US Congress asks urgent action on chlorine thefts

23 April 2007 18:07  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Congressional leaders said on Monday that the US should act with utmost urgency regarding recent thefts of 150-pound chlorine cylinders that could be used by terrorists as improvised chemical weapons.

 

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (Democrat-Mississippi) was joined by other representatives in expressing “deep concern about the reported thefts and attempted theft of 150-pound chlorine cylinders from several facilities in California”.

 

“As you know, in recent weeks there have been numerous fatal attacks in Iraq involving cylinders of chlorine,” the letter to Chertoff said. Citing those attacks and the theft of chlorine cylinders in the US, the letter said: “These events make clear the reality that the terrorist risk associated with these deadly chemicals is by no means theoretical.”

 

Thompson cited reports by the Chlorine Institute, a US trade group, about the theft of 150-pound chlorine cylinders from a California water treatment facility in two incidents in February and April this year. One cylinder was taken in the first theft and two were stolen from the same facility in the April incident.

 

The letter referred to two other attempted thefts of chlorine cylinders at other facilities in the state at times and locations not specified.

 

The thefts were reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Thompson noted.

 

“These reported thefts and attempted thefts simply must be treated with the utmost sense of urgency,” Thompson said.

 

Thompson asked Chertoff to provide details on his department’s response to the reported chlorine thefts and for information on all thefts in the US over the last five years of chlorine or other chemicals classified as toxic inhalant hazards (TIH).

 

The congressman also asked whether Chertoff believes that all US water treatment facilities should take immediate steps to eliminate chlorine use.

 

Further, Thompson asked whether the Department of Homeland Security plans to issue regulations to ensure that high-risk US chemical facilities implement inherently safer technologies.  “If you do not plan to issue such regulations, why not?” Thompson said.

 

Neither officials at the department nor at the Arlington, Virginia-based Chlorine Institute were immediately available for comment on Monday.

By: Joe Kamalick
+1 713 525 2653

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