The end of chemical warfare With a final push we may see these terrible weapons disappear within our lifetime

摘要

A historic milestone has been passed.All the declared stockpiles of chemical weapons have been eliminated.The threat of industrial-scale chemical warfare-which began during the first world war with chlorine,phosgene and sulfur mustard-is over.When the Chemical Weapons Convention(CWC)was signed 30 years ago,the elimination of chemical weapons must have seemed an impossible task.It's not hard to imagine scepticism that this goal could ever be reached.But the fact that more than 70,000 tonnes of these lethal chemical munitions-enough to kill every person on the planet-have been destroyed is a testament to the optimism,even utopianism,of everyone that worked to achieve it.