§ The Countess of Marasked Her Majesty's Government:
What assessment was made of the atmospheric content of biological and chemical warfare agents following the bombing of, in particular, Iraq's main chemical warfare facility, Muthanna, and whether any of these agents were detected downwind of the coalition bombings where British troops were situated during Operation Granby.
§ Lord HenleyResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General and Chief Executive of the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter to the Countess of Mar from the Director General of the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment, Dr. Graham Pearson.
1.Your Parliamentary Question asks Her Majesty's Government what assessment was made of the atmospheric content of biological and chemical warfare agents following the bombing of, in particular, Iraq's main chemical warfare facility, Muthanna, and whether any of these agents were detected downwind of the coalition bombings where British troops were situated during Operation GRANBY.
2.During Operation GRANBY, the potential hazard to Service personnel resulting from the bombing of Iraqi targets at which chemical weapons were stored was recognised by the Ministry of Defence. The Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment made an assessment of the potential downwind hazard distances based on various assumptions for the quantity of agent that might be released as a result of a bombing attack and for the associated meteorological conditions.
3.The result of the assessment indicated that even assuming simultaneous release of the majority of agent from several bunkers under meteorological conditions which favoured the downwind travel of the agent cloud and ignoring the fact that chemical agents are organic materials which are destroyed by combustion, the maximum distance at which there would be any hazard was of the order of a few tens of kilometres. In practice, simultaneous release is unlikely to occur, as agent will be destroyed by combustion and meteorological conditions will be less favourable resulting in a significantly reduced downwind hazard distance.
4.The detection equipment deployed by British Forces in Operation GRANBY are designed to give an alarm before a harmful concentration of chemical agent in the atmosphere is inhaled by Service personnel. There is no evidence that United Kingdom forces were exposed to chemical agent vapours either as a result of the bombing of Iraqi CW facilities or at any other time during Operation GRANBY. Our appreciation is that the US Department of Defense carried out similar assessments and reached similar conclusions.