Nontoxic solvent—the silent killer?

September 6, 2007

Following up our post from last week, today the AP reports that the substance found at a U.N. office in Manhattan recently that was suspected of being a chemical warfare agent appears to be a nontoxic solvent.

From the story:

Preliminary results indicate the substance was a nontoxic solvent, not the chemical agent phosgene, the U.N. official said.

“If it turns out to be something that was mislabled, we’ll need to find out why it was mislabled,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the final results have not yet returned from the lab.

The U.N. has launched an investigation into how the substance ended up in the files for so long without anyone knowing what it was.

Before all you U.N. bashers get ready to blast away, just take a moment here.

I mean, any one of us would have easily misread something labeled “WMD” as weapon of mass destruction instead of washing machine detergent.

Paint thinner, phosgene — they’re not that far apart, folks.

We all should say thank you to the international community for confiscating Saddam’s stockpile of antifreeze and turpentine. The world is a better place.

-FRANCIS SMITH, Special Publications Assistant Editor

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Posted by The Daily Record | Filed Under WMD, government | Leave a Comment 

Still looking for WMDs? Found ‘em!

August 30, 2007

You know how when you’re desperately looking for something and it ends up being right under your nose? Well, those pesky weapons of mass destruction that were the rallying cry for entering Iraq may have been easier to find than we originally thought.

Reuters is reporting that the U.N. found vials of a chemical agent, which was removed from Iraq in 1996, in a U.N. building near its headquarters in New York. Maybe our search should have started on the East River instead of the Euphrates?

Among the agents stumbled upon was Phosgene, which was actually used in World War I, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Chemical warfare and all its grandeur — minus the dreaded, foreboding acronym WMD — was introduced to the world well before our current collection of Middle East madmen.

However, in this case, we all can breathe easy (no pun intended) — officials said there was no danger from the recently discovered vials.

-FRANCIS SMITH, Special Publications Assistant Editor

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Posted by The Daily Record | Filed Under United Nations, WMD, iraq | Leave a Comment 

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