Yahoo News 
Danger in the deep: fears raised over chemical weapons dumped in UK waters
Concerns have been raised about millions of tonnes of chemical weapons dumped in the sea off the UK coast.
Fears are growing about the potential safety of the weapons after Defence minister Stuart Andrew told the House of Commons recently that no routine monitoring was carried out of the sites where the weapons, conventional as well as chemical, were dumped.
The munitions have been dumped over a long period of time.
It is estimated that they have been regularly discarded in the sea off the coast of the UK from the time of the World Wars until the 1990s.
Andrew was asked about policing of the numerous sites and told MPs , in a written answer: “The Ministry of Defence conducts no routine monitoring of these sea-dumping sites.”
One estimate claims that 1.17 million tonnes of conventional and chemical weapons known to have been dumped in the sea around Britain since the Second World War.
Britain is not alone in dumping weapons into its seas.
Many European states sealed chemical weapons in cement-filled containers then dumped them in the oceans at the end of 1914-1918 war.
It was considered safe at the time, but after a century underwater, some of the weapons are now being brought to the surface.
Another country which dumped chemical weapons in the sea, Belgium, raised fears earlier this year after it revealed that mustard gas has leaked from a underwater “weapons cemetery” in the North Sea, close to its coast.
The deadly weapons were stored there at the end of World War One.
The munitions dump contained 35,000 tons of unexploded bombs, shells and grenades.
Even worse, the leaking dump was situated close to the seaside town of Knokke-Heist, one of Belgium’s major tourist resorts.
A 2005 Imperial College study found there were three major risks associated with the dumping of such weapons, including leaks and “spontaneous explosions”.
