Chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction

The thesis focuses on weapons of mass destruction. The goal was to analyze knowledge about chemical and biological weapons among selected components of the integrated rescue system in the South Bohemian Region. The theoretical part is divided into several parts. First part deals with the characteristics of chemical weapons, their history, the use of chemical weapons during the First World War in the interwar period, but also modern history. The second part deals with the characteristics and distribution of biological weapons, their history, the main representatives of combat biological agents are described here, e.g. anthrax, smallpox, plague, cholera, tularemia and others. The next chapter describes the warfare use and testing of biological weapons and the definition of SARS and COVID-19. The last part deals with international regulations regarding weapons of mass destruction, such as the Geneva Protocol (1925), the Chemical Weapons Convention (1993), or the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (2017). The research part presents the results of a questionnaire survey among 470 respondents who were members of the Fire Rescue Service of the South Bohemian Region, the Police of the Czech Republic, the Army of the Czech Republic and employees of the Medical Rescue Service of the South Bohemian Region. The results of the questionnaire survey were evaluated using the methods of descriptive and mathematical statistics. On the basis of the conducted questionnaire survey, it is possible to state that the respondents' knowledge exceeded the set 60 %. The level of knowledge of members of the Fire Rescue Service of the South Bohemian Region is comparable to the level of knowledge of the respondents of other components of the integrated rescue system