Editing Chemical weapons in World War I (section)

=== 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" />