Senate Scare Highlights
Chemical Agent Monitoring Need
by
Craig Williams, Director
Chemical Weapons Working Group
Eight U.S. senators and a couple hundred employees in the Russell Senate
Building got a scare Wednesday night when air monitors sounded for the presence
of nerve agent. Fortunately it was a false alarm.
The incident caused concern not only with the Russell building occupants
but also with communities in the shadow of chemical weapons stockpiles. Citizens
live daily with the risks of chemical agent exposure and need advanced monitoring
systems for these lethal agents.
Significant advances in chemical warfare agent detection have occurred over
the past decade, especially since September 11, 2001.
Unfortunately, communities living close to these chemical weapons stockpiles
are not provided the most advanced monitoring systems.
Cities in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Oregon
and Utah, some with upwards of 75,000 residents in what is called the "Immediate
Response Zone" depend on antiquated perimeter monitors - absorbent tubes
affixed atop telephone poles, drawing air over 6-12 hours before being analyzed.
The analysis often requires hours to determine if chemical agent drifted
past the three-inch tube atop the pole. Obviously, chemical agent doesn't
have to pass near these tubes to breach the fence-line.
The sad fact is there is no real-time warning system to alert these communities,
but such capability exists.
In March 2004, chemical agent sampling tubes at the fence-line of the Anniston,
Alabama Army Depot, where the Army is burning chemical weapons, detected
VX agent. Two tests by Army labs confirmed VX, but the Army says it
was a false alarm. A third test could not be done as the samples were
destroyed during the first two tests - violating their own analytical protocol.
The Army still can't explain the reading.
Thousands of agent alarms at the Army's incinerators have occurred, and the
Army admits, in most cases, they don't know what caused the alarm, yet assure
workers and nearby residents it wasn't chemical agent.
It's possible many of the alarms were false, like the one on Capitol Hill
Wednesday night. However so many "immaculate detections" have occurred
over the years that there's a concern workers may become desensitized, and
many residents believe that unless there are fatalities, the Army will never
admit chemical agents were released.
Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry and Open Path Fourier Infrared Spectroscopy
have both been shown to be able to detect these agents, at levels that could
cause harm to the public, in approximately 15-30 seconds,. Nevertheless,
the Army refuses to deploy such advanced capabilities. Their position
is that what they've got is "adequate".
A Committee of the National Research Council agreed in a 2005 Report.
Of course none of the Committee members live anywhere close to the "Immediate
Response Zone".
They did recommend a cost/benefit analysis. No dollar figures on the cost
the Army might attribute to each life in the nearby towns has been announced.
Equal to the value of the eight Senators held in a Capital garage Wednesday
night? Perhaps.
Everyone is relieved Wednesday night's incident on the Hill was no cause
for alarm.
The question is why aren't families in chemical weapon stockpile communities
even being provided an alarm?
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