Task Force Scorpio

Task Force Scorpio was a biological and chemical response team that was activated during the first gulf war to respond to any potential use of weapons of mass destruction on civilians. The task force was composed of volunteer Swiss members of the Disaster Relief Unit, equipped with the latest chemical and biological protection equipment, immunized against agents suspected for battlefied use and had its own jet transportation. The members of the team were to travel under Swiss diplomatic transport anywhere in the world within 24 hours of activation.

The task of the force was to arrive on contaminated land, contain the danger and assess damage to the civilian population, respond to it and coordinate the response from other international relief agencies.

Task Force Scorpio was under the orders of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and was ready for active duty of the 28 February 1991, in time for the first Gulf War. They were not deployed.

The Task force was founded by Dr Robert Steffen of the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland and co-founded by Jack Woodall.

The Task force was deactivated after the first gulf war. But the WHO approached the Swiss government to reactivate it in January 2003. It was to be renamed Swiss/European WMD Task Force. No information has been published about its reactivation.

Sources

* Federation of American scientists, Dr Jack Woodall, Task Force Scorpio: Civilian Relief after Biological Attack http://www.fas.org/bwc/papers/scorpro.htm

* Applied science and Analysis Newsletter, Civilian Relief after Release of Weapons of Mass Destruction by Jack Woodall http://www.asanltr.com/newsletter/03-1/articles/031c.htm

* World health organization, Public health response to biological and chemical weapons—WHO guidance http://www.who.int/csr/delibepidemics/introduction.pdf Section 1.2 Paragraph 3

* Steffen R et al. Preparation for emergency relief after biological warfare. Journal of Infection, 1997, 34(2):127–132. Abstract on PubMed [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=9138135&itool=iconabstr&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_DocSum]

* The Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, Issue No. 75, January/February 2004, Note 31 : http://www.acronym.org.uk/dd/dd75/75bhr.htm