Ypres, site of first use of chemical weapons, hosts conference on preventing their use

Ypres, site of first use of chemical weapons, hosts conference on preventing their use

Published 22 April 2015

 

One hundred years ago today, on 22 April 1915, German forces changed forever the nature of warfare when they fired more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres in Belgium. 160,000 chemists across thirty-two countries this week are calling for the complete elimination of chemical weapons around the world. A 3-day conference opens today at Ypres, in which scientists and policy makers will discuss how to achieve this goal.

Professor David Cole-Hamilton, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of St. Andrews and president of the European Association of Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS), is leading more than 160,000 chemists across thirty-two countries this week in calling for the complete elimination of chemical weapons around the world.
This ethical mobilization of EuCheMS membership, the association representing chemists across Europe, coincides with the 100th anniversary of the first use of weapons of mass destruction during the First World War (see “Agenda15” of the In Flanders Fields Museum).
On 22 April 1915, German forces changed forever the nature of warfare when they fired more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres in Belgium.
Until this date, toxic smoke had been used occasionally in warfare, and chemical weapons had been known to include poisoned arrows or boiling tar. Never, however, had their use caused such suffering and devastation. The Germans, perhaps as shocked as the Allies by the devastating effects of the poison gas, failed to take advantage and the Allies managed to hold most of their positions.
A University of St. Andrews reports that a century later, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is today – 22 April — holding an exceptional Executive Council meeting in Ypres to mark those events. The OPCW is the Nobel Prize winning body responsible for administration of the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1997 which prohibits the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, transfer, or use of chemical weapons.
Professor Cole-Hamilton said: “Chemists have the ability to make, control, or deactivate chemical weapons, so the EuCheMS as the representative of 160,000 chemists in Europe and beyond, stands by all thinking people in deploring chemical weapons and calls for their complete elimination in all countries.”
The release notes that St. Andrews chemists have a long history of developing chemicals for good uses even in times of war. Former Principal, James Colquhoun Irvine, worked during the First World War to manufacture many of the pharmaceutical products required in the field hospitals, using natural sources such as dahlia tubers and seaweed to produce fructose and insulin, thereby saving the lives of thousands of troops in Asia Minor.
Professor Cole-Hamilton continued: “April 22, 1915 is a date every chemist should know, as a symbol of the conduct that should never be repeated. EuCheMS calls for the ethical mobilization of all chemists, either in academia or industry, to nurture critical thought, to act ethically, and properly to inform non-chemists about both the potential virtues and dangers of chemistry. In short; EuCheMS calls for responsible science.”
The OPCW commemorative meeting is being held today, 22 April 2015, in the city of Ypres, and a “Ypres Declaration” will be delivered. The event will also be supplemented with an exhibition about the OPCW in the center of Ypres.
These events form part of a wider program of commemoration being led by the city itself, including marking the gas-line in the landscape to show where the gas cylinders hit a century ago, a ceremonial commemoration, and a “Making Peace” event. A 3-day conference, being held 22-24 April, will explore how international laws can be improved, and highlight the challenges of establishing a world free from weapons of mass destruction.