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New Zealand’s Chemical Weapons Response Plan Stalls
The New Zealand Health Ministry’s effort to create a national hazardous materials response plan has stalled, the Southland Times reported today (see GSN, June 22). Frustrations of independent members of ministry workshop six months ago have impeded progress, according to the Times. Australian emergency doctor Robert Dowsett warned that lack of a plan is especially dangerous because chemical attacks are inevitable in New Zealand and Australia. “We will see chemical weapons deployed in civilian situations,” Dowsett said at the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine Symposium in Queenstown. “I don't think any country can consider themselves immune.” Roughly half of hospitals in the New Zealand are prepared to deal with the release of hazardous materials, said Christchurch Hospital emergency room doctor Paul Gee. He said such a release was more likely in the island nation to be accidental. John Chambers, director of emergency medicine at Dunedin Hospital, said Canadian and Israeli doctors were not impressed with the hospital’s decontamination plans during a visit this year. “They were polite but it was clear we weren't up to scratch,” he said (Rowan Quinn, Southland Times, July 22).
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