MONITOR WINS SIGMA DELTA CHI AWARD FOR SERIES ON CHEMICAL WARFARE

Gary Thatcher of The Christian Science Monitor has won a Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi. The award was for the series, ``Poison on the Wind: the New Threat of Chemical and Biological Weapons,'' which ran in December 1988. Mr. Thatcher headed a team of reporters that included Timothy Aeppel, Peter Grier, and George D. Moffett III.

They took a global perspective on the issue of chemical and biological weapons, reporting on West German shipments of ``precursor'' chemicals, the Soviet chemical arsenal, family gas-mask practice sessions in Scandinavia, and the question of who has what kind of chemical weapons.

These Distinguished Service Awards have been presented annually since 1940.