Chemical weapons disposal program

The Department of Defense (DoD) is in the process of destroying the entire U.S. stockpile of aging and obsolete chemical weapons. The original stockpile contained 63 million pounds of chemical weapons disseminated at eight sites in the continental United States and at Johnston Atoll in the Pacific. Additional non-stockpile materiel, such as buried chemical warfare materiel, is located at more than 200 sites in the United States and U.S. territories. The entire stockpile must be destroyed to comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention Treaty. The health of workers and the general public near the storage and disposal sites must be protected during this process.Congress charged CDC with public health oversight of DoD\u2019s chemical weapons disposal program. As of November 2006, more than 25.8 million pounds (41% of the original stockpile) of chemical agents and weapons have been safely destroyed. The stockpiles at Johnston Atoll and at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland have been completely destroyed.chemicalweaponsdisposalprogram.pdf200