AN ANTIDOTE to fears surrounding chemical and biological attack will be given in a contemporary lecture series in Woolwich.

Bugs and Bombs the Truth, combining lectures and an exhibition will be held at the Royal Artillery museum Firepower, on the old Royal Arsenal site. Senior war studies lecturer at King's College, Dr Joanna Spear, who is lead expert in the lecture series, and Firepower's head of collection Chris Henry unveiled some details at last week's launch.

Dr Spear said: "What we are trying to achieve is to give the public true and un-sensationalised information on where we are today with the threats which exist for chemical and biological attack.

"Through informed discussion, we can dispel fears, often enhanced by the media which over-estimates the effect. We will give a more balanced opinion and hopefully look at solutions we can all work towards."

The exhibition will unravel the truth surrounding germ and chemical terrorism and place it in a military, psychological, political and scientific setting.

And also focus on exactly what the chemical and biological weapons are, and why countries with limited technical expertise and material hardware use or threaten to use such terrifying weapons.

Mr Henry said: "If you look at the history of these things, chemical and biological weapons have been with us since the 14th century, where the Moguls catapulted the bodies of plague victims into a Russian town.

"Anthrax is quite a difficult thing to infect people with. The physical casualties are low but the psychological casualties are high through the psychology of fear."

The lecture series, starting on November 15, will include Dr Spear discussing the effects of globalisation on chemical and biological weapon threats and Bradford University's Dr Simon Whitby looking at the distribution of biological weapons.

Further information, timings and ticket details will be released shortly.

October 26, 2001 14:07