The SPIEZ LABORATORY Switzerland

The Swiss Institute for the Protection Against NBC Threats and Hazards

by Dr. Kurt Münger
SPIEZ LABORATORY
Chief of Information

           The SPIEZ LABORATORY carries out research across the arena of NBC threats and hazards and provides international organisations and the Swiss authorities, as well as the Swiss population, with expert services concerning prevention, preparation of protective measures and the management of disasters and emergencies.

           SPIEZ LABORATORY has many challenging missions:

• It develops and safeguards the necessary basic scientific and technological knowledge for comprehensive NBC protection and makes it available to the relevant civilian Swiss authorities and the Swiss army.
• It uses measuring and test equipment which is needed to provide NBC protection and supports the further development of NBC protection technologies. In the event of a serious NBC threat, it ensures the readiness of its own as well as military measuring equipment.
• It routinely carries out studies for Swiss clients in a variety of fields, and after conflicts or large scale accidents takes part in international missions on arms' control and environmental protection.
• Finally it supports the responsible national authorities and international organisations in their efforts on non-proliferation and the disarmament of NBC weapons.

           Due to its proven expertise in all of these tasks and activities, SPIEZ LABORATORY is recognised worldwide as one of the leading institutions in the scientific and technical fields of NBC protection. SPIEZ LABORATORY is also recognised for international cooperation on global disarmament, peacekeeping and dealing with conflict-ridden regions.

           Within the broad range of SPIEZ LABORATORY’s responsibilities, it is the international activities that have become more and more important during the last years. On behalf of the Swiss Confederation, SPIEZ LABORATORY works with and offers its expert services to several international organisations. Since 1984, SPIEZ LABORATORY has been repeatedly appointed by the UN to carry out analytical investigations and assessments. Experts from SPIEZ LABORATORY played an important role during the UN weapons’ inspections in Iraq. They were commissioned by the 1991 established UNSCOM to examine samples of material for the presence of chemical warfare agents.

           In view of the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which was ratified by Switzerland in 1995, the Swiss Government commissioned SPIEZ LABORATORY with the establishment of a technical facility for inspection and verification. As a result SPIEZ LABORATORY with their technical expertise supports several Swiss delegations in disarmament negotiations, advises the federal government in questions of export control, and contributes to the prevention of the proliferation of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction. Furthermore SPIEZ LABORATORY supports the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on the implementation and monitoring of the CWC. In 1998, after passing all the OPCW Proficiency Tests with the highest grades, SPIEZ LABORATORY was among the first institutes to be named as one of the few OPCW-designated laboratories worldwide. Hence, it is part of a network of institutes which can be assigned analytical tasks by the OPCW for verification of adherence to the convention. It makes a considerable contribution to the creation and further development of the OPCW Central Analytical Database (OCAD), which contains analytical data on chemical warfare agents and related compounds relevant to the CWC.

           The services of SPIEZ LABORATORY were also offered by Switzerland in the framework of the NATO Programme "Partnership for Peace" (PfP). Since October 1997, several workshops for the implementation of the CWC have taken place in Spiez. Between 1998 and 2001, as part of the PfP programme in Albania, a team of experts, in cooperation with the Albanian government, destroyed a large quantity of toxic military chemicals. Since then, under the rules of the CWC, Albania has declared the possession of some 20 tons of chemical warfare agents. Within the framework of an international project the destruction of these Albanian chemical warfare agents is being planned and organised.

           In recent years SPIEZ LABORATORY has also become a valuable partner for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the World Health Organisation (WHO). The cooperation with the UNEP is especially very intensive: Between 1999 and 2000, in the Balkans, and in 2002, in Kuwait, radiological experts from SPIEZ LABORATORY were involved in several UNEP missions to ascertain the possible risks to the population from ammunition containing depleted uranium. Quite recently SPIEZ LABORATORY carried out several courses for environmental experts from crisis-hit regions. Two groups of Iraqi and Palestinian experts were in SPIEZ LABORATORY for training purposes in 2004. In 2005 several instructors from SPIEZ LABORATORY were in Jordan to train additional Iraqi experts.

           Finally, SPIEZ LABORATORY is an important meeting point for international scientific exchange: From the very beginning, SPIEZ LABORATORY have hosted the interna-
tional Chemical and Biological Medical Treatment Sympo-sium (CBMTS) Series, a world-wide known, prestigious symposium of leading experts within the field of current NBC threats. Since 1994 more than 500 professionals from around 60 countries have come together in Spiez, the beautiful place at the foot of the Swiss Alps, to discuss different problems regarding NBC protection and to exchange their professional experiences. The topics have varied from medical treatment of affected people and organisational aspects of emergency management in the case of a NBC incident, to the international efforts for disarmament and arms control in the area of NBC weapons. With CBMTS VI the series will be continued in 2006.

           SPIEZ LABORATORY is a division of the Federal Office for Civil Protection in the Swiss Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sports (DDPS). Thanks to its expert knowledge, SPIEZ LABORATORY constitutes an effective instrument for Swiss foreign and security policy. In the spirit of the Swiss "Security through Cooperation" strategy, SPIEZ LABORATORY makes an important contribution to internal and external security for Switzerland and contributes to global peace keeping and conflict management. In a comprehensive protection against NBC weapons, all efforts are supported to restrict or totally eliminate these weapons of mass destruction from the world. Consequently, all activities of SPIEZ LABORATORY are directed to its challenging vision: A world without weapons of mass destruction.

SPIEZ LABORATORY
CH-3700 Spiez
Phone +41 33 228 14 00 Fax +41 33 228 14 02
laborspiez@babs.admin.ch
www.labor-spiez.ch