National Center for Environmental Health: Chemical Weapons Elimination | CDC's Role in Chemical Weapons Elimination

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CDC's Role in Chemical Weapons Elimination

CDC's Role in Chemical Weapons Elimination

CDC works to protect the health and safety of workers and communities involved in weapons disposal.

Team Mission Statement

To protect public health and safety by providing guidance to the Army's chemical warfare materials demilitarization program through reviewing, advising, making recommendations to the Army's plans to destroy stockpile and non-stockpile materials.

Why the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is involved in weapon destruction?

Public laws 91-121 (1970), 91-441 (1971), and 99-145 (1986) required that the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) provide public health review and oversight of the Department of Defense's plans and activities to test, transport, and dispose of chemical and biological weapons. Specifically, U.S. Code 50, Section 1512 requires DHHS “… review particulars with respect to any hazards to public health and safety which transportation, testing, or disposal may pose and to recommend what precautionary measures are necessary to protect the public health and safety.”