The United states accuses Russia of employing the chemical agent chloropicrin in Ukraine | Current Affairs | Vision IAS
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    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.

    Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)        

      
    • 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’.
    • Tags :
    • chemical weapons
    • Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
    • Nobel Prize for peace
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