Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfare (2008) - The Black Vault

Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfarewas the primary tool for evaluating technologies andprocesses to destroy chemical munitions and agentsbetween 1979 and 1986. Based on extensive testing andevaluation, the Army decided that a reverse-assemblyapproach to disassembling the munitions, followed byincineration and treatment of off-gases by a pollutionabatement system, should be used for constructing apilot disposal facility at Johnston Island in the PacificOcean.In the 1980s Congress tied the binary program tothe chemical demilitarization program by languagethat directed the Army to destroy an equal amountof unitary weapons as they built the new binaryweapons. 108 In 1985 Congress authorized the Army toexecute the binary weapons production with a numberof constraints, one of them being the elimination of theexisting chemical agents and munitions by September1994. This language also authorized the creation of anew Army management organization, headed by ageneral officer, to execute the disposal mission. 30,38 Asa result, the Army’s Program Manager for ChemicalMunitions (Demilitarization and Binary) was establishedat Aberdeen Proving Ground on May 1, 1986.In 1987 the binary munitions project split off, and in1988, the office was renamed the “Program Managerfor Chemical Demilitarization.”The US Army Chemical Materials Agency, whichassumed the responsibilities of the Program Managerfor Chemical Demilitarization in 2003, employsmanual and robotic technologies to carry out eitherhigh-temperature incineration or chemical elimination.Several of the agency’s facilities use high-temperatureincineration for agent, explosive, and propellantcomponents. Prototype studies were conducted atJohnston Island (1990–1993), and the technology wasthen transferred to the Tooele, Utah, facility, whichcommenced operation in 1996. Public unease withincinerator-based technologies resulted in the creationof the Assembled Chemical Weapons AlternativesProgram in 1997. Under this DoD program, the PuebloChemical Depot in Colorado will neutralize HD withhot water followed by bacterial elimination of the products.At the Bluegrass Army Depot in Kentucky, agentwill be hydrolyzed and the hydrolysate subjected tofundamental decomposition under high temperatureand pressure. The Newport Army Depot in Indianabecame fully operational in 2005, hydrolyzing its nerveagent stocks.Nonchemical weapons are typically rendered inoperablethrough mechanical means such as crushing,sawing, or detonation. Contaminated materials areincinerated or chemically decontaminated. The UnitedStates has also developed a portable, flatbed-mountedexplosive destruction system to destroy old, unstablechemical warfare munitions.From a medical perspective, the chemical demilitarizationprogram upholds occupational safety standardsenacted to protect workers and maintains publichealth measures to protect citizens. Both the EnvironmentalProtection Agency (EPA) and the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention (CDC) worked withthe Army surgeon general and the Army Center forHealth Promotion and Preventive Medicine to developworker and public health standards in line with similarOccupational Safety and Health Administration andNational Institute of Occupational Safety and Healthguidance for working with hazardous materials.For personnel working at the stockpile sites anddisposal facilities, the CDC promulgated airborneexposure levels as occupational safety standards forvarious timeframes and purposes. These include thefollowing limits:• Immediately dangerous to life or health: themaximum exposure concentration at whichone could escape within 30 minutes withoutany escape-impairing symptoms or permanentadverse health effects.• Short-term exposure limit: the maximumconcentration at which unprotected chemicalworkers may be exposed for up to 15 minutes.• Worker population limit: the maximum allowableconcentration at which unprotectedchemical workers may be exposed for an8-hour workday and 40-hour workweek over30 years.• General population limit: the maximumconcentration at which the general populationmay be exposed continuously, based onexposure 24 hour per day, 7 days per week,over a 70-year lifetime. 109In addition to protecting civilians and militaryemployees on post, the Army’s chemical demilitarizationprogram supports the development and implementationof medical emergency response protocolsfor any chemical accidents or incidents that involvean off-post exposure hazard. The Chemical StockpileEmergency Preparedness Program, established in1988, has funded both on-post and off-post efforts toensure that state and local emergency responders canreact to chemical accidents or incidents, protecting thepublic living around the stockpile sites. The medicalagencies at those sites work to prepare emergencymedical technicians and hospitals to receive and treatpotentially exposed civilians by providing advice onthe procurement of personal protective equipment,142