Advice from the Scientific Advisory Board of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on isotopically labelled chemicals and stereoisomers in relation to the Chemical Weapons Convention

Abstract

The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an international disarmament treaty that prohibits the development, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. This treaty has 193 States Parties (nations for which the treaty is binding) and entered into force in 1997. The CWC contains schedules of chemicals that have been associated with chemical warfare programmes. These scheduled chemicals must be declared by the States that possess them and are subject to verification by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW, the implementing body of the CWC). Isotopically labelled and stereoisomeric variants of the scheduled chemicals have presented ambiguities for interpretation of the requirements of treaty implementation, and advice was sought from the OPCW’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) in 2016. The SAB recommended that isotopically labelled compounds or stereoisomers related to the parent compound specified in a schedule should be interpreted as belonging to the same schedule. This advice should benefit scientists and diplomats from the CWC’s State Parties to help ensure a consistent approach to their declarations of scheduled chemicals (which in turn supports both the correctness and completeness of declarations under the CWC). Herein, isotopically labelled and stereoisomeric variants of CWC-scheduled chemicals are reviewed, and the impact of the SAB advice in influencing a change to national licensing in one of the State Parties is discussed. This outcome, an update to national licensing governing compliance to an international treaty, serves as an example of the effectiveness of science diplomacy within an international disarmament treaty.

Reflexiones en torno a la diplomacia científica: estado del debate, experiencia internacional y perspectivas para Colombia

“…Por ejemplo, para el caso de las potencias regionales como Brasil, se destaca la participación de autores en trabajos colaborativos donde se aborda la diplomacia científica en materia de seguridad y armas químicas (Forman et al, 2018;Timperley et al, 2018), con la participación de otros autores de países de la región como Cuba. Para el caso de este último, algunos han destacado el potencial de la diplomacia científica para mejorar las relaciones entre este país y Estados Unidos (McKinney, 2017).…”

Nomenclature, Chemical Abstracts Service Numbers, Isomer Enumeration, Ring Strain, and Stereochemistry: What Does Any of This Have to Do with an International Chemical Disarmament and Nonproliferation Treaty?

“…This value of 9700 only takes into account asymmetric alkyl groups, however, and to find the true total of variations, the asymmetric phosphorus center of the 1A01 structure must be considered too (Figure ). In total, therefore, and accounting for each individual enantiomer, 19,400 molecular structures fall under 1A01 before any cycloalkyl groups are considered!…”

TRPA1 and issues relating to animal model selection for extrapolating toxicity data to humans

“…95 Trichloronitromethane -or chloropicrin as it results from chlorine or hypochlorous acid reacting with picric acid (2,4,6-trinitrophenol) -is a colourless liquid (boiling point 112 C) having a sweetish odour that is a scheduled chemical under the chemical weapons convention. 96,97 It is a powerful lachrymator and irritant of the respiratory passages and skin, 98 hence its use in battle during the First World War. 99,100 Later, its insecticidal activity was observed, and it was used as a fumigating agent particularly for grain.…”