The U.S. Department of Defense announced on Friday, July 7, that the country’s final stockpile of chemical weapons had been safely destroyed. The destruction of the stockpile has been decades in the making, following the ratification of an an international arms control treaty in 1997. Now the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has come forward with a statement on the matter.
“Over 30,000 tons of America’s chemical warfare agents have been destroyed,” the CDC reported in a news release. “This milestone has successfully eliminated a major public health threat for communities, the U.S., and the world.
“Public Law (50 USC 1521) required the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of the Surgeon General to provide independent oversight to protect the safety and health of the communities during U.S. chemical weapons destruction of stockpiled and recovered or buried chemical weapons in the United States. This was delegated to CDC in 1983, which has been providing oversight for 40 years in August 2023.”
The destruction of the U.S. stockpile of chemical weapons coincides with the 40th anniversary of the CDC’s Chemical Demilitarization (CDM) Program.
“We have a national security imperative and moral obligation to work toward eliminating the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction,” Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Dr. William A. LaPlante said in a news release. “This is the first time an international body has verified destruction of an entire category of declared weapons of mass destruction — reinforcing the United States’ commitment to creating a world free of chemical weapons.”
The CDC will be celebrating the anniversary of its program and the destruction of the weapons stockpile on Nov. 14 by hosting a chemical demilitarization awards ceremony “to recognize the efforts of the DoD, PEO ACWA, and CDM Program with the elimination of a major public health threat.”
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