Editing Chemical weapons in World War I (section)

==Unexploded weapons==
[[File:LivensPhosgeneTank.jpg|left|thumb|Phosgene delivery system unearthed at the Somme, 2006]]
Over {{convert|16000000|acre|km2}} of France had to be [[Zone Rouge|cordoned off]] at the end of the war because of unexploded ordnance. About 20% of the chemical shells were duds, and approximately 13 million of these munitions were left in place. This has been a serious problem in former battle areas from immediately after the end of the War until the present. Shells may be, for instance, uncovered when farmers plough their fields (termed the '[[iron harvest]]'), and are also regularly discovered when public works or construction work is done.<ref>{{Cite book | first=Eric | last=Croddy | year=2002 | title=Chemical and Biological Warfare: A Comprehensive Survey for the Concerned Citizen | publisher=Springer | isbn=0-387-95076-1 | url=https://archive.org/details/chemicalbiologic00crod }}</ref> After the armistice, people sought unexploded weapons for their metal value, as well as preventing the danger that they posed to civilians. Toxic chemicals were emptied from shells, resulting in many deaths and health defects.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web |last=Freemantle |first=Michael |date=2018 |title=The great war clean-up |url=https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/the-great-war-clean-up/3009456.article |access-date= |website=Chemistry World |language=en}}</ref>

Another difficulty is the current stringency of environmental legislation. In the past, a common method of getting rid of unexploded chemical ammunition was to detonate or dump it at sea; this is currently prohibited in most countries.<ref>{{Cite book
 |author1=Bothe, Michael |author2=Ronzitti, Natalino |author3=Rosas, Allan | title=The new Chemical Weapons Convention – implementation and prospects
 | page=208 | publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
 | year=1998 | isbn=90-411-1099-2
 }}</ref><ref group="nb">See the [[Convention for the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping from Ships and Aircraft]] and the [[Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter]].</ref>

The problems are especially acute in some northern regions of France. The French government no longer disposes of chemical weapons at sea. For this reason, piles of untreated chemical weapons accumulated. In 2001, it became evident that the pile stored at a depot in [[Vimy]] was unsafe; the inhabitants of the neighbouring town were evacuated, and the pile moved, using refrigerated trucks and under heavy guard, to a military camp in [[Suippes]].<ref>{{cite news
 | author=J. C. | date=17 April 2001
 | url=http://www.humanite.presse.fr/journal/2001-04-17/2001-04-17-242951
 | title=Sécurité. Les 55 tonnes d'obus chimiques sont stockées au camp militaire de Suippes
 | newspaper=L'Humanité | language=fr
 | access-date=30 July 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060921234358/http://www.humanite.presse.fr/journal/2001-04-17/2001-04-17-242951 <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 21 September 2006}}</ref> The capacity of the plant is meant to be 25 tons per year (extensible to 80 tons at the beginning), for a lifetime of 30 years.<ref name="r00-4294.html">{{Cite web
 | author=J. C. | date=17 April 2001
 | url=http://www.senat.fr/rap/r00-429/r00-4294.html
 | title=Déminage
 | publisher=Sénat | language=fr
 | access-date=30 July 2007 }}</ref>

Germany has to deal with unexploded ammunition and polluted lands resulting from the explosion of an ammunition train in 1919.<ref name="r00-4294.html" />

Aside from unexploded shells, there have been claims that poison residues have remained in the local environment for an extended period, though this is unconfirmed; well known but unverified anecdotes claim that as late as the 1960s trees in the area retained enough mustard gas residue to injure farmers or construction workers who were clearing them.<ref>{{cite news
 | first=Malcomb W. | last=Browne | date=22 March 1995
 | newspaper=The New York Times
 | title=Terror in Tokyo: The Poison; Sarin Just One of Many Deadly Gases Terrorists Could Use | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/22/world/terror-tokyo-poison-sarin-just-one-many-deadly-gases-terrorists-could-use.html
 | access-date=29 April 2009 }}</ref>

=== Disposal methods of chemical weapons ===
[[File:First Chemical weapons destroyed at JACADS.jpg|thumb|Chemical munition being destroyed at disposal facility, 1990.<ref>{{Cite web |title=File:First Chemical weapons destroyed at JACADS.jpg - Wikipedia |url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Chemical_weapons_destroyed_at_JACADS.jpg |access-date=2022-08-02 |website=commons.wikimedia.org |date=30 June 1990 |language=en}}</ref>]]
After World War I, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and other nations had stockpiles of unfired weapons.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Thouin |first1=Hugues |last2=Battaglia-Brunet |first2=Fabienne |last3=Norini |first3=Marie-Paule |last4=Le Forestier |first4=Lydie |last5=Charron |first5=Mickael |last6=Dupraz |first6=Sébastien |last7=Gautret |first7=Pascale |date=2018-06-15 |title=Influence of environmental changes on the biogeochemistry of arsenic in a soil polluted by the destruction of chemical weapons: A mesocosm study |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969718301955 |journal=Science of the Total Environment |language=en |volume=627 |pages=216–226 |doi=10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.158 |pmid=29426144 |bibcode=2018ScTEn.627..216T |s2cid=4486803 |issn=0048-9697}}</ref> It has been estimated that 125 million tons of toxic gases were used to manufacture bombs, grenades and shells.<ref name=":02"/> The remaining weapons were destroyed, dismantled, and disposed of in oceans and seas.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Greenberg |first1=M. I. |last2=Sexton |first2=K. J. |last3=Vearrier |first3=D. |date=2016-02-07 |title=Sea-dumped chemical weapons: environmental risk, occupational hazard |url=https://doi.org/10.3109/15563650.2015.1121272 |journal=Clinical Toxicology |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=79–91 |doi=10.3109/15563650.2015.1121272 |issn=1556-3650 |pmid=26692048|s2cid=42603071 }}</ref> It was believed that the chemicals would be diluted when disposed of in the ocean, and therefore ocean and sea dumping was a "safe and convenient" practice.<ref name=":2" /> Hundreds of thousands of tons of chemical agents, such as sulphur mustard, cyanogen chloride and arsine oil, were disposed of at sea.<ref name=":2" /> Chemical weapons have since washed up on shorelines and been found by fishers, causing injuries and, in some cases, death. Other disposal methods included land burials and incineration. After World War 1, "chemical shells made up 35 percent of French and German ammunition supplies, 25 percent British and 20 percent American".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Weapons on Land – Poison Gas |url=https://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/battles-and-fighting/weapons-on-land/poison-gas/ |access-date= |website=Canada and the First World War}}</ref> Weapons that contained chemicals such as bromine, chlorine and nitroaromatic were burned. The thermal destruction of chemical weapons negatively impacted the ecological environment of disposal sites.<ref name=":1" /> For example, in Verdun, France, the thermal destruction of weapons "resulted in severe metal contamination of upper 4–10 cm of topsoil" at the Place à Gas disposal site.<ref name=":1" />