<h5>What are chemical weapons?</h5><p>Chemical weapons are a type of weapon that uses different chemicals to hurt or kill people. These weapons release dangerous substances that can cause serious harm, injury, or even death.</p><p>During the Cold War, the United States of America (USA) and the Soviet Union made many chemical weapons. With the Cold War’s end in 1991, the decision to ban chemical weapons was taken.</p><p>Under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1993, the use of chemical weapons in warfare was made illegal. Recently, the USA got rid of its last remaining chemical weapons (yay!).</p><h5>What kind of chemical weapons were destroyed?</h5><p>On 7th July 2023, US President Joe Biden announced the destruction of all chemical weapons. Workers at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky safely destroyed rockets that had harmful chemicals like sarin.</p><p>Around 90% of the chemical weapons were destroyed back in 2012. It took time to destroy the last 10%. Thankfully, the world is now free of chemical weapons.</p><figure class="image"><img src="https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/newsahoot.appspot.com/o/usa-destroys-the-last-of-its-chemical-weapons%2FRockets.jpg?alt=media&amp;token=6c8412e6-b4b2-42bf-854c-4d3c4429057f"><figcaption>Image of chemical weapons. Photo by NPR.</figcaption></figure><h5>Why did it take the USA so long to destroy its chemical weapons?</h5><p>Destroying chemical weapons is difficult. They are dangerous because they have poisonous chemicals and cannot be taken apart easily. Some of these weapons were made long ago, so they needed to be handled with special care.</p><p>The usual way to get rid of these weapons was to burn the chemicals. But, in some places, people protested as they feared that burning the weapons would release poisonous substances that could harm them. So new ways were created to destroy them safely. That’s why It took a long time to destroy all the chemical weapons.</p>

The world is now officially free of chemical weapons.

USA Destroys the Last of Its Chemical Weapons

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