In 1999 the US Congress allocated US$6 million to help
former Soviet republic Uzbekistan deconstruct and
decontaminate a major Soviet chemical
weapons testing facility involved in
the development of Novichok.
NOVICHOK
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has told parliament that a military-grade nerve agent was used in an attack on former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal. The attack has left Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, in a critical but stable condition. (Since much improved.)
What is Novichok:
[ N-2-diethylaminomethylacetamidido-ethoxyphosphonofluoridate ]
Novichok is the name of a group of nerve agents developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 80s as part of a secret program codenamed Foliant.
The various Novichok agents each have an organophosphorous core, an organic compound which contains phosphorous, and which is often used in pesticides. In fact, it’s thought that the development of Novichok was partly carried out under the guise of pesticide development. Most commonly, this core is either a phosphoramidate or a phosphonate and it is sometimes fluorinated to become a monofluorophosphate.
Other phosphonates and biphosphonates have been used in herbicides, plant growth inhibitors and medicines, while sodium monofluorophosphate can be used in toothpaste. The organic compounds added vary enormously, resulting in agents of varying potency…
Novichok, which is up to eight times more powerful than VX gas ♦, which in turn is ten times more poisonous than deadly Sarin gas, is formulated to resist standard nerve agent treatments. Meaning “newcomer” in Russian and developed to be viciously lethal and undetectable, Novichok will begin to act on muscles and respiration within minutes.
While some Novichok agents are liquids, others are thought to exist in solid form. This means they could be dispersed as an ultra-fine powder. Some of the agents are also reported to be “binary weapons”, meaning the nerve agent is typically stored as two less toxic chemical ingredients. When these are mixed, they react to produce the active toxic agent. This makes the ingredients easier to transport, handle and store as they only become fully toxic when mixed. “One of the main reasons these agents are developed is because their component parts are not on the banned list,” says Prof Stephens. “It means the chemicals that are mixed to create it are much easier to deliver with no risk to the health of the courier.”
♦ The Government of North Korea used the chemical warfare agent VX
to assassinate Kim Jong Nam, in the Kuala Lumpur airport on 13 February 2017.
Our comment:
Full text ⇒ HERE
In 1993, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) was agreed.
In 1997, the convention became international law following
ratification of the treaty by 65 countries.
Today, 192 countries are fully paid-up members of the convention with only North Korea, Israel, South Sudan and Egypt still not part of the group. However, as the convention is international law, these four countries are still bound by its provisions that any use of a chemical to deliberately harm another person constitutes use of a chemical weapon – and is illegal.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) oversees implementation of the CWC and supervises destruction of declared chemical weapons and any production facilities for these weapons. To date, approximately 96 per cent of declared stockpiles have been destroyed. In October 2017, Russia announced that it had destroyed its stocks of some 40,000 tonnes. The US is expected to complete destruction of its weapons stockpile by around 2021/22.
Alastair Hay: “I have no doubt that a competent chemist looking at the published chemical structures of these compounds could work out a way of making it, and so it would not preclude any other laboratory with the right facilities and the individual having the right skills making this agent. There has been dispute about the particular chemical structures and this is why these agents were never declared as such by the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) in what they call their schedules, their schedules described recognizing those nerve agents and their structures, and the Novichok chemicals were not included there although they were discussed in 2013 in the organization.
Alastair Hay is Professor of Environmental Toxicology at the University of Leeds.
He has worked on chemical weapons issues for nearly 40 years.
Part of this work has included 6 investigations of actual
and alleged chemical weapons use.
More → HERE
See also our post on → Sarin in Syria
The U.S. ship the MV Cape Ray in the Mediterranean Sea has neutralized
more than 580 tons of chemical ingredients for the nerve agent sarin
as part of the international effort to destroy Syria’s chemical
weapons program, according to the U.N. Organization.
Advances in toxicology and medical treatment of chemical warfare nerve agents
…Sarin is water soluble in any ratio and water hydrolyzes it to remove fluorine
and produce a nontoxic product compared with the parent compound…
Skripal, Novichok, Russia, Israel, Syria, MI6 and Salisbury
Former UK Ambassador
Craig Murray
Extract:
…Israel has the nerve agents. Israel has Mossad which is extremely skilled at foreign assassinations. Theresa May claimed Russian propensity to assassinate abroad as a specific reason to believe Russia did it. Well Mossad has an even greater propensity to assassinate abroad. And while I am struggling to see a Russian motive for damaging its own international reputation so grievously, Israel has a clear motivation for damaging the Russian reputation so grievously. Russian action in Syria has undermined the Israeli position in Syria and Lebanon in a fundamental way, and Israel has every motive for damaging Russia’s international position by an attack aiming to leave the blame on Russia… – Full text ⇒ HERE
We thank you all for your research and wish you well in the future.
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