CAPILLARY COLUMN GAS-CHROMATOGRAPHY TANDEM MASS-SPECTROMETRY VERIFICATION OF CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS

Chemical weapons use, although prohibited by the 1925 Geneva Protocol, has been reported in several armed conflicts including the Iran/Iraq war. The use of these weapons during this conflict and the concern over possible use of chemical warfare (CW) agents during the Persian Gulf war has heightened international awareness and prompted many nations to pursue with increased vigour the signature of a new Chemical Weapons Convention. The most recent draft of the Chemical Weapons Convention contains a number of provisions aimed at developing a treaty that will enable nations to ensure compliance by all signatory nations. Compliance monitoring will be required in a number of scenarios, including the verification of alleged use, the storage and destruction of chemical weapons stocks and ensuring that industrial sites are not illegally producing CW agents. It follows from this draft treaty that compliance monitoring will require a high level of sophisticated analytical support to ensure the establishment of an enforceable treaty. The United Nations Conference on Disarmament therefore formed a multi-national Technical Group on Instrumentation to address the analytical challenges confronting signatory nations.