New York, NY – NYPD Quietly Tracks Chlorine Shipments.

New York, NY – As We Reported here first, About Homeland Security issuing an alert for chlorine bomb trucks.

And now comes news that The New York Police Department has quietly begun tracking chlorine shipments in the city and requiring increased security at some storage areas in response to terrorists’ use of the chemical weapon in Iraq, police officials said.

The police department’s chief spokesman, Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, said the department’s analysts several months ago started looking at chlorine. As the attacks in Iraq became more frequent, officers in the counterterrorism and intelligence divisions began taking a closer look at chlorine in the city.

Mr. Browne said officers have also been stopping vehicles transporting chlorine to check if they are properly licensed. At a recent New York Shield briefing — a periodic meeting where private security directors from around the New York metropolitan area get updated on potential threats against the city — police officials described the nature of a chlorine threat, he said.

According to a U.S. Coast Guard study, a chlorine gas cloud can spread two miles in 10 minutes. [NYsun]