Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism: TICs & TIMs

Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism
Training Support Package
Participant Guide
Slide 19
Chemical Agents of Opportunity for Terrorism:
TICs & TIMs
Should We Worry
• ~ 850,000 U.S. businesses use, produce, or store
TICs
• EPA report – 123 chemical plants across US have
enough toxic chemicals to kill/injure 1 million people
in terrorist attack
• 750 other plants have enough chemicals to kill/injure
at least 100,000 people in an attack
• U.S. army study - terrorist attack on chemical plant
in densely populated area could result in 2.4 million
fatalities or injuries
Module One – Toxic Warfare: Looking Beyond Conventional Chemical Weapons
19
Should we worry
Industrial facilities are omnipresent. According to one report, 850,000 U.S. businesses
use, produce, or store toxic industrial chemicals. The EPA has suggested that 123
chemical plants in 24 states across US have enough toxic chemicals to kill/injure 1
million people in terrorist attack. [NYT] In addition, another 750 plants have enough
chemicals to kill/injure at least 100,000 people. These are worst case estimates based
on the EPA’s Risk Management Program.
There is obviously no way to know conclusively the number who will die or be injured in
the release of a chemical into the environment, and all of the models created to predict
this suffer their own individual limitations. For example, wind dispersion and rain may
result in a different outcome (with more or fewer injuries than predicted). Nonetheless,
the numbers are numbing.
December 2008 Version 2.0 Page 24