U.S. chemical plants vulnerable

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — A previously undisclosed study by the Army Surgeon General concludes that as many as 2.4 million people could be killed or injured in a terrorist attack against a U.S. toxic chemical plant in a densely populated area.

The medical hazard threat assessment, completed the month after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, suggests that terrorist assaults on chemical industry complexes could result in twice as many casualties as previously assumed in other worst-case scenarios envisioned by the government.

Even middle-range casualty estimates from a chemical weapons attack or explosion of a toxic chemical manufacturing plant are as high as 903,400 people, according to the analysis, a copy of which was obtained Monday by the Washington Post.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, lawmakers, federal officials and environmental groups have repeatedly warned the chemical industry that terror attacks could turn hazardous materials plants into weapons of mass destruction. Industry officials say they have instituted important safeguards, but critics say much more is needed.

Monday, the Natural Resources Defense Council, a 400,000-member advocacy group, filed a lawsuit in federal court charging that the Justice Department has failed to submit a report to Congress on the vulnerability of U.S. chemical plants to terrorists attacks, as required by an amendment to the Clean Air Act.

"Chemical plants are an incredibly urgent priority for homeland security, but they are being ignored at the highest levels of government," said Rena Steinzor, an attorney at NRDC.

According to an analysis last year by the Environmental Protection Agency, at least 123 U.S. plants each keep amounts of toxic chemicals that, if released, could form deadly vapor clouds that would endanger more than 1 million people.

But the Army Surgeon General’s analysis, dated Oct. 29, showed that attacks on toxic chemical plants or chemical stockpiles could produce more than twice as many casualties.

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