OPCW's CHEMEX GRULAC underway in the Dominican Republic
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' (OPCW) CHEMEX GRULAC exercise, a large‑scale, multi-component chemical emergency preparedness and response exercise for first responders and health professionals from across Latin America and the Caribbean, has commenced in the Dominican Republic.
Taking place from 27 April to 7 May in the capital city, Santo Domingo, the exercise brings together more than 100 participants from 23 countries and is delivered with financial support from the European Union and the governments of Canada and Spain.
According to the OPCW, the exercise "combines theoretical instruction with hands-on training and real-time simulation exercises" to "enhance national capabilities in assistance and protection [...] and to strengthen coordination among first responders, medical services and relevant authorities".
"Participants include first responders, such as firefighters, police officers, and civil defence personnel, as well as health professionals, such as physicians, nurses, midwives and paramedics working at hospitals or other medical facilities."
Structure of the exercise
In a post on their X account, the OPCW wrote that participants are building the skills needed to respond effectively under real-world conditions through a mix of theory and hands-on simulations.
On day two, "participants trained with different levels of personal protective equipment against chemicals, experiencing first-hand how operating in full gear makes every task more complex and physically demanding".
By day three, "first responders were training in decontamination procedures, while medical teams worked through realistic scenarios involving patients exposed to toxic chemicals, strengthening their capacity to deliver timely and specialised care in high-pressure situations".
The training programme will culminate in a full-scale exercise simulating a chemical emergency, testing the entire response chain from incident site operations to hospital-based care under realistic, high-pressure conditions, according to the OPCW.
CHEMEX GRULAC is the second exercise of its kind, with CHEMEX Africa having taken place in Algeria from 23 September to 5 October 2023. On that occasion, the exercise welcomed 102 participants from 33 African countries, and represented the first ever large-scale chemical emergency response exercise for African countries organised by the OPCW.
