“We, the Member Societies of the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS), deplore the use of chlorine in the Syrian conflict or any other and call upon the international community to bring to justice those responsible for the misuse of chlorine.”
At the 6th EuCheMS Chemistry Congress in Seville, 36 Presidents of Chemical Societies in Europe and beyond or their representatives have signed a declaration deploring the use of Chemical weapons in Syria and calling for the misusers of chlorine to be brought to justice.
After the use of chemical weapons in Syria in 2012, Syria signed the Chemical Weapons Convention and their stockpiles of chemical weapons were removed for destruction.
However, chlorine is still being used in the conflict as a chemical weapon.
Chlorine is a yellow-green gas which is stored in cylinders as a liquid. It has many benign uses and saves billions of lives every year because it is used to ensure water supplies are free if pathogens. It is used as a bleach and in making a variety of household chemicals.
It is diabolical that stocks of chlorine that are kept for benign purposes have been hijacked for use in warfare.
If chlorine is breathed in, it attacks the mucous membranes and respiratory system because it forms hydrochloric ad hypochlorous acids on contact with water. This causes blistering, great difficulties with breathing and intense pain. People die a slow and painful death gasping for air, coughing and spluttering.
It is essential that everyone who uses chlorine for benign purposes should keep their supplies in secure sites where they cannot be taken for use in warfare.
Those who do use chlorine as a weapon should be prosecuted for war crimes.
|Austrian Chemical Society||Josef Wendrinsky|
|Royal Flemish Chemical Society||Christophe De Bie|
|Croatian Chemical Society||Zeljka Soldin|
|Pancyprian Union of Chemists||Christina Valanidou|
|Czech Chemical Society||Jan John|
|Danish Chemical Society||Stefan Vogel|
|Estonian Chemical Society||Nicholas Gathergood|
|Finnish Chemical Society||Jari Yli-Kauhaluoma|
|French Chemical Society||Gilberte Chambaud|
|Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker – GDCh||Wolfram Koch|
|German Bunsen Society for Physical Chemistry||Eckart Rühl|
|Association of Greek Chemists||Triantafyllia Sideri|
|Hungarian Chemical Society||Livia Sarkadi|
|Institute of Chemistry of Ireland||Patrick Hobbs|
|Israel Chemical Society||Ehud Keinan|
|Italian National Board of Chartered Chemists||Nausicaa Orlandi|
|Italian Chemical Society||Raffaele Riccio|
|Royal Netherlands Chemical Society||Jan-Willem Toering|
|Norwegian Chemical Society||Harald Walderhaug|
|Polish Chemical Society||Jerzy Błażejowski|
|Portuguese Chemical Society||Artur Silva|
|Portuguese Electrochemical Society||Luísa Margarida Martins|
|Romanian Chemical Society||Michaela Dina Stanescu|
|Mendeleev Russian Chemical Society||Sergei Shtykov|
|Russian Scientific Council on Analytical Chemistry||Boris Spivakov|
|Slovak Chemical Society||Viktor Milata|
|Slovenian Chemical Society||Venčeslav Kaučič|
|Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry||Jesus Jimenez Barbero|
|Spanish Society for Analytical Chemistry||Elena Dominguez|
|Catalan Chemical Society||Carles Bo|
|Swedish Chemical Society||Helena Grennberg|
|Swiss Chemical Society||David Spichiger|
|UK Royal Society of Chemistry||John Holman|