The United states accuses Russia of employing the chemical agent chloropicrin in Ukraine

Posted 04 May 2024

2 min read

Chloropicrin is a broad-spectrum fumigant chemical that can be used as an antimicrobial, fungicide, herbicide, insecticide,nematicide and also as a warfare agent.
- First used as a poison gas in the First World War, both by Allied and Central Powers.
- Features: Colorless to yellow oily liquid.
  - highly volatile and is a gas at room temperature.
- Effects on humans: Severe irritation to eyes, skin, respiratory tract, induce vomiting, etc.
Chemical weapons are munitions and other devices which use the toxic effects of chemicals on living organisms to cause death or other harm.

International regulation on Chemical Weapons:
- Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) entered into force in 1997.
  - Prohibits the development, production, stock-piling and use of chemical weapons and monitors its elimination in order to secure a chemical weapons free world.
  - India is a signatory and party of CWC and enacted Chemical Weapons Convention Act, 2000.
- Geneva Protocol 1925:Prohibits the use of chemical and biological weapons in the field of conflict.

Concerns regarding chemical weapons: Indiscriminate nature, can cause lifelong damages, used in recent conflicts like in Syria, etc.

Headquarter: Hague (Netherlands)
Function: Implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Mission: To implement the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention to achieve a vision of a world free of chemical weapons.
Members:193 (India is also its member).
Nobel Prize for peace: Awarded in 2013 for ‘its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons’.

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