Novichok

Why in news?

• Novichok was the nerve agent that Germany says was used to poison Alexei Navalny, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin who is now in a coma in a Berlin hospital.

About Novichok:

• The name Novichok means “newcomer”.
• It is used for a family of highly toxic nerve agents with a composition slightly different from the better known poison gases VX and sarin.
• It was developed in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s.
• The weaponisation of the chemical is banned under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, of which Russia is a signatory.
• The treaty is overseen by Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
• Russia and the United States once ran two of the largest chemical weapons programs in the world.
• Russia completed the destruction of a stockpile declared to the OPCW last year. The United States is in the final stages of destroying its own stockpile.

What is it?

• Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) is an arms control treaty that outlaws the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons and their precursors.
• The full name is Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction.
• It is administered by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an intergovernmental organization based in The Hague, The Netherlands.
• Of the four United Nations member states that are not parties to the treaty, Israel has signed but not ratified the treaty, while Egypt, North Korea, and South Sudan have neither signed nor acceded to the Convention.

About OPCW:

• OPCW is an intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention.
• It is not a UN Agency and was awarded the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize

PRELIMS QUESTION

Novichok” recently in news is a:
(a)An agricultural fertiliser
(b)A Toxic nerve agent
(c)A microorganism used for bioremediation
(d)A metal alloy used in Space crafts

Answer to prelims question