From chemical warfare to peace

Following the horrors of chemical warfare in two World Wars and the Vietnam War (see box), the international community worked to develop an encompassing treaty to prevent the use of chemical weapons. After extensive work, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction came into force in 1997. Commonly known as the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), it requires member states to declare and destroy chemical weapons and provides for inspection of facilities and investigation into alleged use. The CWC has been ratified by 190 countries and is administered by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Warfare (OPCW). In 2013, the OPCW won the Nobel Peace prize "for its extensive efforts to eliminate chemical weapons". Notable in the official announcement is the reminder that neither the US nor Russia met the 2012 deadline for destruction of their stockpiles of chemical weapons, although both have made significant progress. In July 2005, an invitational joint International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)/OPCW Conference concluded that for the work of OPCW to succeed and be sustainable, engagement in formal educational contexts and public outreach was needed. To this end, the Multiple Uses of Chemicals website was created as a joint project of IUPAC and the OPCW through the King’s Centre for Visualization in Science to inform students, educators, general public, and policy makers that the benefits of chemistry are strongly linked to the responsible use of chemical substances. Many compounds have the potential to be used beneficially for health, industry and other purposes, but also the potential to be used for chemical weapons and other socially undesirable ends. We, as members of the chemistry and general science communities, have a responsibility to ensure the ethical use of chemistry, while minimizing its abuses, and to promote the responsible uses of chemicals. The website, which was launched in late 2013, has both traditional and interactive resources regarding the uses and misuses of multi-use chemicals, and about the importance of regulatory agencies such as the Chemical Weapons Convention and the creation of codes of conduct. We interviewed Alastair Hay, Peter Mahaffy and Jonathan Forman about the new website and the Nobel Prize for OPCW.