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The main problem connected with chemical terrorism is that, beside chemical weapons, terrorists can use different toxic chemicals from the chemical industry, from agriculture or products of industrial facilities released after the terrorist act. An attack to a chemical plant can instantly liberate a number of different chemicals. Studies should be made on incidents occurring in the facility, during transportation, storage or other processes and these are important points in the preparation for protection against chemical terrorism. An important corner-stone of the anti-terrorist organization in any country is to set a Health & Disaster/Anti Terrorist Acts Management system. Country antiterrorist protection will be improved by the introduction of a universal strategy on basic therapeutic trends against chemical terrorism. Chemical terrorism can be responsible not only for the spread of large amounts of toxic chemical compounds, but also for chronic and delayed effects of these agents. Intoxication with small doses of toxic agents is also a possibility used by terrorists. The variety of characteristics of a chemical agent used by terrorists needs demands improvement in the detection, personal protection and decontamination procedures, including that of the medical personnel and equipment. Antidote treatment, with the exception of the medical units and organization of national stockpiling which are adequately supplied for, needs a new and extensive study for new antidotes and for improvement of the medical treatment on the area of the terrorist act.

The chemical terrorism is a new threat to mankind safety, vastly exceeding in scale the results of the most modern firearms and representing one of the cheapest forms of terrorism. The first information about “terrorism” dates from 431–404 years B.C., when ammonium smoke was used in the course of the Peloponness wars. In 1899 as a result of the International Peace Conference Agreement in Hague the use of artillery projectiles equipped with poisoning gas was prohibited. However it is in the XX century during World War I – in 1915 that the first large-scale use of poisonous material occurred on the battle site near the city of Ypres, Belgium. During World War I were applied more than 100 000 tons of toxic chemicals, as a result of which perished 90 000 soldiers and more than a million were affected.

An overview is presented of the major methods that are presently available for biomonitoring of exposure to chemical warfare agents, i.e., nerve agents and sulfur mustard. These methods can be applied for a variety of purposes such as diagnosis and dosimetry of exposure of casualties, verification of nonadherence to the Chemical Weapon Convention, health surveillance, assessment of low level exposures (Gulf War Syndrome) and last but not least for forensic purposes in case of terrorist attacks with these agents. This paper will focus on methods that are based on the analysis of long-lived protein adducts of CW agents which are detectable weeks or even months after exposure. Examples of real exposure incidents will be described.

The problems of the market economy influencing the state of environment in Ukraine are illustrated by the example of the Pri-dneprovie region. New examples resul, when ecologically dangerous enterprises and technologies are created in flagrant contradiction with the conception of sustainable development in order to please the requirements of the market in the region. Ecologically dangerous projects are realized, which on the basis of their effects can be named chemical terrorism without overstatement. Special attention was paid to the use in Ukraine of the "special" fuel on the base of wastes of coke factories of Ukraine, containing a carcinogen and benzenel in quantities, which exceed by orders of magnitude the doses accepted in other Europian countries and the rest of the world. Possibilities to decline the harmful influence of such fuel on the population of Ukraine in the market conditions are shown.

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is shortly characterised stressing its main principles, inter alia the General Purpose Criterion. Status of its implementation as of December 2004 shows the main data obligatory declared by already 167 States Parties and main achievements in destruction of Chemical Weapons (CW) stockpiles and destruction / conversion of CW production facilities and the verification efforts. The Organisation for the Prohibition of the Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is briefly presented, results of the 1st Review Conference and future problems of the CWC are analysed. Special emphasis is laid on threats and benefits of the scientific and technological development and potential misuse of toxic chemicals for terrorist purposes. Role of the CWC especially of respective national implementation measures in combating chemical terrorism is analysed stressing the OPCW's expertise including its developed system of assistance and protection under the CWC and enforcement by all countries of the CWC's requirement to make the development, production, stockpiling, transfers and use illegal for anyone.

Passive defence requirements depend strongly on the ‘perceived’ threat and the scenarios considered ‘likely’. Traditionally, such aspects were addressed more or less subjectively by defence experts. The ‘Chemical Incident Simulator’ (CIS) – a chain of linked simulation models – simulates the dispersion of chemical warfare agents, detector responses, the effects of protective equipment, and the human toxicological responses for large numbers of scenarios considered realistic given a certain threat. The calculations start by simulating ‘the agent release and transport’ in an incident scenario which results in concentration-time profiles at the locations of detectors and personnel. The detector module generates an alarm-time profile when a chemical agent is detected. Based on the concentration-time and alarm-time profiles the skin and respiratory protection models calculate exposure profiles, using given protective equipment characteristics. Finally, the toxic effects module translates the exposure profiles into casualty probabilities for the personnel. Operational behaviour, like changes in ‘Dress State’ and typical reaction times are taken into account in the simulation.

In conclusion the delivery of Assistance under Article X of the Chemical Weapons Convention is facilitated by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the assistance received through the contributions of member states and the utilisation of experts within and external to the OPCW. It also involves the coordination and delivery of specialised services from national agencies and other international organisations involved in providing emergency humanitarian assistance. The OPCW will continue its work on the cooperative efforts with many member states to maintain the effort to development, implement and train for an effective delivery of assistance in accordance with the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Environmentally hazardous projects are those where the risk of accidents is very high, which can result in a major and sometimes even catastrophic chemical pollution of the environment. Frequently, these disasters take casualties among the plant personnel, as well as among the nearby settlements population, which were the cases with the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Ukraine, or with the pesticide plant accident in Bhopal, India.

carcinogenicity; chemical terrorism; chlororganic production; dioxins; fibrosarcoma cutis; porphyria; TCDD; toxic action

Chemical attack and/or terrorism is the intentional use of chemicals to scare, injure, or kill people. Although rare, chemical agents have been used to disrupt daily activities, such as the 1995 release of nerve gas in a Japanese subway. Sometimes hazardous chemicals are also released accidentally; it may be very difficult initially to determine intent. Depending on the nature of the chemical(s) and the manner in which they were released, chemicals can contaminate the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food supply, or surfaces that people contact. Methods to spread chemicals may be as simple as opening a container, using a common garden sprayer, or as tricky as exploding a bomb with chemicals inside.