Chemical threats in the EU Health Security Programme

All projected tasks for the European Commission’s Task Force for Biological and Chemical Attacks (http://europa.eu.int/comm/health/ph/programmes/bio-terrorism/index_en.html) take both biological and chemical threats into account. The Task Force experts have compiled information from a series of valid lists of toxic threats, from bodies including the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Australia Group* (AG), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and others. A list of suspicious chemicals and toxins is being finalised by the Task Force, working with their counterparts in the Global Health Security Initiative of the G7+ countries (1).