In January, Craig Williams, executive director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group based in Berea, Kentucky, insisted that the arsenal's stockpile was a prime candidate for neutralisation, a process planned for bulk chemical-agent stockpiles at the sites in Maryland and Indiana.

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It was blue-sky research, but their idea was that harmful substances should be produced where they are needed, instead of being shipped in bulk from chemical factories.

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Currently, 188 nations, representing the vast bulk of the world's population, have signed up to the Convention on Chemical Weapons, which is overseen by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

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And more than 800, 000 gallons of chemical "dispersants" sprayed onto the oil in a frantic attempt to keep the bulk of it offshore pose little-understood risks to organisms in the Gulf's depths, scientists and government officials say.

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