Video Press Conference, 26 May 2016, The Hague (together with the Nieuwspoort)

Nieuwspoort – is an international press centrum, and a foundation that caters to Dutch politicians, lobbyists, and journalists so they can informally meet. It is a place that holds all the important Dutch press conferences and, most importantly, where the Dutch Prime Minister delivers his weekly address.

On 26 May 2016, the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions (IDUM) held its first event at the international press center, Nieuwspoort, where the representatives of the organization in The Hague welcomed many high guests. Representatives of many NGOs such as SeaFirst Foundation, ACCESS, etc., special journalists, and the representatives of the Dutch Government Sector all came to listen about the importance of the monition dumpings, and its consequences on our seas and oceans.

Due to the extensive amounts of work in Canada, the founder of the IDUM, Mr. Terrance Long, could not attend the press conference in person, but managed to convey the important message through the video call. He emphasized that IDUM is collaborating with many International Leaders, and Organizations to better understand the socio-economic impact from years of decaying underwater munitions.

“Munitions can be found in major quantities in every ocean in the world. They can be found from a reservoir in Jakarta, Indonesia to the pristine lakes of the Swiss Alps at the foot of the Edger to the Great Lakes of North America. In addition to those dumped at sea, a vast number of munitions have been abandoned in rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and inland waterways. Former inland sites remain largely unrecognized, and are today found near many populated areas. In some cases, they share the same waters used by communities for human consumption and irrigation purposes.”

“In the years directly following the World War II, reportedly, ships carrying mustard gas left regularly from Sydney and Halifax for local dumpings. In Argentina, large boats left every two days to dump munitions in the Cabot Strait, for a five-month period.” Engaging with the Dutch public, Mr. Long emphasized that in the North Sea alone lying more than 1700 sites of chemical and conventional munitions.

In a fruitful discussion with the guests, it was concluded that many activities are already in place to cleanup the munitions, but many more drastic actions need to be taken to leave a clean ocean for our future generations. Most immediate reaction from the guests was taken through signing the petition “Call for an immediate United Nations Conference on Underwater Chemical, Radiological and Conventional Weapons dumped at sea to create a binding Treaty on for the environmentally friendly cleanup of our ocean and seas.” This petition is just one of the ways to get us closer to clean oceans and seas for us all.

If we remove the weapons from our waters, the fish will never miss them…

Please sign the petition: https://goo.gl/PTMhyE

CBC: Radio Canada International

http://newscentral.exsees.com/item/ca3b9536acfe0a2b5c0a8bd46eeaf1a1-a58e1e1780eb7bb5f488bfca0178b9f1

Around the world thousands of tons of munitions lie rusting on the ocean floor. They consist of both explosives and chemical weapons. As the metal rusts away, the toxic chemicals are exposed causing an environmental wasteland around them.

Terrence Long is chairman of the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions,(IDUM) a Canadian and Dutch-based NGO.

Listen

Long says the leaking munitions on the seafloor have already been affecting marine life and it will only get worse.

He was involved in the first weapons identification programme called the Search and Assessment of Chemical Weapons Baltic Sea (CHEMSEA), a three‐year investigation in the Baltic Sea

In exploration of many sites where leakage has occurred, he said there was no life at all on the ocean floor. He says fish caught near such sites often displayed cancers on the skin or internally.

The research also found young fish to be sterile thus preventing fish such as cod from proliferating and thereby contributing to a decline in stocks.

The second chemical weapons program, is on‐going with NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Towards the Monitoring of Dumped Munitions (MODUM), that employs new and emerging technologies to detect, map, investigate, sample, and analyze chemical weapons and warfare materials.

The third chemical and conventional weapons program, started recently “Decision Aid for Marine Munitions” (DAIMON) aims to increase the knowledge base to evaluate risks and benefits of various management options for the assessment of how dumped ammunition impacts ecosystem, maritime activities, and humans as seafood consumers. Long is currently speaking to members of the Atlanta-base US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) about human health risks associated with dumped munitions.

Long is also currently involved in the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Summer School for Young Sciences on Sea Dumped chemical Weapons in Halifax.

In spite of these programmes, Long says it’s not nearly enough of an effort to deal with a massive worldwide problem. He would like to see the United Nations get behind the idea and propose a large scale international effort.

Long says with literally tens of thousands, if not millions, of tonnes of munitions rusting on the ocean floor, the potential for a slow but steady marine catastrophe is a very real and very present danger.

Additional information

• OSPAR Commission-dump sites Europe

Our project “Towards the Monitoring of Dumped Munitions Threat” (MODUM) was approved by the NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS). This international project cooperates closely with CHEMSEA (Search and Assessment of Chemical Weapons), and other European agencies for the sharing and knowledge transfer on underwater chemical munitions.

International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions (IDUM) is a Canadian NGO and Dutch Foundation that with our NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) MODUM Partners (see below) will host a “Young Scientist Summer School Summer School on Sea Dumped Chemical Weapons”, at Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC), Dartmouth Waterfront Campus, Nova Scotia, Canada from 27 June till 1 July 2016.

The course will include an overview on global dumping of underwater weapons in national and international waters from the 1920’s up-until the 1970’s, when dumping of weapons ceased after governments begin to understand the impact from global dumping.

Students who wish to attend summer school, should be interested in marine science, environment or oceans protection. The course will include concepts of employing underwater vehicles for survey techniques for detection and mapping of underwater weapons and remote operated underwater vehicles for intrusive and non-intrusive investigations and monitoring of chemical releases from underwater munitions sites.

Students who are interested in attend summer school must request a registration package from diana.pyrikova@gmail.com to fill-out and return the registration sheet with a brief background on the student.  Travel, accommodations and meals are the sole responsibility of the students. Personnel, employed in the environmental services industry that wish to attend will be considered on a case-by case bases and availability. We encourage both students and environmental services industry personnel to apply for this opportunity to learn more about the detection, investigation and monitoring of Underwater Chemical Munitions.

NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS) MODUM Partners are:

Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences, Sopot

International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions (IDUM), Canada, The Netherlands

Shirshow Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kaliningrad, Russia

Aarhus University, Roskide, Denmark

Thunen Institute of Fisheries Ecology, Cuxhaven, Germany

VERFIN, University of Helsinki, Finland;

Environment Protection Agency Vilnius, Lithuania

Tailinn University of Technology, Tailinn, Estonia

Associated Partners are:

Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), Kingston

University of Georgia, Odum School of Ecology, Atlanta Georgia

For additional information, please contact the venue host and NATO Science for Peace and Security (SPS), MODUM Program Co-Director, Terrance P. Long at: tplong@eastlink.ca.

We must find a balance between the military protecting us from our enemy’s at home and abroad; and protecting us from contaminated sites with DU and other breakdown products, that are human carcinogens, that they have created. I support the militaries, but the militaries need to understand that they are making us sick! From open burning / open detonations (OB/OD) to blowing-up munitions on land and in the water. While they reduced the energetic threat, but they increase the human health and environment threat. What’s sad is that the technologies are already developed for environmental friendly disposal, but the governments do not want to pay. That means tax revenues will go down as we continue to make the tax payer sick. The number one killer today: cancers, “a man-made disease”. Time for an International Conference at the United Nations starting with “underwater munitions and ending with OB/OD”. Militaries should only be excluded from OB/OD and underwater detonation during time of war or has a “last resource” in the face of risk or uncertainty. Let put our Veterans back to work, developing policy to protect the tax payer from the contaminates and clean-up both underwater and land based munitions sites.

Crusade to eliminate ‘ticking time bombs’ sitting beneath world’s waters 

“We all have our own battles to fight and this is mine.” These are the fighting words of Terrance Long, founder and director of the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions (IDUM).

Based in The Hague, Long’s organisation is on a mission to rid the world of “millions” of tonnes of weapons rotting in seas and oceans across the globe.

The world’s waters, says Long, have become a dangerous “garbage dump” for these unwanted military munitions, ranging from highly explosive conventional ordnances to chemical weapons.

It’s a stark warning that Long doesn’t attempt to sugar coat. “If the underwater munitions aren’t neutralized or recovered from our waters in the near term then the ocean will die and we will cease to exist on this planet.”

A retired Canadian military engineer and an expert in explosive ordnance disposal, Long spent 20 years, both in the army and later for various NGOs, clearing land mines.
It was this experience that led Long to believe the same work could and should be done for the same weapons sitting at the bottom of the water.

“Because I’m a weapons expert, in my own mind I’m obligated to address this issue. There is something I can do about it, so I will.”

It’s a problem that has been ticking away for over 70 years. As Long explains, weapons, like most things, have an expiration date and need to be disposed of. By the end of the Second World War a solution was needed and during the Potsdam Conference of 1945 an agreement was made to rid stockpiled weapons by dumping them into the water, most notably the Baltic Sea.

According to Long, “That’s when a number of countries from around the globe started dumping their munitions, dating back from the First World World and continued doing so up until the 1970s.”

One of the biggest issues now facing Long and the IDUM is locating exactly where all the world’s munition dumping sites are located and exactly how many weapons there are.

“What we do know is that there are 400,000 tonnes of chemical munitions in the Baltic Sea alone. On a global scale, we estimate there are more than 10,000 dumping sites of chemical and conventional weapons.”

According to Long, these corroding weapons are posing an ever increasing danger to the environment and to us.

“They’re full of contaminates like lead, mercury, picric acid and TNT. Most are known carcinogens that we now have in our marine environment, that will persist there for 10,000 years. Our oceans cannot sustain that.”

He continued: “This really is a ticking time bomb. My greatest fear is that our international community will allow them to corrode to where we no longer have a means to detect the contaminates when the metals are gone.”

Despite the dire warnings, Long stresses there is hope: “This is absolutely a problem we can fix…in most cases if we remove the source contaminant, we remove the problem.

“But this issue needs to be addressed on a global scale, with a collective response, right now, with an urgent United Nations conference on all underwater weapons.”
In order to do this, Long and the IDUM continue to work for the creation of an internationally binding treaty on all classes of underwater munitions. The end game, says Long, is all about “protecting our oceans and saving them for our children.”

Text: Susannah Palk

Underwater Munitions Risk Assessment Panel for Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta Georgia

CDC convene a panel of subject matter experts (SMEs) in a variety of disciplines related to chemical weapons safety to assess the potential risk posed by ocean dumped munitions, particularly chemical munitions, in conjunction with the U.S. Army’s plans and current programs for mitigation, prevention, and control of chemical agent hazards from this material. The expert panel will provide individual recommendations and observations with regards to risk, proposed or current activities and programs, and identify any corrective actions or other mitigation measures based on each member’s expertise.

CDC believes that the use of a focused Expert Panel to review the potential risk of these ocean dumped munitions and develop approaches to mitigate potential risks identified will strengthen our approach to worker and public health protection. IDUM is proud and honored, to be a member of the Underwater Risk Assessment Panel for CDC.

Red, White, & Blue Charity Gala, 16 April 2016, The Hague (together with the American Women’s Club of The Hague)

The American Women’s Club of The Hague is a “home” for women in any way affiliated to the USA. Founded in 1930, the AWC is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to providing opportunities for social and educational activities for English-speaking women. The AWC actively engages in philanthropic and community service projects in The Hague region, throughout the Netherlands and in the larger global community.

Visit the web-site to learn more: http://www.awcthehague.org/site/

Every year the American Women’s Club of The Hague organizes a charity event that helps to raise money for many non-profit organizations working together to achieve different causes. This year, three organizations received support from the amazing women of the American’s Women Club: ‘Look Good Feel Better,’ ‘Stahili Fund,’ and ‘SPOSA Child.’

‘Look Good Feel Better’ – Look Good Feel Better for women at MCH Antoniushove in The Hague is a community service program that provides useful information specifically tailored to help women deal with the appearance-related side effects of cancer treatment. Guided by experienced volunteers from the cosmetic industry, patients learn how to care for their skin and apply make-up to help minimize the appearance related side-effects of your treatment.

‘Stahili Fund’ – Working with families and communities in rural Kenya, Stahili promotes education tool to end exploitation, keep children together, and break the cycle of poverty. While most of the children that Stahili supports have either endured abuse and exploitation in an orphanage or have faced other vulnerabilities, they have loving relatives or members of the community who want to care for them, but cannot due to severe poverty. Stahili empowers the children’s guardians and allows them to give the children a life they deserve.

‘SPOSA Child’ – Based in the Netherlands, Stichting SPOSA Child’s mission (Save and Protect our Sexually abused child) is rehabilitation and healing of sexually and physically abused children, through the gift of education on the island of Negros in the Philippines. The SPOSA CHILD Educational Scholarship Fund covers costs such as uniforms, books and other school materials, physical education, transport to/from school, meals, and reintegration counseling.

The International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions has attended the event as one of the proud sponsors that helped by raising money and awareness with the generous donations to these foundations.

With welcoming dinner, silent auction (for which IDUM has donated a Canadian basket), and a bidding auction (for which the Executive Manager of IDUM volunteered her boxing lessons) the American Women’s Club of The Hague’s Red, White, & Blue Gala has raised approximately €30,000 for the three beneficiaries: ‘Look Good Feel Better,’ ‘Stahili Fund,’ and ‘SPOSA Child.’