Raising Awareness:
Multiple Uses of Chemicals and the
Chemical Weapons Convention
IUPAC Project 2005-029-1-050

Everything in the world is made of chemicals, whether naturally occurring
or synthesized by humans. Most of the ways we use chemicals are beneficial,
but we sometimes choose to use them in ways that cause harm. What's more,
some chemicals are specifically created to cause harm. Antibiotics, for
example, are designed to kill bacteria; pesticides to kill insects; and chemical
warfare agents to kill humans.

Do you recognize the images of two such chemicals on the banner at the top of this page?

This website provides resource materials to help teachers and students
understand the multiple uses of chemicals, learn about the Chemical
Weapons Convention, and develop codes of conduct to prevent harmful uses.

The website for this IUPAC project is based on four papers written by
Alastair Hay (University of Leeds, UK), Peter Mahaffy (The King's University College, Canada), Brian Rappert (University of Exeter, UK), Ted Becker (National Institutes of Health, USA), and Ralf Trapp (Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons). The papers can be downloaded from the menu on the left. Other project group members participated in piloting materials with teachers in Russia, Korea, Italy, Canada, and the UK. Web materials were produced by Naomi Mahaffy at the King's Centre for Visualization in Science, and image sources are credited.

For further information contact: Alastair Hay or Peter Mahaffy.