Federal Office for Civil Protection, SPIEZ LABORATORY
Annual report 2005
The main activities of the Organic Chemistry Division during 2005 were:
- Synthesis of 111 substances related to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in laboratory-scale amount, and 24 compounds in microscale amount (Synthesis of reference chemicals);
- 1 "Annual Declaration of Schedule 1 activities and facilities during the Previous Year", 1 "Annual Declaration of Projected Activities and the Anticipated Production of declared Schedule 1 Facilities" and 3 "Notifications of Transfers of Schedule 1 Chemicals to/from the State Party" (CWC Obligations);
- Supply of reference chemicals to various groups of SPIEZ LABORATORY, such as Analytical Chemistry, Detection/Decontamination, Material Testing, Collective Protection, as well as Toxinology and Environmental Analysis;
- Delivery of reference chemicals as well as spiking of environmental samples with chemical warfare agents and related compounds for the Swiss Armed Forces, for the purpose of training Swiss C specialists, and for the organization of international specialist training courses;
- Technical supervision of the tests of new C-detectors with the army troop;
- Delivery of reference chemicals to the OPCW analytical laboratory in the Netherlands, and to the institute "HCG-Hazard Control - Biological and Chemical Safety Co. Ltd." in Germany;
- Contribution to decision making, planning, management, training and maintenance of the Task Force of the DDPS for emergency management in the event of chemical terrorism (PDF, 1.51 MB) ;
- Support for international cooperation and assistance programme set out in the CWC by training a young Romanian scientist in the field of the organic synthesis (Internship);
- Supervision of a Masters thesis in organic chemistry in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL); and acting as expert examiners;
- Training of the chemistry apprentices and acting as expert examiners;
- Support of the Arms Control Service with the necessary technical skills for disarmament, arms controls, and the application of the CWC.