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|Testing Footnotes
Test of Footnotes This is just a test of footnotes. Footnote format is <pre> footnote_number, collection_code/document_code (note) </pre> Multiple documents can be cited in the same footnote by leaving the footnote number blank and putting the codes on a separate line. Put a zero for the footnote number for automatic numbering. The note in parenthesis is optional.
Status: Initial Research
Tobacco Documents Online Marked as Private
Great WHO paper, not all the footnotes are in, just the ones that can be linked to TDO.
Status: Documents Collected
WHO: World Health Organization
|The case for fire safe cigarettes made through industry documents
Gunja M, Ferris Wayne G, Landman A, Connolly G, McGuire A, Koh H
It is well documented that cigarette caused fires are responsible for 1000 deaths and billions of dollars in other damages each year. For years, the tobacco industry has claimed that they do not know how to manufacture a commercially viable fire safe cigarette. However, the recent release of industry documents due to the Master Settlement Agreement has shed new light on what the industry knew about fire safe cigarettes. These internal company documents reveal that the tobacco industry has known how to create a fire safe cigarette for some time. The documents also illuminate tactics used by the tobacco industry to block and otherwise influence fire safe legislation. This article will inform effective use of state and federal legislation to address cigarettes related fires. It will also add to understanding of industry counter strategies that are aimed at and directly impact public health outcomes.
Status: Submitted for Publication
Mass. Tobacco Control Program
|One size does not fit all: how the tobacco industry has altered cigarette design to target consumer groups with specific psychological and psychosocial needs
Cook B, Ferris Wayne G, Keithly L, Connolly G
Analysis of internal industry documents provides the most direct means for assessing whether cigarette design changes have been used by the tobacco industry to target specific psychological and psychosocial needs. First, we determine how needs-based segmentation has been utilized within the industry. Second, we identify experiments that matched cigarette design to correspond to these identified needs-based segments, and show how these studies translated into new product development. We find that the industry altered product design to target smoker groups with similar psychological and psychosocial needs. These findings have implications for tobacco cessation as well as for the regulation and monitoring of the tobacco industry.
Status: Submitted for Publication
Mass. Tobacco Control Program
|Failed promises of the cigarette industry and its effect on consumer misperceptions about the health risks of smoking
K M Cummings, C P Morley and A Hyland
Examines the extent to which cigarette companies fulfilled the promises made to consumers in the 1954 "Frank Statement", and the effect of these promises on consumer knowledge, beliefs, and smoking practices. Results: Analysis of public statements issued by the tobacco industry sources over the past five decades shows that the companies maintained the stance that smoking had not been proven to be injurious to health through 1999. The public statements of the tobacco industry are in sharp contrast to the private views expressed by many of their own scientists. The tobacco documents reveal that many scientists within the tobacco industry acknowledged as early as the 1950s that cigarette smoking was unsafe. The sincerity of the industry's promise to support research to find out if smoking was harmful to health and to disclose information about the health effects of smoking can also be questioned based upon the industry's own documents which reveal: (1) scepticism about the scientific value of the smoking and health research program established by the industry; and (2) evidence that research findings implicating smoking as a health problem were often not published or disclosed outside the industry. Industry documents also show that the companies knew that their own customers were misinformed about smoking and health issues.
Status: Documents Collected
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
|Exposing Mr. Butts' tricks of the trade
KM Cummings, RW Pollay
Introduction to the second wave of research papers based on tobacco industry documents published as in the March 2002 supplement to Tobacco Control. The papers presented in the issue are based on the approximately 33 million pages of tobacco industry documents released as part of a settlement agreement between the tobacco industry and the Minnesota attorney general's office stemming from lawsuit over payment of insurance claims for treatment of tobacco caused illnesses.
Status: Documents Collected
|Marketing to America\\\'s youth: evidence from corporate documents
K M Cummings, C P Morley, J K Horan, C Steger and N-R Leavell
Objective: To evaluate the claim that the tobacco industry does not market its products to youth. Design: The data for this study come from tobacco industry documents collected from the tobacco industry\\\\\\\'s document websites, presently linked at http://www.tobaccoarchives.com. The websites were searched \\\\\\\"request for production\\\\\\\" (RFP) codes, specified keyword searches, and serendipitous terms identified in document citations found with RFP and keyword searches. Results: Industry documents show that the cigarette manufacturers carefully monitored the smoking habits of teenagers over the past several decades. Candid quotes from industry executives refer to youth as a source of sales and as fundamental to the survival of the tobacco industry. The documents reveal that the features of cigarette brands (that is, use of filters, low tar, bland taste, etc), packaging (that is, size, colour and design), and advertising (that is, media placements and themes and imagery) were developed specifically to appeal to new smokers (that is, teenagers). Evidence also indicates that relevant youth oriented marketing documents may have been destroyed and that the language used in some of the more recent documents may have been sanitised to cover up efforts to market to youth.
Status: Documents Collected
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
|The cigarette pack as image: new evidence from tobacco industry documents
M Wakefield, C Morley, J K Horan and K M Cummings
Objectives: To gain an understanding of the role of pack design in tobacco marketing. Methods: A search of tobacco company document sites using a list of specified search terms was undertaken during November 2000 to July 2001. Results: Documents show that, especially in the context of tighter restrictions on conventional avenues for tobacco marketing, tobacco companies view cigarette packaging as an integral component of marketing strategy and a vehicle for (a) creating significant in-store presence at the point of purchase, and (b) communicating brand image. Market testing results indicate that such imagery is so strong as to influence smoker\'s taste ratings of the same cigarettes when packaged differently. Documents also reveal the careful balancing act that companies have employed in using pack design and colour to communicate the impression of lower tar or milder cigarettes, while preserving perceived taste and \"satisfaction\". Systematic and extensive research is carried out by tobacco companies to ensure that cigarette packaging appeals to selected target groups, including young adults and women.
Status: Documents Collected
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
|Tax, price and cigarette smoking: evidence from the tobacco documents and implications for tobacco company marketing strategies
F J Chaloupka, K M Cummings, CP Morley and JK Horan
Examines tobacco company documents to determine what the companies knew about the impact of cigarette prices on smoking among youth, young adults, and adults, and to evaluate how this understanding affected their pricing and price related marketing strategies. Results: Tobacco company documents provide clear evidence on the impact ocigarette prices on cigarette smoking, describing how tax related and other price increases lead to significant reductions in smoking, particularly among young persons. This information was very important in developing the industry\\\'s pricing strategies, including the development of lower price branded generics and the pass through of cigarette excise tax increases, and in developing a variety of price related marketing efforts, including multi-pack discounts, couponing, and others. Conclusions: Pricing and price related promotions are among the most important marketing tools employed by tobacco companies. Future tobacco control efforts that aim to raise prices and limit price related marketing efforts are likely to be important in achieving reductions in tobacco use and the public health toll caused by tobacco.
Status: Documents Collected
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
|Cigarettes with defective filters marketed for 40 years: what Philip Morris never told smokers
J L Pauly, A B Mepani, J D Lesses, K M Cummings and R J Streck
More than 90% of the cigarettes sold worldwide have a filter. Nearly all filters consist of a rod of numerous ( > 12 000) plastic-like cellulose acetate fibres. During high speed cigarette manufacturing procedures, fragments of cellulose acetate that form the mouthpiece of a filter rod become separated from the filter at the end face. In smoking a cigarette, some of these fragments are released during puffing. In addition to the cellulose acetate fragments, carbon particles are released also from some cigarette brands that have a charcoal filter. Cigarettes with filters that release cellulose acetate or carbon particles during normal smoking conditions are defective. Objective: Specific goals were to review systematically the writings of tobacco companies to: (a) identify papers that would document the existence of defective filters; (b) characterise the extent of the defect; (c) establish when the defect became known; (d) determine whether the defect exists on cigarettes marketed currently; (e) assess the prevalence of the defect on cigarettes manufactured by different companies; (f) define whether the knowledge of the defect had been withheld by the tobacco company as confidential and not disclosed publicly; and (g) ascertain the feasibility of correcting or preventing the defect.
Status: Documents Collected
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
|Tobacco Institute lobbying at the state and local levels of government in the 1990s
C P Morley, K M Cummings, A Hyland, G A Giovino and J K Horan
Describes variations in Tobacco Institute (TI) lobbying expenditures across states and test whether these expenditures vary in relationship to measures of tobacco control activity at the state level.
Status: Documents Collected
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
|Turning free speech into commercial speech: Philip Morris' efforts to control U.S. and European media on secondhand smoke
Muggli ME, Hurt RD Mayo Clinic
Philip Morris set up a journalist program to create favorable press accounts for over a decade in the U.S. and Europe.
Status: Working Draft
Mayo Clinic
|"Avoid health warnings on all tobacco products for just as long as we can": a history of tobacco industry efforts to avoid, delay and dilute health warnings on cigarettes
Chapman S, Carter SM
Objective: To review critically the history of Australian tobacco industry efforts to avoid, delay, and dilute pack warnings on cigarettes. Design: Systematic keyword and opportunistic website searches of tobacco industry internal documents made available through the Master Settlement Agreement. Results: Four industry strategies and six recurrent arguments used by the industry are described, which were used to thwart the passage of three generations of health warnings (implemented in 1973, 1987, and 1995). These strategies are shown to have been associated with major delays in the implementation of the warnings and in keeping them inconspicuous, unattributed to the industry and non-specific, and particularly in delaying the use of warnings about addiction. The industry today continues to oppose warnings, which might ''repel'' smokers from tobacco use. Conclusions: Efforts by governments to introduce potent health warnings will be resisted by the tobacco industry. Tobacco control advocates should anticipate and counter the strategies and arguments used by the industry, which are described in this paper if they wish to maximise the use of the pack as a vehicle for raising awareness about the harms of smoking.
Status: Published: Tob Control 2003;12 (Suppl 3):13-22
Simon Chapman's Group
|Use of menthol in cigarettes, its pharmacological and toxocological effects
Ferris Wayne G, Garrett B, Connolly G, Henningfield J
Menthol cigarettes are the only additive-based cigarette market category, constituting more than a quarter of the overall market. Public health research has suggested patterns of use of mentholated brands as a potential explanation for the health disparities between black (largely menthol) and white (largely non-menthol) smokers, and has explored the effects of menthol on smoker behavior, consumption patterns and consequent delivery of smoke constituents. However, few published studies have directly examined the biochemical and physiological impact of menthol delivery in cigarettes. Reviewed studies describe a range of physiological and respiratory effects of menthol that may effect perception of menthol in cigarettes. These effects could have important implications for use patterns and uptake, as well as increased toxic effects. Most significant from a public health perspective is the potential for increased uptake of nicotine and smoke constituents due to reduced perception of irritation, enhanced absorption, and deeper/ longer inhalation; increased toxicity and respiratory irritation; and potential CNS effects produced by prolonged menthol uptake. However, further studies are needed in these areas. We conclude that the unique design of menthol cigarettes and their potential effects should be considered separately from non-menthol cigarettes in research, cessation treatment, and developing and enacting tobacco product regulations.
Status: In Internal Review
Mass. Tobacco Control Program
|Free nicotine and "smoke pH": evaluating industry methods used to determine the form of nicotine delivered in smoke
Ferris Wayne G, Connolly G, Heningfield J, Pankow J
Looks at internal industry measures of "smoke pH" and their relation to industry measures of free nicotine in cigarette smoke. Presents findings suggesting significant differences in levels of free nicotine across brands, and proposes that the public health community would benefit from research to assess directly the amount of free nicotine available in cigarette smoke.
Status: Working Draft
Mass. Tobacco Control Program
|Designing the perfect drug delivery device: manipulation and control of cigarette smoke yield, intake, and smoker behavior
Ferris Wayne G
Identifies changes in cigarette product design that may affect smoker behavior or alter patterns of smoke delivery and intake. Findings suggest that cigarette design is more successful to the degree that it allows a smoker precise control over smoke delivery throughout the smoking of the cigarette.
Status: Working Draft
Mass. Tobacco Control Program
|Effects of levulinic acid on smoke perception and uptake
Cullen D, Ferris Wayne G, Connolly G
Effects of levulinic acid as case study of possible impact of additives in cigarettes. Includes effects on smoke perception (smoothness), smoke pH/ form of nicotine, and binding of nicotine in brain.
Status: Working Draft
Mass. Tobacco Control Program
|Internal industry measures of human smoking, behavior, effects of compensation, and uptake of smoke constituents
Roy D, Ferris Wayne G, Connolly G
Status: Documents Collected
Mass. Tobacco Control Program
|Targeting appetite control/ body weight via product design and additives
Cook B, Ferris Wayne G, Connolly G
Status: Working Draft
Mass. Tobacco Control Program
|Effects of particle size on smoke deposition and uptake
Status: Initial Research
Mass. Tobacco Control Program
|How cigarette design can affect youth initiation into smoking: Camel cigarettes 1983-93
Wayne GF, Connolly GN
CONTEXT: Internal industry documents may shed light on how cigarettes are designed to promote youth smoking. OBJECTIVE: To determine changes in the design of Camel cigarettes in the period surrounding the "Smooth Character" advertising campaign and to assess the impact of these changes on youth smoking. DATA SOURCES: Internal documents made available through the document website maintained by RJ Reynolds, manufacturer of Camel cigarettes. STUDY SELECTION: Electronic searches using keywords to identify relevant data. DATA EXTRACTION: A web based index search of documents targeting "smoothness" or "harshness" and "younger adult smokers" ("YAS") or "first usual brand younger adult smokers" ("FUBYAS") in the 10 year period surrounding the introduction of the "Smooth Character" campaign was used to identify Camel related product design research projects. A snowball methodology was used: initial documents were identified by focusing on key words, codes, researchers, committees, meetings, and gaps in overall chronology; a second set of documents was culled from these initial documents, and so on. DATA SYNTHESIS: Product design research led to the introduction of redesigned Camel cigarettes targeted to younger adult males coinciding with the "Smooth Character" campaign. Further refinements in Camel cigarettes during the following five year period continued to emphasise the smoothness of the cigarette, utilising additives and blends which reduced throat irritation but increased or retained nicotine impact. CONCLUSIONS: Industry competition for market share among younger adult smokers may have contributed to the reversal of a decline in youth smoking rates during the late 1980s through development of products which were more appealing to youth smokers and which aided in initiation by reducing harshness and irritation.
Status: Published: Tob Control. 2002 Mar;11 Suppl 1:I32-9.
Mass. Tobacco Control Program
|How cigarette additives are used to mask environmental tobacco smoke
Connolly GN, Wayne GD, Lymperis D, Doherty MC
OBJECTIVE: To understand the tobacco industry's research on and use of cigarette additives that alter the perception of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). DATA SOURCES: Internal documents from four websites maintained by the major US tobacco manufacturers and company patents pertaining to the use of ETS altering additives obtained from the US Patent and Trademark Office online database. STUDY SELECTION: Electronic searches of the four industry websites and the US patent database were conducted using keywords to identify relevant data. DATA EXTRACTION: Industry documents and patents obtained using an exploratory snowball sampling method were reviewed and grouped into four general categories according to whether the additive(s) described affected ETS visibility, odour, irritation, or emissions. Accuracy of isolated findings was validated through cross comparison of the data sources. DATA SYNTHESIS: Results of this preliminary study provide evidence that tobacco manufacturers have conducted extensive research on the use of chemical additives to reduce, mask, or otherwise alter the visibility, odour, irritation, or emission of ETS. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that the tobacco industry uses additives to reduce the perception of ETS. To protect the public, appropriate regulation of tobacco additives should be mandated.
Status: Published: Tob Control. 2000 Sep;9(3):283-91.
Mass. Tobacco Control Program
|"Conclusions about exposure to ETS and health that will be unhelpful to us": how the tobacco industry attempted to delay and discredit the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council report on passive smoking
Trotter L, Chapman S
Background: Major reviews of the health effects of passive smoking have been subjected to tobacco industry campaigns to refute the scientific evidence. Following the 1992 US Environmental Protection Agency review, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) initiated a review of the health effects of passive smoking. At the time of this review, evidence that environmental tobacco smoke causes disease was being increasingly accepted in courts of law and voluntary adoption of smoking restrictions was rapidly growing. Objective: To demonstrate how the tobacco industry attempted to delay and discredit the publication of a report on passive smoking that the tobacco industry anticipated to contain recommendations that would be unfavourable to their business. Methods: A search of tobacco industry documents on the Master Settlement Agreement websites was conducted using the terms and acronyms representative of the NHMRC review. Results: The tobacco industry sought to impede the progress of the NHMRC Working Party by launching an intensive campaign to delay and discredit the report. The main strategies used were attempts to criticize the science, extensive use of Freedom of Information provisions to monitor all activity of the group, legal challenges, ad hominem attacks on the credibility of the Working Party members, rallying support from industry allies, and influencing public opinion through the media. Conclusions: The Australian tobacco industry deliberately impeded the NHMRC Working Party's progress and successfully prevented the publication of the report's recommendations. The tobacco industry's motivation and capacity to disrupt the advancement of scientific knowledge and policy in tobacco control should be recognised and anticipated.
Status: Published: Tob Control 2003;12 (Suppl 3):102-06
Simon Chapman's Group
| "We are anxious to remain anonymous": the use of third party scientific and medical consultants by the Australian tobacco industry, 1969 to 1979
Chapman S
Objective: To document the history of visits to Australia by tobacco industry sponsored scientists and news media reports about smoking and health matters generated by their visits. Design: Systematic keyword and opportunistic website searches of tobacco industry internal documents made available through the Master Settlement Agreement. Results: At least nine sponsored scientists visited Australia from 1969 until 1979. The industry sought to promote the scientists as independent from the industry and on occasion, scientists publicly lied about their industry connections. The industry was sometimes delighted with the extensive and favourable media coverage given to the visits. Conclusions: These media reports are likely to have influenced many who were exposed to them to believe that the evidence against smoking remained equivocal.
Status: Published: Tob Control 2003;12 (Suppl 3):31-37
Simon Chapman's Group
|"A Deep Fragrance of Academia": the Australian Tobacco Research Foundation
Chapman S, Peters, M, Carter, SM
Objectives: (1) To review the history of the tobacco industry supported Australian Tobacco Research Foundation (ATRF) (1970–1994) for evidence of the industry's use of the Foundation to further its objectives that ''more research was needed'' on smoking and health and to promulgate the view that nicotine was not addictive. (2) To review efforts by public health advocates to discredit the ATRF as a public relations tool used by the Australian industry. Methods: Systematic search of previously internal industry documents released through the US Master Settlement Agreement. Results: The ATRF was headed by prestigious Australian medical scientists, with at least one considered by the industry to be ''industry positive''. An international ATRF symposium on nicotine was vetted by the industry and heavily attended by industry approved scientists. Following sustained criticism from the health and medical community about the industry's creation of the ATRF to further its objectives, the ATRF's scientific committee was provoked to publicly declare in 1988 that smoking was a causative agent in disease. This criticism led to growing ATRF boycotts by scientists and substandard applications, causing the industry to see the ATRF as being poor value-for-money and eventually abandoning it. Conclusions: The raison d'etre for the ATRF's establishment was to allow the Australian industry to point to its continuing commitment to independent medical research, with the implied corollary that tobacco control measures were premature in the face of insufficient evidence about tobacco's harms. Sustained criticism of tobacco industry funded research schemes can undermine their credibility among the scientific community.
Status: Published: Tob Control 2003;12 (Suppl 3):38-44
Simon Chapman's Group
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Updated: October 7, 2013 3:25PM
Classes were canceled Monday at Oglesby Elementary School after a small fire damaged a third-floor classroom, a Chicago Fire Department spokesman said.
No one was injured in the fire at the school, 7646 S. Green, but smoke and water damage forced school officials to cancel classes just as students began to arrive for the day, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford.
Heavy smoke poured from a single classroom when firefighters arrived, but they extinguished the blaze in about 20 minutes, he said.
Students had not yet arrived for the day when the fire broke out, but some school staff was in the four-story, red brick building, the fire department said.
"The babies were not here, thank God," said Angela Lampkin, an Oglesby teacher who arrived to see firefighters surrounding the school.
Lampkin said there's never been a fire at the school in her 17 years there, but "we've have plenty of fire drills."
Parents on Oglesby's local school council spent the morning notifying other parents about the closure. The dozen or so students who showed up were "provided meals today and a safe, comfortable environment, but school was cancelled for the day," according to CPS.
Oglesby was expected to re-open Tuesday, pending the outcome of the investigation of the fire — the cause of which remained unclear, CPS officials said.
As parents pulled up to drop off their kids, some were stunned to learn about the fire — and very grateful their children weren't inside at the time.

subset: commoncrawl


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Home » Opinion » Columns
Thomas Sowell: How multiculturalism harms minorities it was intended to help
Intellectuals who imagine that they are helping racial or ethnic groups that lag behind by redefining their lags out of existence with multicultural rhetoric are in fact leading them into a blind alley.
Multiculturalism is a tempting quick fix for groups that lag by simply pronouncing their cultures to be equal, or "equally valid," in some vague and lofty sense. Cultural features are just different, not better or worse, according to this dogma.
Yet the borrowing of particular features from other cultures - such as Arabic numerals that replaced Roman numerals, even in Western cultures that derived from Rome - implies that some features are not simply different but better, including numbers. Some of the most advanced cultures in history have borrowed from other cultures, because no given collection of human beings has created the best answers to all the questions of life.
Nevertheless, since multiculturalists see all cultures as equal or "equally valid," they see no justification for schools to insist that black children learn standard English, for example. Instead, each group is encouraged to cling to its own culture and to take pride in its own past glories, real or imaginary.
In other words, members of minority groups that lag educationally, economically or otherwise are to continue to behave in the future as they have in the past - and, if they do not get the same outcomes as others, it is society's fault. That is the bottom line message of multiculturalism.
George Orwell once said that some ideas are so foolish that only an intellectual could believe them. Multiculturalism is one of those ideas. The intelligentsia burst into indignation or outrage at "gaps" or "disparities" in educational, economic or other outcomes - and denounce any cultural explanation of these group differences as "blaming the victim."
There is no question that some races or whole nations have been victimized by others, any more than there is any question that cancers can cause death. But that is very different from saying that deaths can automatically be blamed on cancer. You might think that intellectuals could make that distinction. But many do not.
Yet intellectuals see themselves as friends, allies and defenders of racial minorities, even as they paint them into a corner of cultural stagnation. This allows the intelligentsia to flatter themselves that they are on the side of the angels against the forces of evil that are conspiring to keep minorities down.
When they cannot come up with hard evidence in any particular case to support this theory today, that just proves to the intelligentsia how fiendishly clever and covert these pervasive efforts to hold down minorities are.
Why people with high levels of mental skills and rhetorical talents would tie themselves into knots with such reasoning is a mystery. Perhaps it is just that they cannot give up a social vision that is so flattering to themselves, despite how detrimental it may be to the people they claim to be helping.
Multiculturalism, like the caste system, paints people into the corner where they happened to have been born. But at least the caste system does not claim to benefit those at the bottom.
Multiculturalism not only serves the ego interests of intellectuals, it serves the political interests of elected officials, who have every incentive to promote a sense of victimhood, and even paranoia, among groups whose votes they want, in exchange for both material and psychic support.
The multicultural vision of the world also serves the interests of those in the media, who thrive on moral melodramas. So do whole departments of ethnic "studies" in academia and a whole industry of "diversity" consultants, community organizers and miscellaneous other race hustlers.
The biggest losers in all this are those members of racial minorities who allow themselves to be led into the blind alley of resentment and rage, even when there are broad avenues of opportunity available. And we all lose when society is polarized.
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His website is www.tsowell.com.
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Layer Cake Shop BLOG
HOW MANY SPRINKLES DO I NEED? February 18 2014, 0 Comments
One of our most commonly asked questions is "How many sprinkles do I need?" Whether you need to bake 24 or 2400 cupcakes its great to be able to order just what you need, without worry that you'll run out of sprinkles. Thats why we decided to whip up some cupcakes and finally answer the great cupcake sprinkling mystery!
We sprinkled one batch fairly lightly and one batch more heavily because there isn't just one way to sprinkle a cupcake! As you can see the light sprinkling used 1/2 the bottle, and the heavy sprinkling used the whole bottle, on 24 cupcakes. All of our sprinkles come bottles and hold 3-4 ounces of sprinkles. We also sell sprinkles in bulk. 1 bulk bag = 4 bottles
Now that we solved the great cupake sprinkling mystery we hope it helps you make easier ordering decisions. Happy sprinkling!
Shop our HUGE sprinkles selection!
♥ greta


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December 20, 2014
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) -- The Bush administration says Russian troops are beginning to withdraw from war-battered Georgia but that the pullback is not significant and needs to increase.
National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the United States is seeing "early signs of some withdrawal" and that the pace of the withdrawal "needs to increase sooner rather than later." He spoke on Air Force One as President Bush flew from his vacation in Texas to a speech to veterans in Orlando, Fla.
Johndroe also said the United States does not agree with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (SIR' - gay LAHV' ruf) that the United States or any other country has to choose between Russia and Georgia.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Dáil Éireann - Volume 466 - 13 June, 1996
Chemical Weapons Convention: Motion.
Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (Ms Burton) Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (Ms Burton)
Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs (Ms Burton): I move:
That Dáil Éireann approves the terms of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, signed by Ireland in Paris on the 14th day of January, 1993, a copy of which was laid before Dáil Éireann on the 5th day of June, 1996."
I am pleased to move this motion approving the terms of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons, commonly known as the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Chemical weapons are, by their nature, among the most odious of the weapons of mass destruction. They can have [2057] no place in a civilised society. Modern efforts to ban chemical warfare go back over 120 years, to the Brussels Declaration of 1874 which prohibited the use of poisons and poisoned bullets in warfare.
The great merit of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Conventions is that it provides for the elimination of this entire category of weapons. It is an unprecedented international disarmament agreement, unique in its scope in negotiating history and in the comprehensive verification system which is an integral part of the agreement.
The convention was the result of 24 years of negotiations on the framework of the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament. The ending of the Cold War gave fresh impetus to protracted discussions, so that the negotiations were concluded by September 1992. The Convention was approved by consensus at the General Assembly of the United Nations on 30 November 1992 and opened for signature in Paris on 13 January 1993. To date is has been signed by 160 countries, including Ireland, which was among the original signatories.
The 1925 Geneva Protocol had already banned chemical and bacteriological warfare. The Chemical Weapons Convention, for its part, is designed to exclude the possibility of the use or threat of use of chemical weapons.
Thus, it prohibits the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, retention and direct or indirect transfer of chemical weapons under any circumstances. Each State party to the convention must undertake never, under any circumstances, to use chemical weapons, to engage in military preparations to use chemical weapons, or to assist, encourage or induce any one to engage in prohibited activities.
A core element is that all chemical weapons and related production facilities have to be declared and thereafter eliminated under international supervision, within ten years of the entry into force of the convention. This provision is of real and pressing interest to the [2058] international community. The two principal possessors of chemical weapons, the US and the Russian Federation, are thought to have, between them, some 70,000 tonnes of chemical weapons. Up to two score countries in total are believed to possess some chemical weapons. While their production is cheap, the destruction of chemical weapons is both very expensive and environmentally challenging.
The convention also prohibits the use of riot control agents as a method of warfare and reaffirms the prohibition under international law of the use of herbicides as a method of warfare. Importantly, it establishes the right of States parties to request and receive assistance and protection against the use or threat of use of chemical weapons. This provision is of particular interest to developing countries, as not all countries have highly developed capabilities in this regard.
The Chemical Weapons Convention breaks new ground in multilaterally negotiated disarmament agreements by requiring State parties to demonstrate conclusively their compliance with its provisions. The convention includes a far-reaching verification regime which is designed to enhance the security of States parties by limiting any possibility of clandestine development, production, storage or use of chemical weapons. Ireland looks forward to exercising our right to demonstrate full compliance with our obligations under the convention. States parties in good standing will have nothing to fear from the verification system.
Not later than 30 days after the convention enters into force, each State party must submit detailed declarations with respect to its possession or control of chemical weapons, of old and abandoned chemical weapons and of chemical weapons production facilities together with a general plan for their destruction, the provisions governing which are spelled out comprehensively. Declared chemical weapons production, storage and destruction facilities will be subject to systematic on-site inspections.
[2059] The convention lays down how these inspections will be carried out.
Given that chemical weapons are relatively easy to produce, the convention also requires declarations of chemical facilities that are engaged in permitted activities related to certain scheduled chemicals. Its monitoring system thus involves declarations and routine inspections of relevant civilian chemical industry facilities. It is the proposed declarations and routine inspections of these civilian facilities that are most relevant for Ireland and particularly for our chemical industry. I will revert to this aspect later.
In addition to arrangements for routine inspections, the convention is reinforced by an unprecedented challenge inspection regime. Subject to certain precautions designed to guard against frivolous use of this mechanism, the challenge inspection provision allows any State party to trigger an international inspection at any facility or location in any other State party at short notice, in order to clarify and resolve questions of possible non-compliance. The State party which is the object of a challenge inspection has no right of refusal, an extremely important element of this convention.
To oversee its operation, the convention provides for the establishment of a body called the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons - OPCW — which will be based in The Hague. The OPCW will establish an inspectorate which will have the right to conduct a range of on-site verification and inspection activities to ascertain the validity of each State party's declarations. This will result in the carrying out, at short notice, of routine inspections of certain facilities from time to time. As with bodies established under other international conventions, the budget of the OPCW will be provided by contributions by States parties based on the United Nations' scale of assessment.
Each State party is required to designate an authority to ensure effective [2060] implementation of the convention's provisions by, inter alia, liaison with the OPCW, as well as liaison with other States parties. In Ireland's case the Government has designated the Department of Enterprise and Employment as the national authority. The National Authority for Occupational Safety and Health will carry out Ireland's obligations in relation to the convention.
The convention is expected to have an important role in controlling international trade in substances susceptible of being used by would-be proliferators to develop chemical weapons programmes. This in itself can act as a deterrent to proliferation. Trade in scheduled chemicals with non-State parties will be subjected to certain limitations and restrictions. This means, inter alia, that failure by any EU member state to ratify the convention would have implications for the Single Market, given that once the convention entered into force, trade in chemicals between State parties and non-State parties will be subject to restrictions. All partners, not least Ireland as future Presidency, are determined that this situation will not arise.
As I have illustrated, the Chemical Weapons Convention places quite onerous obligations on State parties. In particular, the obligation to demonstrate full compliance is more highly developed in this convention than in any previous, multilaterally negotiated disarmament agreement. For these reasons, although it has not yet entered into force, the Chemical Weapons Convention already serves as a kind of benchmark against which other disarmament and non-proliferation agreements in the making are measured. Its verification provisions are seen as providing a strong precedent to be emulated in new treaties under negotiation or in existing treaties which are being strengthened.
The negotiations to conclude a comprehensive test ban treaty, for example, have been influenced by the experience of the Chemical Weapons Convention. [2061] Let me state at this point my strong hope that these negotiations will be completed on schedule, so that a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty which includes stringent provisions for monitoring compliance, will be be opened for signature at the United Nations in September this year. Following from the indefinite extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1995, a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996, with the coming into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention early in 1997, would amount to heartening progress towards ending the proliferation and advancing the complete elimination of weapons of mass destruction. That has long been a policy of successive Governments and all parties in this House.
The process of strengthening the implementation of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention is also influenced by the Chemical Weapons Convention. In this House on 30 May, The Tánaiste made clear that the period of the Irish Presidency of the EU would be crucial to the final outcome. The Tánaiste said we will do all we can during our term of office to give impetus to the negotiations aimed at reinforcing the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention with a legally binding and effective verification regime which we now have in regard to chemical weapons.
The Chemical Weapons Convention is now expected to enter into force around January 1997. Sixty-five ratifications are needed to trigger a 180 day lead-in period to entry into force. To date, 52 countries have ratified the convention. These include 11 of our European Union partners. Like Ireland, the remaining European Union countries, Belgium, Luxembourg and Portugal are well advanced in the ratification process. Besides being necessary for reasons related to the Single Market, ratification by all 15 European Union members as part of the first 65 would send a strong political message to the rest of the world about the great importance which the Union attaches to the convention and to its role in the elimination of weapons of mass destruction. [2062] Four more ratifications from the side of the Union would bring the, total significantly closer to the threshold figure of 65 and would establish the conditions for the Union to take diplomatic action to promote the earliest possible entry into force of the convention and thereafter the widest possible adherence to it. Ireland, which as Presidency will be leading EU efforts to promote these aims, should itself have ratified before 1 July. If, as we all hope, the United States is in a position to ratify in the coming weeks, the remaining ratifications necessary to trigger entry into force could come quickly. It is also very important for the credibility of the convention that Russia should ratify at an early date, because between them Russia and the United States have more than 70,000 tonnes of chemical weapons.
I met the Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the OPCW, Mr. Ian Kenyon, when he visited Dublin on 30 May for discussions concerned with ratification of the convention.
To carry out Ireland's obligations under the convention, implementing legislation is required. To this end, the Government has approved draft heads of a Bill prepared by the Minister for Enterprise and Employment in consultation with representatives of the industry concerned. The draft Bill is being considered by the parliamentary draughtsman and we hope to publish it very shortly with a view to ensuring that the legislation and any other measures needed to enable Ireland to discharge fully its obligations under the convention will have been adopted in advance of the entry into force of the convention.
In its role as protector of the safety of workers who handle toxic chemicals, the National Authority for Occupational Safety and Health is well placed to identify those companies in Ireland whose handling of scheduled chemicals make them subject to annual declarations under the convention. While it is not yet clear how many Irish facilities might be [2063] affected and while the number could be relatively large, the provisions of data for inclusion in national declarations is not in itself an onerous task. Much of the information required may already be available to the national Authority in other contexts.
Routine and challenge inspections during the first year of operation of the convention are likely to focus on chemical weapons facilities rather than civilian facilities. However, in subsequent years, some routine inspections of Irish chemical facilities can be expected for the specific and limited purpose of verifying, the data on the more toxic chemicals that will have been provided in our annual declarations under the convention. The number of facilities in Ireland likely to be affected by inspections is thought to be very small and in any event significantly smaller than the number subject to declarations. Although we do not anticipate a challenge inspection of a facility in Ireland on foot of an allegation of non-compliance from another State Party, the legislation powers must be put in place to enable Ireland to meet that contingency.
One of the functions of the OPCW is to help developing countries to cope with the obligations imposed by the Chemical Weapons Convention. During my meeting with him last month, I told Mr. Kenyon that we would consider supporting the efforts of the organisation in this area through the Irish aid programme if a suitable project could be identified. This would be in the area of training. Officials from developing countries would be trained by the organisation on the potential use of chemicals for chemical weapons purposes.
The effort incurred in implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention in this country will be very modest in relation to the political and practical costs of failure to ratify. In supporting this motion, the House can demonstrate Ireland's serious commitment to playing [2064] our part in banishing these noxious weapons from the face of the earth. I am confident that the House will share my view that the Chemical Weapons Convention is a precious contribution to a most valuable objective and that Ireland should ratify it at the earliest possible date.
Mr. R. Burke Mr. R. Burke
Mr. R. Burke: The Chemical Weapons Convention was open for signature on 13 January 1993 in Paris by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The signing of the convention on the prohibition of the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons and on their destruction marked the culmination of protracted and intensive negotiations on the part of the international community to ban chemical weapons. After more than 20 years the convention was signed by 127 countries, including Ireland.
The convention had a long history. It has been debated and negotiated at a conference on disarmament by a negotiating body of the international community for a decade and was finally adopted by that conference in September 1992.
It transpires that the Chemical Weapons Convention is the first disarmament agreement negotiated within a multilateral framework that provides for the elimination of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction. A Brussels declaration of 1874 was the first modern attempt to ban chemical weapons. It prohibited the use of poisons and poisoned bullets in warfare, yet despite that chemical weapons were extensively deployed during the First World War. Public horror and condemnation led to the signing of the General Protocol of 1925. The Protocol made the use of chemical or biological weapons illegal but did not forbid their development, production, stockpiling or deployment. This factor led to the beginning of discussions on the Chemical Weapons Convention.
As we know only too well, modern warfare is a treacherous business. We [2065] might be forgiven for believing that anything goes in the midst of war, a notion that is forcibly brought home in the injuries, maiming and deaths that ensue. Close to the start of this century some weapons, from dumdum bullets to biological agents have been deemed horrific enough for the world to seek their banning from battlefields. The use of mustard gas, for example, has been shunned by most of the world states. However, until the convention garners sufficient ratifying states, mere possession of chemical weapons means that no rules are being broken.
It is anticipated that the convention will have enough ratifiers, perhaps by year end, but is every state in favour of such a prohibition? Certainly there are critics. Both the United States and Russia have voiced their concerns and each has yet to ratify the convention. Among other arguments put forward, these two nations have suggested that the convention's task is simply too onerous. They have argued that since just about any chemical could, if misused, contribute to a weapons programme, and since the world's chemical industry is conducted on a massive scale, seeking out proscribed activities is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Apart from individual countries, chemical companies have not been slow in profering their reasons as to why the convention might just prove to be too stifling. Some of these companies have suggested that the rules are two tough, that in providing information to demonstrate that they are not engaged in any illegal activity, they may risk seeing their lucrative trade secrets plundered and pillaged.
In discussions and negotiations on any programme, proposal or convention, there are always arguments on both sides. On balance the UN Convention is a prudent path to progress. We can all appreciate that it would be next to impossible to make any arms control regime watertight and perfect. Seeking a balance means setting the benefits against the dangers, the pros against the cons. On balance, the conclusion must [2066] be that the potential benefits of the Chemical Weapons Convention outweigh any existing or conceivable dangers that lie ahead. Another difficult balance must be achieved between the protection of a company's legitimate commercial secrets and the detection of illegitimate activities.
One aspect which is critical to the effectiveness of the convention is the provision for swoops on suspected targets at short notice, these swoops to be carried out by international inspectors when one company suspects another of engaging in illegal behaviour. As technology drives forward, attempts by individual nations or individual companies to breach convention rules will prove more and more difficult. Skilled inspectors, matched by state-of-the-art equipment and methodologies, should prove an effective beachhead against prospective rule breakers.
One of the real benefits of the conventions is that old and often disintegrating and dangerous stocks will have to be destroyed. Russia, having one of the biggest arsenals in the world, has been one of the strongest critics of the convention. One can appreciate where they are coming from because the destruction of stockpiled mountains of weapons does not happen without adequate resources. Safe and effective destruction demands sufficient resources, and a cash-strapped Russia does not have such flows of money to make even a dent in their existing stocks. As a chemical weapons convention without Russia as a ratifier would not be worth the paper it was written on, it is undoubtedly the case that the richer nations of the world must remit funds to Russia to enable her to safely eliminate her weapons. The benefits would accrue to everyone.
It is interesting to note that even those countries who do not sign up to the convention will not be far removed from the tentacles of its powers. Although national laws will have to be enacted to make the convention rules adhere, non-siders will find that their ability to purchase certain chemicals [2067] and industrial equipment from convention members will be severely curtailed.
I cannot let the opportunity pass without expressing my concern at the nuclear test explosion by China last weekend. Last Saturday China, oblivious to world outrage, carried out a nuclear explosion at its Lop Nor Desert test site, and announced a moratorium from September after a final blast. With the comprehensive test ban treaty talks due to conclude by 28 June next, it is regrettable that China has displayed such insensitivity to world opinion.
At this stage we might well ask if a chemical weapons convention has any implications for Ireland. Although we are probably relatively safe in assuming that the threat to Ireland from military chemical weapons is low, we cannot, nonetheless, turn a blind eye to the potential that exists for a threat to emanate from, for example, a terrorist organisation or for chemical munitions to be washed ashore on to our coast. This threat from old stocks of weapons is very real for Ireland. Facts cannot be ignored. It has emerged in recent months that over a million tonnes of British munitions were dumped off the Irish coast since World War II, in the Beaufort Dyke, for example. The British Ministry for Defence has admitted, for the first time, that it dumped hundreds of tonnes of chemical weapons and poison gases off the Irish coast. What risk do these munitions pose? Apart from storms and violent seas which can easily disturb the sea bed, the increasing use of piping for industrial purposes between Ireland and the UK will undoubtedly disturb it. Assurances from the British authorities that the dumping of redundant munitions has been done in a strictly controlled manner to ensure that no damage to the marine environment will occur are of little comfort to those communities who bear witness to canisters and other artefacts appearing close to their local environment. Certainly it is hoped that ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention will ensure that the disposal [2068] of weapons which re-emerge decades later on the lands of another state will be a thing of the past.
The production of chemical weapons occurred over decades. Mammoth stockpiles of killing machines exist as a result. Their destruction is an urgent requirement. The destruction of decades worth of munitions will not happen with a ratified convention, but a ratified convention signals a will and a method to achieve the aim of ridding this earth of destructive weapons of war.
Chemical weapons represent an ongoing death threat and a persistent environmental hazard. The civilian and military production, development, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons must be halted. They must be banned by this convention. As part of our support for this convention we will continue to persist with our consistent calls for the closure of the Sellafield plant. At EU level we will continue to call for the establishment of an independent nuclear inspectorate. We will also continue to vigorously push the watertight case for a world-wide ban on the production, stockpiling, transfer and use of land mines. Ireland should ratify the instrument which is up for consideration by the Oireachtas today.
Mr. O'Malley Mr. O'Malley
Mr. O'Malley: I am glad to support this motion to approve the terms of the Chemical Weapons Convention. It is perhaps one of the easiest motions to support that has ever come before this House.
Mr. R. Burke Mr. R. Burke
Mr. R. Burke: Even Deputy Bhamjee might be here for the vote.
Mr. O'Malley Mr. O'Malley
Mr. O'Malley: I can assure the Minister of State that this will not become derailed as a result of lethargy in the midwest. I assume that as a result of this motion being passed today Ireland can ratify the convention — the Minister of State spoke of the necessity for legislation but I take it that is only for the [2069] technical implementation of it and not for its ratification.
Ms Burton Ms Burton
Ms Burton: That is so.
Mr. O'Malley Mr. O'Malley
Mr. O'Malley: I am glad the Minister of State agrees with that because it is important that we should ratify it at the earliest moment, whatever legislation may be necessary later.
The Minister said this morning.
She said:
The challenge inspection provision under this convention allows any state party to trigger an international inspection at any facility or location in any other state party at short notice in order to clarify and resolve questions of possible non-compliance. The state party which is the object of a challenge inspection has no right of refusal.
That is a most far-reaching provision. It is perhaps one of the strongest provisions there is in international law or in any international convention or treaty. It is to the credit of all who signed the convention and will ratify it that its provisions will be enforceable. I would like to think that something similar could be enforced for nuclear weapons and facilities. In particular, I have in mind the Sellafield operation and THORP, the plutonium reprocessing plant, where plutonium is brought in and where what in effect are nuclear weapons are manufactured. A great deal of unpredictable and uncontrollable waste is created.
We have been told that we are powerless to have an inspection carried out at our behest. It is interesting that such an installation cannot be inspected even though its effects are potentially far more dangerous than the effects of chemical weapons, which may be more localised. The significance of this convention should be seen in a broader context, particularly in the nuclear context.
The nations that possess the greatest amount of chemical weapons are the United States of America and the Russian Federation. The United States is, I [2070] believe, on course to ratify the convention and destroy all its chemical weapons. It has the facilities and resources to do it. In the case of the Russian Federation, I hope it is on course to destroy all its weapons but whether it has the resources to do so remains to be seen. As has been suggested, it is incumbent on the west generally to try to help it, financially and otherwise, to achieve that objective.
One might think that these are the only two nations with a significant cache of chemical weapons, but they are not. A country that needs to be discussed in this debate is Iraq. The use of chemical weapons, not once or twice or occasionally but as a systematic part of the state policy is endorsed by that benighted regime, which unfortunately still exists. I might add that regime had supporters in the not too distant past in this country and even in this House. The resources of the free world should be used to the greatest extent possible, in particular the powers under this convention, to try to force Iraq to desist from the manufacture, storage and above all the use of chemical weapons against its own population. It has used them against the Kurds and also, it seems, against the Marsh Arabs. It appears that chemical weapons were used in the Iraq-Iran war. It is well documented that they were extensively used against the Kurds and the civilian population in many villages and towns in Kurdistan. On one day alone up to 10,000 women and children died as a result of chemical attack by Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad. I presume Iraq has not signed this convention and that it will not ratify it. Whether it is enforceable against a non member is not terribly clear, but presumably it will not be directly enforceable against them. If the great majority of states subscribe to and ratify this convention they will have a great moral authority in trying to ensure that no country will be allowed to continue to use these dreadful weapons.
Possibly the biggest difficulty we will have in respect of chemical weapons and allied matters will arise as a result [2071] of weapons dumped at sea by the British after the Second World War, not because of anything we manufactured ourselves. When the British dumped the weapons Ireland had no jurisdiction or control over the area, but under the next motion to come before the House this morning Ireland will assume a certain limited jurisdiction, however tenuous. It is interesting to consider our position vis-à-vis those weapons. We did not put them there but we know who did. Is there an obligation to remove them? This is what should be done, but it is a very costly and difficult thing to do. It is unsatisfactory that they could be left there indefinitely. I wonder if this convention deals in any way with this situation.
The headquarters of the organisation being set up to enforce the prohibition of chemical weapon will be based in The Hague. There are three or four what might be termed respectable international cities, The Hague, Geneva, Paris and a few more. It is a great pity that Dublin cannot get itself on that list.
Ms Burton Ms Burton
Ms Burton: What about Limerick?
Mr. O'Malley Mr. O'Malley
Mr. O'Malley: Or Limerick, I do not mind as long as it is somewhere in Ireland.
Mr. M. Kitt Mr. M. Kitt
Mr. M. Kitt: Limerick is getting the Eurovision.
Mr. O'Malley Mr. O'Malley
Mr. O'Malley: Ireland never seems to qualify. even though I would have thought with our background and the ethos on which we are always congratulating ourselves that we would be a very suitable location for many of these bodies. We tend to be ignored. We should make more strenuous efforts to ensure that some of them are located here.
I am glad to see this convention will be ratified shortly by sufficient countries to come into effect early next year. This is to be welcomed. In many respects it is one of the most important conventions of its type that has ever been introduced internationally. It is a headline [2072] for what might be done in other areas, particularly on the nuclear weapons side. I hope it will be copied and taken as the norm in future in terms of international enforcement.
Mr. Connor Mr. Connor
Mr. Connor: I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak on Ireland's ratification of the chemical weapons convention, which I welcome. The Minister rightly drew our attention to the odious nature of chemical weapons and their use in wars and conflicts. I understand their use was more widespread during the first World War. There were about 1.3 million casualties of chemical weapon attacks, 95,000 fatal. I well remember 20 years ago talking to an old man who as a 19 year-old soldier was gassed in Ypres and blinded. He carried this burden until his 85th year when he died. That brings home the awful effects of the use of chemical weapons in warfare. The Minister of State and other speakers reminded us that the Brussels Declaration was signed in 1874. I understand there is an earlier convention signed by France and Germany in Strasbourg in 1675 which prohibited the use of poisoned weapons in warfare.
We do not have a problem with ratifying the convention. We have an extensive chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Many of the products it manufactures could be used in the production of chemical weapons. Naturally, it has legitimate concerns given that all plants will be open to inspection. This is right and proper.
One has to be concerned, however, about those countries which have major chemical industries and would not have the same level of respect for the inspectorate. Our attention has been drawn to the fact that the Russian Federation and the United States probably hold more than two thirds of all the stockpiles of chemical weapons in the world. After the Gulf War Iraq was forced to admit it had an extensive chemical weapons industry. Deputy O'Malley raised the question of whether it will sign and obey the convention. I understand it has been [2073] forced to destroy its stockpiles of chemical and nuclear weapons under the supervision of the United Nations. According to news reports this morning, it denied UN inspectors access to certain sites in Baghdad to assess its nuclear capability.
Deputy Burke raised the question of budgeting. I have a particular concern about the Russian Federation. While it has signed the convention it appears it is a long way from ratification, although the convention has been introduced in the Duma. President Yeltsin has not shown any great enthusiasm for it, perhaps because of the cost involved. The Russian Federation will have to meet at least 25 per cent of the cost of destroying its stockpiles of chemical weapons which are probably larger than those of the United States. Because it is strapped for cash this presents a major problem. The delaying tactics and lack of enthusiasm, although this may change after the Presidential election, give cause for concern. If President Yeltsin is not re-elected, we do not know what attitude his successor will adopt.
In the United States the Bush Administration signed the convention before leaving office in November 1994 when the Republicans assumed control of both Houses, but it has languished ever since in the United States Congress. It has had no champion since the election of Bill Clinton as President. Neither Senator Helms, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee nor Senator Strom Thurmond, the Republican chairman of the Arms Control Committee, both of whom come from North Carolina, has shown any great interest in disarmament.
Senator Helms blocked consideration of the convention over a year ago because of a row with the Administration about the foreign affairs budget cuts he was demanding and it was resisting. There was a breakthrough last December when the matter was resolved and discussion recommenced on the floor of Congress. The hope was that it would be passed to the committee [2074] chaired by Senator Robert Dole who departed the scene yesterday and probably would have been more amenable to its speedy ratification. I hope his successor as Senate majority leader, who has already been appointed, will show the same level of enthusiasm in dealing with the matter.
It is important that the Russian Federation and the United States ratify the convention as soon as possible. When ratified by 65 states it will be triggered 180 days later. I hope the instruments of ratification will be lodged by the requisite number by the end of the summer. It is crucial, however, that it is ratified by the major players. We should do everything we possibly can in our foreign relations policy to ensure that those two countries ratify it as soon as possible.
The selection of sites for the destruction of chemical weapons will give rise to major controversy on a worldwide scale. While it is relatively cheap to produce chemical weapons it is very expensive to destroy them. A very complex procedure is used. To my knowledge there is only one location where chemical weapons are disposed of, Johnson Atoll in the Pacific. If a major site is chosen, like Muroroa Atoll where the French carry out underground nuclear tests, this will give rise to controversy because of the environmental impact of the destruction of highly toxic and poisonous substances. It is claimed that eight to nine major sites will be required in both the United States and the Russian Federation which will have ten years to destroy all weapons. As it will be difficult to reach agreement on which sites should be selected, there will be a tendency to seek sites offshore.
An Leas-Cheann Comhairle Joe Jacob
An Leas-Cheann Comhairle: I ask the Deputy to conclude.
Mr. Connor Mr. Connor
Mr. Connor: There is a need for proper budgeting. I understand the organisation [2075] for the prohibition of chemical weapons which——
An Leas-Cheann Comhairle Joe Jacob
An Leas-Cheann Comhairle: I ask the Deputy to conclude forthwith. When he hears what I have to say he will thoroughly understand. I am obliged by the order of the House to call the Minister of State in ten minutes' time to make a speech in reply not exceeding five minutes and there are two Deputies offering, Deputies Kitt and Dukes.
Mr. M. Kitt Mr. M. Kitt
Mr. M. Kitt: We will share time.
Mr. Dukes Mr. Dukes
Mr. Dukes: Agreed.
An Leas-Cheann Comhairle Joe Jacob
An Leas-Cheann Comhairle: I thank the Deputy for his generosity.
Mr. M. Kitt Mr. M. Kitt
Mr. M. Kitt: I welcome this convention, one of the most important ever to be discussed in the House. Like Deputy Connor, I have read and heard the stories about the use of chemical gases during World War 1. Vast numbers of people were killed as a result. In more recent times we have heard about Operation Orange during the Gulf War. I welcome Ireland's ratification of this convention. Perhaps the Minister of State will inform the House why it has taken so long to ratify the convention. which Ireland signed in January 1993. I was informed there was some difficulty in identifying a body to examine legislation and deal with ratification. Is this the reason countries such as Belgium, Luxembourg and Portugal have not ratified the convention? We would like to see our European Union partners ratify this convention and, during our Presidency of the EU, we could perhaps encourage all member states to do so.
I am also concerned by the Minister of State's comments about the large number of chemical weapons held by the United States and the Russian Federation. I hope both countries will ratify the convention.
As Deputy Burke stated, concerns have also been expressed about nuclear [2076] testing. The Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs has condemned French action in this regard. China recently ignored the views of the international community and was very insensitive in its announcement about continuing nuclear testing. I hope our comments will encourage these countries to implement a ban on such testing.
The Chemical Weapons Convention involves halting the assembly of chemical weapons. This should be highlighted because the convention goes a step further than past treaties and bans the construction of such weapons. As Deputy Connor stated, the destruction of chemical weapons is a major issue. Chemical weapons can be produced quite cheaply but it is very expensive to destroy them. The subject of damage to the environment arises when we consider locations for the destruction of such weapons. Perhaps the Minister of State can provide some information in this regard.
The question of inspectors and the powers they will have is also important. According to news reports this morning, Iraq has denied the UN access to and information about its weapons. We must double our efforts on these issues. I fully support the Chemical Weapons Convention and I hope Ireland and its EU partners will ratify it in the near future.
Mr. Dukes Mr. Dukes
Mr. Dukes: I thank Deputy Kitt for his understanding about time constraints. I hope to return the compliment in the future. The Chemical Weapons Convention is extremely important from a number of points of view. As the Minister of State indicated, it is a benchmark convention. Many of its features relating to inspection could be usefully applied to future conventions dealing with other aspects of the arms trade. From that point of view, it merits special attention.
Everyone is concerned about the situation in Iraq, to which Deputy Connor and others referred. That illustrates the need for some of the particular features [2077] of this convention. Iraq is not a signatory of the Chemical Weapons Convention and is not particularly trusted by anyone. Following the Gulf War, a procedure was put in place to dismantle the nuclear and chemical weapons capabilities of Iraq. We cannot be sure this will work because the procedure will not remain in place forever. Once it is finished, we must ensure that no other sources exist from which another unscrupulous regime in Iraq could benefit. It is for this reason that controls on the arms industry are important.
Deputy Burke referred to hesitation in the chemical industry about the terms of the Chemical Weapons Convention. I have no patience with such hesitation. The chemical industry operates successfully in international markets and I have no objection to this. People benefit in many ways from the expertise and creativity of that industry. Like its counterparts, however, the chemical industry must accept that it does not merely operate in a market that protects intellectual property rights. This is one of the industry's main concerns. It also operates in a market with an ethical framework that is fixed by society at large. Through the Chemical Weapons Convention, the international community is stating that the ethical framework conclusively rejects the use, manufacture and storage of chemical weapons. The chemical industry must accept this.
In this area, as in many others, our scientific ability and creative imagination tends to run ahead of our moral capacity to deal with the effects of our achievements. I intend no criticism by stating that this convention, and others like it, are simply a delayed response to society's conscience about the fact that our technical ability exceeds our moral determination to use these weapons properly. Throughout the world there are examples of a disposition in the arms trade to try to circumvent control mechanisms. We have seen this in Iraq and elsewhere in relation to heavy and light weaponry and small arms. Such examples illustrate that there is no point [2078] in having morally satisfactory agreements between countries to ban the use of weapons, unless we control production of and trade in the items concerned. That is the basis of this convention.
It is appropriate that we should highlight the intrinsic value of the Chemical Weapons Convention and its headlining of the kind of action which should be taken in other areas of the arms trade. I could say a great deal more about conventions of this kind. I will simply state that Ireland signed this convention in January 1993 and is only now ratifying it. I am aware it was necessary and essential that the Department of Enterprise and Employment consider the kind of legislation required to give effect to the provisions of this convention. When future conventions of this kind are introduced, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the other Departments involved should give priority to the Preparation of the necessary support legislation for our jurisdiction. The Minister of State would want Ireland to be in the forefront of measures to combat the international trade of weapons of death and destruction.
Ms Burton Ms Burton
Ms Burton: I thank Deputies for their contributions and their support for this motion. Some speakers referred to the First World War but my abiding memory of chemical weapons relates to the use of herbicides in the Vietnam war. Those who are familiar with the films of Oliver Stone — I note there are many students in the Public Gallery — will know the large areas of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos have been destroyed and the land cannot be used for agricultural purposes because of the use of herbicides and chemicals such as Agent Orange during that long conflict.
It is important for all parties in this House to agree that we should play our part in seeking to end the use of such weapons. We have a sufficient number of effective killing machines for use in warfare without using agents such as chemicals and herbicides, as well as land [2079] mines, whose effects linger long after the conflict has ended.
Those weapons, including nuclear weapons, have another characteristic in that their removal costs are sometimes ten times greater than the original cost of making the weapons. It costs as little as £3 to £20 to make a land mine but it would cost approximately £200 to £300 to remove it.
The Iran-Iraq conflict had a tremendous effect on the urgency and stringency with which this convention was established. I hope the stringency of some of its measures will be adhered to in the future by other non-proliferation conventions and conventions to ban weapons.
Chemical weapons were used in the Iran-Iraq conflict and because the major powers were involved in that conflict in a particular way, there was a certain sensitivity about the use of those weapons, and the consequences of that use, which did not previously exist.
Iraq is currently subject to a United Nations inspection but, unfortunately, it is not being satisfactorily adhered to by that country. That remains a problem and one of the issues that must be addressed by the international community is to rid countries like Iraq of chemicals weapons and weapons of mass destruction.
A point was made about the non-proliferation treaty. The difference between this convention and that instrument is that this convention seeks to ban totally all chemical weapons and herbicides. The non-proliferation treaty accepts that there are five states in the world which have nuclear weapons. The comprehensive test ban treaty calls on those states to desist from further tests but, unfortunately, it cannot ban nuclear weapons which would be the Government's position; it is a much more limited form of treaty than this convention.
In relation go the urgency with which this convention has come into force, the difficulty for Ireland has been to identify the appropriate authority. Some countries have created independent [2080] authorities but following examination and consultation, particularly with the Department of Enterprise and Employment, it was decided that the National Authority for Occupational Safety and Health was the appropriate body.
Deputy Connor and others, referred to the cost for the Russian Federation of dismantling its huge number of chemical weapons which are stored throughout Russia, from the furthest corner of Siberia to the most western areas of the country. Following ratification of the treaty by all 15 European Union member states, it will then be possible for the EU collectively, as an element of common foreign and security policy, to lobby other states such as the Russian Federation, which is in receipt of substantial aid and assistance from the EU, to sign up to the convention. It will be possible also for the European Union to assist the Russian Federation financially with the cost of decommissioning these weapons, which is significant. Consequently, ratification by all 15 member states is vitally important.
On the points made by the United States, I understand there are highranking supporters of the convention in the United States Senate and that the appropriate motion is again before that body; the Helms amendments were defeated late in April last.
I urge the United States to ratify the convention as early as possible. Public opinion in the United States is now sufficiently advanced, following the experience of the Iran-Iraq war, for there to be large scale public support for ratification. If it is ratified, and if we can assist the Russian Federation, we will move towards the implementation of this historic convention.
Question put and agreed to.
Dáil Éireann 466 Chemical Weapons Convention: Motion.
General Debate


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2,000 Elective surgery cancellations in 2013
A total of 2,001 elective surgery cancellations were recorded last year with the majority of cases being attributed to patients failing to attend for the surgery or a medical contraindication which forces the operation to be cancelled, the Minister for Health, Godfrey Farrugia, said.
The number of cancelled elective surgeries increased every year since 2011 with 1,560 operations cancelled in 2011 and 1,870 surgeries cancelled in 2012, Dr Farrugia added in reply to a parliamentary question by PN MP Claudio Grech.
Out of the 2,001 surgeries cancelled last year, 412 were gynaecology operations followed by 311 ophthalmology interventions and 307 cardiology procedure. Other interventions which were cancelled included 227 ENT and 223 general surgery.
The Minister added that other reasons for cancelled elective surgery include patients who refuse the operation, operations on the same list which would have waited more than expected, patients who no longer require the operation as their condition would have changed, urgent cases which require immediate surgery and cases were the patient would not be prepared for the operation.


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Metallica News: Guitar Hero Metallica Will Feature Lemmy!
Metallica Magazine - news, reviews, videos, photo gallery and free mp3 playlist.
How cool is that? Guitar Hero: Metallica will feature Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister as an unlockable character. Spinner.com reports:
Gamers will have the option to either watch Lemmy's in-game likeness as he hammers away at his bass and sings in his signature, whiskey-drenched vocals, or they can step into his cowboy boots and learn to play Motörhead's 2008 re-recorded version of their biggest hit, the anthemic 'Ace of Spades.'
That's pretty cool. I mean, there are plenty of people I would like to see on Guitar Hero: Metallica that I never will, so this is cool. I wonder if you can only...
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Byon March 27, 2013
Scott Lemieux was paying attention in class yesterday gold star, Scott! and noticed that, in the midst of all the ruckus out on the steps, the Supreme Court actually handed down a ruling, too, and that ruling actually handed a fairly good whuppin' to our nation's drug warriors. At issue was the use of a drug-sniffing dog outside a residence to qualify as "probable cause" to obtain a search warrant to look for drugs in this case, marijuana plants within within. In a waferish 5-4 decision, the Court threw out the search. The majority included Antonin (Short Time) Scalia and Silent Clarence Thomas. As Lemieux points out, Scalia and Thomas joined the majority on the basis of their fervor for property rights as opposed to, say, Justice Elena Kagan, who ruled against the search on the grounds that it was a violation of privacy, a right that Scalia and Thomas agree doesn't exist in many case, most of them involving ladyparts and the ladies who use them.
The question in this case is whether the dog sniffing around the outside of Jardines's house constituted a "search" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. To state the obvious, evidence obtained in a search cannot be used to retroactively establish the probable cause necessary to obtain a search warrant. The state of Florida argued that because the dog did not enter the house but merely searched the exterior that was visible from the street, the dog sniffing did not constitute a search. In a 5-4 opinion, the Supreme Court rejected this specious argument. Justices Scalia and Thomas-whose sporadic commitment to textualism does sometimes surface in Fourth Amendment cases-provided the swing votes, with the former writing for the majority.
But magnificently appalling was the dissent authored by Justice Samuel Alito, who is turning into the Sweeney Todd of civil-liberties jurisprudence, In this case, Alito makes the Fourth Amendment subject to the strict scrutiny of a dog's olfactory gifts. No expectation of privacy, folks, when Rover's around.
"A reasonable person understands that odors emanating from a house may be detected from locations that are open to the public,..and a reasonable person will not count on the strength of those odors remaining within the range that, while detectable by a dog, cannot be smelled by a human."
And, one supposes, a "reasonable person" will not count on the strength of his voice regarding his plans, criminal and otherwise, remaining within the range that, while detectable by a state-of-the-art listening device on Guam, cannot be heard by a human. Stephen Breyer joined this foolishness. It is to weep.
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Edgeworld is a free to play browser based space strategy game from Kabam, also available on Facebook and Google+ platforms. Edgeworld environment is set in a futuristic future, where you have to defend your faction in a world divided by faction wars.
The unstable coalition of the Galactic Union has started to colonize the abandoned alien planet of Cerulea IV. The planet's inhabitants, the Ceruleans, mysteriously vanished. Without a common enemy, the Union splintered into warring factions. As a commander, you will build your base, assemble an army, and battle for resources, alien artifacts, and planetary dominance.
Build and upgraded various types of buildings, collect resources and embark in a full set of quests and collect rewards. Build your units to defend yourself or warp your troops to attack enemies in strategic battles.
The game feature PVP action where you can confront other individual players, or PVP by guild where several faction players can confront themselves.
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How to get quick XPs and uranium in EdgeWorld
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A state park setting is natural for weddings. We have spaces that are perfect for both indoor and outdoor occasions. Allow us to assist you on planning your big day! We have full catering options for the rehearsal dinner to the reception and ceremony. Let nature be your backdrop for that photo perfect moment. From mountain views, scenic lakes/rivers, to water walls our state parks offer the backdrop for any size wedding. If you are planning a reception with jeans, shorts, summer dress or to a more formal bridal gown and tux, Tennessee State Parks are perfect for that wedding you have always dreamed.
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We have event coordinators at each of the six inns to do a step by step in your planning process. To celebrate your first year anniversary be sure to choose our "honeymoon" packages on the parks web page.
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You'll enjoy modern comfort and excellent service in Tennessee's great outdoors at one of six state park inns. Each inn features spacious guest rooms, restaurants offering true Southern-style cooking. All have conference centers and banquet rooms and can provide audio-visual equipment, Wi-Fi, FAX and copy service. The pricing for meeting space ranges as low as $30 a day up to $1,050 a day depending on location
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