§ The Countess of Marasked Her Majesty's Government:
At what level of detection British CAM and NAIAD alarms were set compared with the level of the lethal doses of the agents they were designed to detect. [HL3837]
§ Lord GilbertThe standard Chemical Agent Monitor, CAM, is used to test for the presence of blister and nerve agents: It does not have an alarm facility and is, therefore, not a chemical warfare agent detector. The Nerve Agent Immobilised enzyme Alarm and Detector, NAIAD, is used to give an initial alarm of the potential presence of nerve agents. However, during the Gulf conflict in 1990–91, a CAM Remote Alarm Display Unit, CRADU, and a Field Alarm Module, FAM, based on the CAM, were developed and deployed to provide an additional warning alarm and, thus, a detection capability.
Any warning of the potential presence of chemical warfare agent is followed up by using CAM in standard mode and other testing systems. Warning and detection capabilities are part of the suite of measures used to protect UK Service personnel from the threat posed by chemical weapons.
The effect of a chemical warfare agent depends upon the type of agent involved and the dose which an individual receives. For example, when a chemical warfare agent is in its gaseous phase, the dose received is a product of the concentration of the agent present and the length of time over which the exposure takes place. The levels of dose considered to be first hazardous and then lethal differ for each agent and vary according to the prevailing circumstances.
CAM and NAIAD respond to concentrations of chemical warfare agents, not doses. They indicate the potential presence of chemical warfare agent at the lowest possible concentration consistent with the inherent technical limitations of the equipment. These limitations relate to the sensitivity of the equipment to other substances, because these can lead to false alarms. Even so, there remains the potential for CAM and NAIAD, to give false detections that have been caused by such "interferents". For this reason, any apparent detections of chemical warfare agent must be immediately followed up and substantiated by the use of other procedures. The correct use of CAM, in detection mode, and NAIAD should allow personnel to take any necessary protective measures, including the donning of individual protection equipment, before they are exposed to a potentially hazardous dose of chemical warfare agent.
Further information on CAM and NAIAD will be published in the forthcoming report of the review of alleged chemical warfare agent detections by UK troops during the Gulf conflict.