Browse by Category
Browse by Location
Search
Tag Cloud
anthrax Strategic National Stockpile Training exercise Bioterror Biomagnetics National Research Council Homeland Security Biodefense lab Army Medical Research Institute antibiotics Emergency preparedness research Bioweapons NIAID smallpox Detection technology CDC TSA Defense Dept IAEM FEMA immunization Ebola Ricin Hendra Plague treaty West Nile Camouflage Paint Marburg antidote weapons destruction Sarin VHF viruses chemical disposal dna technology prevention Robotics Technology research grants tularemia weapons control foot and mouth disease decontamination E. coli Iraq missile defenseSubscribe to our newsletter
RSS Feed
More than 232 metric tons of sarin destroyed
by Tina Redlup on November 20, 2009
Sarin
More than 232 metric tons of the nerve agent sarin have been destroyed by a Russian chemical weapons disposal site.
The Maradykovsky facility, located in Russia's Kirov region, destroyed 4,866 munitions filled with the chemical warfare material.
Production and stockpiling of sarin, whose sole application is as a nerve agent, was outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993.
Sarin can be either inhaled as a gas or absorbed through the skin and causes the overstimulation of muscles and vital organs. In high doses, sarin victims are suffocated by the paralysis caused by the muscles around their lungs.
One hundred milligrams of sarin, or roughly one drop, can kill the average person in a few minutes if an antidote is not administered.
The facility has also made progress in preparing to begin the disarmament of a cache of munitions that are filled with a mixture of mustard and lewisite blister agent. Currently, 150 metric tons of that material aways disposal at the site.
Construction has been completed on a line for the destruction of the mustard-lewisite mixture, the Kirov Region government said in a statement, with hook-up and commissioning work to start at the line in late November to test the technology for destroying the toxic chemicals.
Maradykovsky is expected to be fully finished with chemical weapons destruction by 2012.
More News
- Soligenix announces heightened stability for RiVax
- New study shed light on how citizens will react to bio-outbreak
- Deep-UV could hold key to fighting bioattacks
- Kansas lauds proposed $40 million for biodefense facility
- Experts expect CBRN attack on U.S. within six months
- Study begins to find more effective manner of fighting smallpox
- Scott Habig joins Human Genome Sciences
- Sebelius responds to president's 2011 HHS budget
- Missile interceptor fails in mock attack
- Las Vegas expected to approve grants to fight bioterror
Read all news