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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is revising airborne exposure limits (AELs) for tabun (GA), sarin (GB), VX, and sulfur mustard (H, HT, and HD) for demilitarization workers and the general public. New exposure criteria include short-term exposure limits (STELs) and immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH) values. These new criteria augment revised long-term criteria, which include worker population limits (WPLs) and general population limits (GPLs). The criteria were revised using various risk assessment approaches, including reference concentration (RfC), relative potency, categorical regression (CatReg), carcinogenicity potency, and the CDC/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) IDLH methods. CDC believes the revised criteria meet the goal of protecting workers and the public at potential airborne concentration levels below those that would result in adverse health effects from acute exposures and further protect against risk for effects from long-term exposure.

In Kambarka (Udmurt Republic, Russia) there is the world’s largest arsenal of arsenical poisoning substance — lewisite. The total amount of lewisite is about 6,400 tons. At the present time, from the all existing technologies for lewisite destruction only two have been chosen as the main ones. The first one is alkaline hydrolysis of lewisite, followed by the electrolysis of the reaction masses and high temperature ammonolysis of lewisite. The final product of both technologies is metallic arsenic of high purity for electronic engineering. However, the subject analysis of the given technologies for lewisite destruction shows a number of essential technical difficulties, which can affect the safety of processes under the condition of large scale performance. In this connection, it seems more reasonable to use less complicated and more efficient technologies, which do not yield metallic arsenic, but at the same time they do not form any highly toxic intermediate and final products. The technology that produces arsenic sulphide can be considered the more suitable one.

In the context of carrying out CW non-proliferation conventional programs, chronic effects of subsymptomatic concentrations of highly toxic OP available in the stockpiles of chemical agents are of particular interest. During 3 months rats of the 1–5 groups consumed daily RVX with drinking water in a dose from 10g to 10g per 1 kg body weight, respectively. The comparative analysis of biochemical and physiological parameters studied is indicative of the complete absence of significant changes of the activity of plasma and erythrocyte cholinesterases in rats of all groups. The functional activity of platelets was investigated by a novel method of low angle light scattering. Kinetic parameters of aggregation are changed after 3 months of chronic intoxication, 2 and 6 months after stopping of intoxication with RVX. The latent period of M-response, the rate of rising action potential, and its duration, all change significantly. Non-specific reaction of leukocytes was reliable in groups 1–3. The results presented allow us to assert the key role of non-synaptic mechanisms in developing effects of RVX chronic action. The functional changes at the microcirculatory level may prove to be the most significant factors in the etiology of delayed effects.

The relation between the possible influence of the arsenal of chemical weapons and health state and hormone status (thyrotropic, thyroxin, triiodtyronin, adrenocorticotrophic, hydrocortisone) among residents of Kizner both working and not-working at the arsenal of chemical weapons was established. Thus, the trend for emotional stress was determined for the people working at the arsenal of chemical weapons. The level of anxiety was higher for people working at the arsenal (40.67±0.96) in comparison with the people who did not work at the arsenal (39.71±1.00), mostly for men.

The destruction of chemical weapons by the two-stage technology requires accommodating great amounts of bitumen-salt masses (BSM) containing GB, GD, VX detoxication products in special-purpose storehouses at the landfill. During BSM long-term storage the probability of contamination of the surrounding environment with CWA destruction products due to leaching with rainfall and ground water must not be completely excluded. The embryotoxic activity (including teratogenic effects) of BSM aqueous extracts containing final products of CWA destruction was evaluated in white non-pedigree rats at concentrations 100%, 20%, and 4% of GB, GD, and VX. The main pathological changes were largely hemorrhages in internal organs. The toxicometry of BSM aqueous extracts allows 100% extracts to be classified as effective, 20% aqueous extracts — as possessing the threshold impact, and 4% aqueous extracts as non-effective for the majority of indices representing the state of the reproductive function. The most effective potential hazard has been observed for BSM-VX.

The health and sanitary monitoring (HSM) in the vicinity of extremely hazardous destruction and storage facilities, and first of all at the territory where protective measures are conducted, should be of a specific type. Prompt and adequate solution of urgent problems of public health protection in the system of health and sanitary monitoring is achieved by developing the multilevel automated software-hardware unit on the basis of individual data bases and of monitored human environment factors. The systems and methods under consideration are now introduced at the area of the chemical weapons destruction facility in the settlement of Shchuch’ye in the Kurgan region.

The use of the method of operative monitoring of the functional state of the workers by pupillometric findings to examine health of workers engaged in the process of chemical weapons destruction is suggested. To register pupillary responses and spontaneous changes of the pupillary diameter, the Special Design Engineering Office “Biophyspribor” in collaboration with the Research Institute of Hygiene, Occupational Pathology and Human Ecology has worked out several modifications of pupillometers built on modern components with the use of personal computers to process the obtained data in real time.

The German legal framework includes several obligations on risk communication, which are relevant for hazardous facilities. These obligations take into account the requirements of business secrets, technical secrets and public security. Beside these obligations some operators experienced in the use of additional instruments for risk communication. All these instruments could be used in other countries as well, but should be modified according their own cultural risk communication background.