Participants at the Basic Regional Course for Specialists on Responding to Chemical Warfare Agents and Toxic Industrial Chemicals (TICs), which was held in Santo Domingo in March 2015.
The OPCW jointly organized with the National Authority of the Dominican Republic a Basic regional course for specialists on responding to chemical warfare agents and Toxic Industrial Chemicals (TICs). The course was held from 2 to 6 March 2015 in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, for 41 participants from 17 States Parties in the Latin America and Caribbean (GRULAC) region.
This basic course is the first stage of a full-cycle assistance-and-protection training designed for this region. The full cycle approach aims to develop and further consolidate the protective capabilities of States Parties in the region against chemical weapons and incidents with TICs by training a reference team of first responders through the year 2015.
The course provided general knowledge on chemical warfare agents and toxic industrial chemicals, individual protective equipment, detection and decontamination practices, and emergency response procedures that were discussed and tested in a table-top exercise. The course benefitted from the participation of a group of instructors from the same region that had been trained at OPCW Train-the Trainer-courses and from Spain, which contributed to effective team building and provided for comprehensive and interactive learning and knowledge exchange as well.
This course will be followed by an advanced assistance-and-protection training that will be conducted in San José, Costa Rica, in June this year.
* Argentina, Barbados, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St Kitts and Nevis and Uruguay.