Paris Attack: French Govt Mass Producing Chemical Weapons Antidote

We found a decree on a French Government website ordering the mass production of an antidote for chemical weapons.

The Eiffel Tower is lit with the colours of the French flag to pay tribute to the victims of a series of deadly attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015. (Photo: Reuters)

On 14 November 2015, the day after the Paris attacks, the French government pushed an ‘arrêté’, a ministerial order not passed through parliamentary consensus. The order talks about the production of atropine sulfate solution for a neurotoxic organophosphate antidote. Essentially, a substance used in chemical warfare.

Complications aside, what is happening is that the French government has basically ordered the ‘Pharmacy of the Army’ to mass produce an antidote to be used in the event of a chemical weapons attack.

The decree says it is in preparation for the the 21st Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change of 2015 or simply the COP21 conference.

The decree adds that the French do not possess enough of the antidote to treat all potential victims of such an attack, especially in the light of COP21, and hence has ordered mass production.

A screengrab is given below, and you can find the arrêté’s full text on the French government website Legifrance here.

A screengrab of the decree issued by the French Health Ministry. (Source: Legifrance)

An example of a Neurotoxic Organophosphate is Sarin gas, Hollywood’s chemical weapon of choice.

Sarin, a chemical weapon of mass destruction has been used in Syria multiple times and has led authorities to believe that ISIS in in possession of chemical weapons that have been smuggled in.

Such attacks prompted the United States Senate to table a bill and authorise the use of military force against the Syrian forces.

A chlorine-tinged cloud of smoke rises into the air from a bomb detonated after Islamic State fighters clashed with with Iraqi troops amid reports that the militants had obtained chlorine for possible use as a chemical weapon. (Photo: Reuters)

The COP21 is one of the most vital international conferences and possibly the world’s largest and most prominent environmental summit. Several heads of state are expected to attend the summit along with global experts.

Immediately after the Paris attacks there were speculations about security at the conference and cancellations from world leaders, but they were put to rest after President Obama of the United States confirmed his attendance. With many heads of state and global experts expected there, there is no doubt that the UNFCCC event will have tight security arrangements.

With the French military asked to keep antidotes ready in case of a nerve gas attack, is France just being cautious? But perhaps they should be.

In the wake of reports saying that intelligence agencies from the United States, Israel and Turkey had warned France about the Paris attacks, gearing up against chemical warfare may be the result of France finally paying heed to such warnings.

Urban spaces may not really be frequent theatres for chemical warfare, but such incidents are not without precedent.

In 1995, members of cult movement Aum Shinrikyo, released sarin gas in five co-ordinated attacks in the Tokyo subway directing them at trains passing between Kasumigaseki and Nagatacho, home of the Japanese government.

The attack resulted in 12 deaths, severely injured 50 people and nearly 1000 people suffered temporary vision problems.

Just like the Paris Attacks were to France, the Tokyo Subway Sarin incident was the most serious attack on Japanese soil since the Second World War.

File photo of special chemical control unit members in hazmat suits emerging from an entrance to the Kasumigaseki subway station after the 1995 Tokyo Subway sarin attacks in Tokyo. (Photo: Reuters)

We must not rule anything out, there is also the risk from chemical or biological weapons.

<b>Manuel Valls, Prime Minister, France</b>

Valls also confirmed that France had extended the current state of emergency imposed in the country to three months, something that President Francois Hollande had proposed in a speech to a joint session of the French Parliament.

French military patrol near the Eiffel Tower the day after a series of deadly attacks in Paris. (Photo: Reuters)

Francois Hollande is angry. And he should be.

The promise of punishment and the consequent crackdown on the perpetrators of the Paris attack, raids in the jihadist suburb of Molenbeek, Brussels and in Saint-Denis, Paris, the mobilisation of a French aircraft carrier in the general direction of Syria, and co-ordinated airstrikes with Russia against ISIS in Syria, are all signs that Hollande has had enough.

But is the arrêté found on a French government website a sign that Hollande may also be paranoid?

(The update was first posted to Facebook by the The Initiative for Policy Research & Analysis)