Chemical Terrorism in Todays World

CHEMICAL TERRORISM IN TODAYS WORLD

Samuel Lozano

Monmouth University

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to inform you about chemical terrorism and how it affects society today. You will also learn the different types of chemical agents and what they are capable of doing if they are released. It will also give you examples of each chemical agent and when they were first used. A brief summary of how chemical terrorism started and some of the most horrifying moments in US history because of it. You will also learn how terrorist are able to get all the chemicals they need without getting caught by the law. By the end of the paper it will state ways we could prevent chemical warfare to occur.

Chemical Terrorism in Today’s World

        Hearing the words terrorist attack you immediate think about a plane being hijacked or a hostage situation. Those two are the most common types of attacks but they aren’t the only two. Another tactic that terrorist use was chemical attacks, which could be as deadly as the first two or even more. In the United States we weren’t too worried about this type of attack because it wasn’t used on us ever before. Chemical attacks happened more in Europe and the Middle East dated as far as World War I. The first time a terrorist used a chemical bomb in the United States was in 1978. Since then this type of attack has increased every year more and more. That is why we have to do something about it and try to eliminate it although that would be difficult to do. Using chemicals as a weapon gives the terrorist more than one option to use it by creating different types of bombs. Throughout the paper it will inform you the history of chemical terrorism, the different forms of chemical agents as well as how terrorist acquire them and what we could do to prevent this type of terrorism from occurring.

History of Chemical Terrorism

        Chemical terrorism was first introduced during WWI when Germany used chlorine gas against allied troops. Ever since then every country started inventing different types of chemical weapons that they believed would help them in a long run. This chemical euphoria didn’t just happen in Europe but also in the United States. As stated above the first time a chemical weapon was used inside the United States was in 1978. The terrorist behind this horrible act was Ted Kaczynski who built chemical bombs to kill his victims. This guy was clever as he made them seem like normal mailing boxes that would explode once they try to open it. Kaczynski didn’t just do this once he did it in an 18 year span where he killed 4 people but injured more than 20. When he was found they labeled him as the Unabomber and was sentence to live in prison. After this incident a terrorist group from Pakistan bombed the world trade center causing severe damage to the building. Like Ted this group of terrorist also made their bomb from scratch but the casualties weren’t as high as they wanted it to be. Additionally this wasn’t the last attack the world trade center was going to receive from a terrorist group. On September 1, 2001 two planes crashed into the twin towers. The reason why this is considered a chemical terrorist attack is because of the planes fuel. If the plane didn’t have fuel in it the explosion wouldn’t have been of that magnitude. Since then the government has been involving themselves trying to reduce their vulnerability towards this type of terrorist attacks. Creating this vulnerability they had to examine all the possible weapons created because of this and study them to know what they had to do in case they used them. Kosal mentioned in her work that “A 1996 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling found “66,000 facilities” with threshold quantities of toxic, flammable or volatile substances listed in the Clean Air Act.” (722) What this shows is that our problem isn’t only terrorist but also our security with these chemicals.

Types of Chemical Products

Chemical weapon agents is one of the most widely range poisonous chemicals out there. The use of mechanical weapons is not always used with chemicals as they could be used by themselves. Some of the products that are in the homes of people could become deadly if they are manipulated in a certain way. One of the most common product is pesticide which we use to kill insects and other animals that we do not want in our homes. The way pesticide could be used in a harmful way is it causes severe pain or death right away after it’s inhaled for a long time.