Basic Concept Towards Protection Against Chemical Terrorism

Chemical terrorism represents a problematic area with increasing importance. This type of terrorism uses chemical substances as a tool of the violence and it is real and major threat of contemporary civilization. The consequences of chemical terrorism have a wide extent of negative impacts. Primarily, chemical terrorism can cause damage to all components of the environment. Secondly, damages with direct or indirect impact to the health and human life is highly probable. Finally, reduction of basic human freedom including restrictions or aggravation of ecosystem services and causing fear and panic the population. Significance of this issue underscored by the current trend in the expansion of residential areas closer to facilities treating chemicals. Measures to ensure preparedness against chemical terrorism are not sufficiently developed nowadays. For this purpose, the article summarizes the basic ideas for creating a systematic approach to protecting against chemical terrorism in relation to industrial facilities treating chemicals thus providing a summary of current approaches to this issue. Attention is also paid to the existing measures focused at preventing chemical terrorism. Subsequently, the article deals with discussions on possible abuse potential of substances in chemical terrorism. An important part of the article is the specification of possible scenarios of terrorist attacks using chemical substances in industrial facilities. The above information will serve as a basis for the development of a methodology to protect against chemical terrorism in industrial facilities treating chemicals. In cooperation with NATO Joint Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defence Centre of Excellence (Czechia), it will be possible to present the basic facts for the creation of mentioned methodology soon.