At least 1.6 Million tons of CW material disposed into the sea

After World War One (WWI) and World War Two (WWII) large amount of CW material were dump into the oceans. Chemical Weapons (CW) materials were loaded onto ships and the ships were “sunk by opening their seacocks, by naval artillery fire, or torpedoes.” Most the ships settled on the seabed largely intact, thus small CW materials remained. Unfettered material have been dispersed by currents, and tides. Thus, the waters became contaminated. From 1918 to 1970, the United States disposed CW agents throughout the oceans. The Soviet Union dumped approximately 160,000 tons CW into the sea. In addition to these disposal tonnage, Germany and Britain dumped into the about 302,857 tons of CW.

The disposal of CW materials into the oceans caused environmental issues. For this, in 1960, the US National Academy of Science called for immediate cessation of CW sea disposal. This lead paved the for subsequent London Convention. In 1972, Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter was signed 87 states. The London Convention as it came to be known prohibited any state from disposing CW materials into the oceans.