915, Ypres, Belgium:
• First large-scale attack using chemical weapons taking place at Leper

• 124,200 tonnes of chlorine, mustard and

other chemical agents released
• > 90,000 soldiers had suffered painful
deaths due to exposure to them
• ~ 1.000.000 people blind, disfigured or
debilitating injuries
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 Chemical warfare: Geneva Protocol
• 1925 Geneva Protocol
• Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other
Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare
• Meant to prevent recurrence of chemical weapons after horrors of World War I
• Prohibits the use of chemical and biological weapons in interstate wars
• Does not prohibit the development, production or possession of chemical and
biologiweapons

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 Chemical warfare: Chemical weapon programs
24 Countries with known or possible chemical weapons after World War II

• USSR
• 1967 decree: directing preparations for chemical-biological war
• The stockpile of chemical weapons consisted of a declared stockpile of
nearly 40,000 metric tons of chemical nerve, blister and choking agents
• United States
• The chemical weapons program began in 1917 during World War I with
the creation of the U.S. Army's Gas Service Section and ended 73 years
later in 1990

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 Chemical warfare: Late 20 century th

• 1980-1988, Iran-Iraq war

• Iraq used mustard gas and tabun on Iranian forces and civilians
• 1990-1991, Threat of chemical warfare during the Gulf War
• Late 1980s, Improvement in superpower relations
• 1990, bilateral United States–Soviet Union agreement:
• to destroy most of their Chemical Weapon stockpiles
• to refrain from further CW production

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 Chemical Weapons Convention
• Prohibits the large-scale use, development, production, stockpiling and
transfer of chemical weapons and their precursors
• 1993, Opened for signature
• 1997, Entered into force
• Most states have joined the Chemical Weapons Convention, which
required the destruction of all chemical weapons by 2012.
• Many nations continue to research and/or stockpile chemical weapon
agents despite numerous efforts to reduce or eliminate them.
• According to the United States government, at least 17 nations currently
have active chemical weapons programs.

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 Chemical Weapons Convention
• Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is the
implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention
• 2013 Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to the OPCW

As of 31 March 2021:
• 98.5% of world’s declared chemical weapons stockpiles destroyed
• Total destroyed stockpiles of chemical agents: 71,270 metric tonnes
• 97 Chemical Weapons Production Facilities (CWPF) declared
• 74 Destroyed
• 23 Converted for peaceful purpose

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 Chemical terrorism
• 1995, Aum Shinrikyo cult released Sarin on 3 metro lines, Tokyo, Japan
• 2015, 35 Kurdish fighters wounded in a chemical attack by ISIS terrorists,
Erbil, Iraq
• 2016, ISIS launched a chemical attack on a town injuring 600 persons,
Taza, Iraq

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 UN Security Council Resolution 1540 (2004)
• Adopted unanimously on 28 April 2004
• Member States are obliged to prevent the spread of weapons of mass
destruction by non-state actors
• Resolution is universal by covering nuclear, chemical and biological weapons
and their means of delivery
• States are required to ensure a national legal framework of laws, regulations
and controls

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 Chemical assasination
• 2018, Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
• Both were poisoned in Salisbury, England, with a Novichok nerve agent

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 Chemical agents: transport accidents
• 1979, Train derailment, Florida, USA
• Train with 29 cars derailed
• 26 cars contained hazardous materials
• 2 tank cars with anhydrous ammonia ruptured and
rocketed
• 12 tank cars were ruptured, content burned
• acetone, methyl alcohol, chlorine, carbolic acid, and
anhydrous ammonia
• 14 persons were injured as a result of the release
of anhydrous ammonia and other materials or
during the evacuation of 4,500 persons.

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 Chemical agents: industrial accidents (1)
• 1984, chemical plant leakage release, Bhopal, India
• Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal,
released methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas in the night 2 -3
December 1984
• Considered to be the world's worst industrial disaster.
• Over 500,000 people were exposed
• In retrospect (2006): leak caused 560,000 injuries, including
39,000 temporary partial injuries and approximately 4,000
severely and permanently disabling injuries.

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 Chemical agents: industrial accidents (2)
• 2010, Oil spill, Gulf of Mexico, USA
• Upwelling natural gas caused an explosion on
the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in April
• Subsequent sinking of the platform left the oil
well uncovered
• Oil well was declared sealed in September
• Considered the largest marine oil spill
and one of the largest environmental disasters
in American history
• 11 people were killed, 17 people injured

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 Biological Agents

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 Biological Warfare : historic perspective (I)
• 184 B.C. Naval battle, King Eumenes vs Hannibal of Carthage
• Hanibal’s navy catapulted pots with venomous snakes towards
enemy ships.
• 1346, Siege of Caffa (Feodosia, Crimea), by the Mongolian army
• Tartar forces catapulted bubonic plague victims over the walls of
the city

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 Biological Warfare : historic perspective
(II)
• 1863, American Civil War. Confederate versus Union forces
• Confederates sell clothing from yellow fever & smallpox patients to Union
troops
• 1916, WW I. Germany (attempted) anti-agricultural biological warfare, by using
• Ampoules with anthrax, which were placed by agents in horse stables of
Russian forces in Finland
• Acquired laboratory produced glanders to infect livestock in ports &
collection points in the USA

• 1925, Geneva protocol

• Prohibits the use of chemical and biological weapons

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 Biological weapon programs
• Biological weapon: combination of a biological agent with a dissemination
system
• Identification of countries running biological weapon programs is not easy
• Based on what is known, 15 countries had biological weapon programs
• The Soviet Union and US programs have the largest and most
sophisticated programs as compared to the other countries

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 Biological weapon programs: USSR
• Biological weapon programs: USSR (52 sites
employing over 50,000 people)
• 1920 - 1992 (according to Boris Yeltsin)
• 1946: biological weapons facility established in
Sverdlovsk.
• 1973: A "civilian" main directorate, Biopreparat,
was founded.
• Human experimentation occurred with typhus,
glanders and melioidosis in the Solovetsky camp
• Stockpiles of battle-ready biological weapons

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 Biological weapon program: USA
• Biological weapon programs: USA
• 1943 until 1969
• Fort Detrick
• Laboratory and field testing had been
common, some of the latter using simulants
on non-consenting individuals.
• Stockpiles of battle-ready biological
weapons

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 Biological weapon programs
• 1979, accidentally release of anthrax

• Soviet military research facility near

Sverdlovsk, Russia
• Weaponized Anthrax strain (836)
• Accident during change of filters
• Wind was away from the city
• Deaths ≥ 75
• Reported ill: 120-400

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 Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention
• Biological weapon programs
Biological and
Toxin Weapons
Convention
BTWC (1972)

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 Biological agents: natural epidemics
• 1918, Spanish flu, influenza pandemic
• Unusually deadly influenza pandemic.
• Estimation 50 million / up to 100 million
deaths, i.e. 3-5 % of Earth's population
• Deadliest epidemics in human history

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 Biological industrial outbreak
• 2007 -2011, Q fever outbreak in The Netherlands
• Spill-over from animals to humans
• 5000 people diagnosed with Q fever
• Goats and sheep designated as the source of the outbreak.

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 Biological terrorism
• 1984, Intentional release of Salmonella in salad
bars (The Dallas, Oregon, USA)
• Bhagwan followers contaminated 10 salad bars
with S. enterica Typhimurium
• 2001, Anthrax attacks (Amerithrax), one week
after the September 11 attack
• Letters containing anthrax spores mailed to
news media offices and senators

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 Biological
assasinations
• 1978 Umbrella murder, London. Bulgarian
dissident (injected with ricin pellet)
• Bulgarian secret police injected Marcov with
ricin, using an umbrella-like device.
• 1996 Intentional release of Shigella dysenteriae
(pastries in laboratory canteen)
• Bacterial strain originated from own laboratory
stock, released by lab technician.

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 Radiological and Nuclear Agents

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 Nuclear warfare
• USA detonated two bombs over Japan
• 1945 August 6, Hiroshima:
• "Little Boy", uranium gun-type bomb
• blast killed 90-146,000 people
• 1945 August 9, Nagasaki:
• "Fat Man", plutonium implosion bomb
• blast killed 39-80,000 thousand
• people continued to die for months afterwards
• radiation protection today is largely built on the
long-term effects in survivors

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 Nuclear weapon programs treaties
• Limited Nuclear Test Ban, 1963
• testing in outer space, underwater or in atmosphere.
• signed by USSR, USA, UK
• Comprehensive Test Ban, 1996
• weapon test or other nuclear explosion
• signed by the five NWS +184 nations
• note: ratification is still in progress
• Non-Proliferation, 1968
• into force 1970 Monitoring network for Nuclear Detonation
• non-NWS never acquire nuclear weapons
• NWS share benefits of peaceful technology and pursue disarmament
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 Radiological release: ignorance
• 1960 - 2001 34 incidents worldwide:
• 42 early deaths (children and adults)
• >300 affected
• Orphan sources
CNEN, Brazil
• abandoned or never registered
• Teletherapy sources
• Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator
• dismantled for scrap metal or
taken home as they look "interesting"
• Major incident: Goiânia, Brasil, 1987
• 4 death, 129 people affected
• 3500 m3 of radioactive waste
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 Radiological terrorism and assasination
• 1987, Iraq tests dirty bomb, radiation level deemed too low, Iraq
• 1995, Cesium found in park in Moscow, Russia
• 1998, Undetonated dirty bomb found in Grozny, Chechnya
• 2002, J. Padilla arrested for planning dirty bomb attack, Chicago, USA
• 2003, British claim Al Qaeda built a dirty bomb, statement was withdrawn
• 2006, Litvinenko assassination using Polonium 210, London, UK
• 2007, D. Barot convicted planning dirty bomb attack, UK

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 Radiological agents: Transport accidents
• Accidents, but no radiological accidents
• To date, none have resulted in any significant releases
• Strict and extensive regulations on
packing prevent accidental releases
• Transported radioactive materials
are not explosive, they do not burn

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 Nuclear materials
• Non-deliberate release: transport accidents
• 1968 Thule, USAF B-52 crashed carrying 4 B28FI thermonuclear bombs
• nuclear payload ruptures and dispersed
• Denmark requested removal of all contaminations

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 Nuclear industrial accidents
• Non-deliberate release: industrial accidents
• Criticality accidents:
• 23 criticality accidents reported in 1945 - 2003
• most related to nuclear weapons program
• 7 accidents, exposures of the environment,
and potentially to the general public
• Nuclear Power Plants:
• Three Mile Island,1979. Harrisburg, USA
• Reactor 4, 1986, Chernobyl, USSR/Ukraine
• Daiichi, 2011, Fukushima, Japan

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 Nuclear materials: above ground testing
• Over 2100 detonations world wide
Partial Test-Ban Treaty

• Around 500 above ground, continued opened for signature, 1963

bans atmospheric testing

until 1975 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

opened for signature, 1996
bans explosive testing

• Increased background radiation

world wide

1945

2013
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 Take home message
• Large scale accidents, deliberate releases and assassinations with CBRN
agents have occurred with long-lasting consequences for man and the
environment
• Treaties to prevent further development and use of CBRN as warfare
agents exist, both for state as for non-state actors, but not all countries
ratified these treaties

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 Thank you for your attention

MELDOY Presentation 3.1.1: Elaborated history: development of agents, actual incidents from the past & context 42