Expert urges strict safety and security measures at chemical plants

By Salman Siddiqui

Staff Reporter

Unless strict safety and security measures are implemented in chemical production facilities for industrial use in the region, dangerous toxic materials such as mustard gas may be produced  employing these substances and eventually deployed in conflicts like Syria, experts warned yesterday.

Speaking at a day-long seminar on “Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and Chemical-Safety Management for member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Asia Region”, David Moore, an expert on chemical process safety and security management, said the emergence of global terrorism had made it critical for companies and the countries in which they operate to ensure the safety and security of chemicals they produce.

Ordinary industrial chemicals such as ammonia nitrate have dual purposes that can be used to make improvised explosive devices, Moore said. He said the right mix could also produce the lethal mustard gas that may end up being used in  countries like Syria.

He, however, clarified that the recent chemical attack in Syria  that killed hundreds of people was reportedly caused by a weapons-grade device and not through the use of such industrial chemicals. But there have been instances in the past, such as the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 that killed more than 160 people, where an ammonia-nitrate-based bomb was used.

In a statement released earlier yesterday, OPCW director general Ahmet Üzümcü noted the recent proposal (made reportedly by Russia and given a nod by the US) to place the Syrian stockpile of chemical weapons under international control and the reactions it has evoked.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also stated that he was considering urging the Security Council to demand the immediate transfer of Syria’s chemical weapon stocks to places inside Syria where they could be safely stored and destroyed, urging Syria to join the CWC.

Syria is not the only state that has neither signed nor acceded to the CWC. Angola, Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan too are part of this group.  Israel and Myanmar are  signatory states that have not yet ratified the CWC.  

Moore, who has advised the US Department of Homeland Security on chemical security management and vulnerability assessment, including the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards 6 CFR Part 27, said  companies and governments of the countries under whom they operated had a joint responsibility to ensure that the chemicals didn’t fall into the wrong hands.

Also, even if the company claimed that it was unaware that its products ended being used for chemical weapons, he warned that these days investigations traced back the materials  to the source. “You (the company) could be an unfortunate victim of such a crime,” he said.

He added that there had also been incidents in the Middle East where security officers ended up allowing terrorists inside their facilities or where attackers had presented themselves as authorised security personnel. He called on government agencies and companies to analyse all scenarios and prepare plans to deal with the emerging threats.

Several case studies of chemical industry safety incidents such as the 2005 British Petroleum facility explosion in Texas and the April 2013 West Fertilizer Explosion in West Texas were presented to the participants at the seminar.

Another expert, Liam Anderstrem,  gave a presentation on methodologies for chemical security management and advised companies to conduct security risk analysis of their facilities regularly. Page 28