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United States: VX Ten Times Stronger than Believed, EPA Study Says A preliminary U.S. study has found that the VX nerve agents currently being stored at six U.S. Army chemical weapon depots is 10 times stronger than previously believed, officials said yesterday (see GSN, March 18). “The dose rate at which we thought people would just begin to have some health effects is now one-tenth of what we had previously thought,” said Tom Johnson, administrator with the Oregon Office of Public Health. The study, conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, reviewed the toxicity rating of 400 hazardous chemicals. Most of the chemicals reviewed saw no change to their rating. The toxicity rating of VX, however, needs to be “substantially redone,” Johnson said (see GSN, Jan. 23). The final VX toxicity ratings are expected by this summer, said Jon Yaquiant, spokesman for the U.S. Army Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Impact on Neighbors Federal emergency management officials are expected to visit the six chemical weapon depots throughout the country by November to review emergency plans, Yaquiant said. Communities near the depots probably will have to change their emergency plans according to the new toxicity information, officials said. Changes might include providing air filters to those who live near the depots, increasing the number of people who would be evacuated in the event of a release and examining how quickly an evacuation order should be given, according to the Associated Press. The preliminary study will not change the U.S. Army’s plans to destroy its chemical weapon arsenal by 2008, the AP reported. Currently, four out of the six depots storing VX plan to destroy chemical weapons through incineration, a controversial method (see GSN, March 15). “Every study shows there’s more risk in storage than in incineration itself,” Yaquiant said. “If anything, this knowledge would encourage you to dispose of the VX as quickly as possible” (Gillian Flaccus, Associated Press, March 22).
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