36 ENVIRONMENTAL LABORATORY Handbook of Chemical and Biological Warfare


Chemical and Biological warfare is not a new phenomenon. It has been employed for centuries as a threat and during combat: during World War I the French employed tear gases, ethyl bromoacetate and chloroacetone; after World War I chemical agents were even occasionally used to subdue populations and suppress rebellion; in 1919 during the Russian Civil War, the Royal Air Force dropped arsenic gas during the British intervention; by the late 1930’s chemical warfare had been revolutionised by the discovery of the nerve agents tabun and sarin and millions of innocent civilians were killed by hydrogen cyanide gas during World War II; in 1940, the Japanese Army Air Force adopted ceramic bombs full of fl eas carrying the bubonic plague, while In Britain, the 1950s saw the weaponisation of plague, brucellosis and tularemia; and early on in the 1980 Iran–Iraq War, Iraq began to employ mustard gas. As such incidents of decontamination date back centuries with calcium oxide (lime) being recognised as a decontaminant in early times.


However, easy access to raw materials, accessible technical information, and increasing crime, corruption and state-sponsored terrorism, it is not diffi cult for terrorists and nations to use chemical and biological warfare agents as a threat and to achieve their goals. Therefore, the Handbook of Chemical and Biological Warfare, refl ects a signifi cant expansion in the interest of decontamination science.


Today, using modern fi rearms alone would have minimal impact on mankind due to the scale of our population, which makes chemical and biological terrorism a serious threat to the security of mankind, as well as economic and social infrastructure. Many nations possess vast stockpiles of chemical and biological agents in preparation for wartime use and this threat/perceived threat have become strategic tools in planning both measures and counter-measures. However, with proper protective equipment, training, and decontamination measures, the primary effects of chemical and biological weapons can be overcome.


Decontamination can be carried out on the battlefi eld or within destruction sites and research labs, and aims to reduce the hazard posed by chemical and biological warfare agents and make safe any person, object or area by absorbing, destroying, neutralising or removing chemical or biological agents. Natural decontaminants, such as water showers to wash away ground pollutants, or specially formulated liquids and powders, such as bleaching powder, may be dispersed by decontamination apparatus.


Part I explores the background of decontamination and a history of chemical and biological warfare. It provides an introduction to chemical and biological warfare agents and the Department of Defense requirements for decontamination and military decontamination doctrine. Part II looks at decontamination science. It outlines the hydrolysis, oxidation and dehydrohalogenation of chemical warfare agents. It progresses to examine the advances in enzymatic decontamination. A major challenge is bringing together the decontaminant with the agent and chapters 11, 12 and 13 discuss surfactant and supramolecular chemistry, gaseous decontamination and decontamination by directed energy technologies and other more novel approaches. Part III explores future decontamination technologies, research and revolutionary decontamination concepts. After all the ideal contamination system would mimic our own immune system and without external intervention, be able to detect a threat and respond to it by neutralisation!


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Taking the headache out of sample loading for UV-Visible/NIR spectrophotometers


HTA S.r.l. have engineered a solution to end the monotony and lost time that users of UV-Visible/ NIR Spectrophotometers are all too familiar with. The HTI500U has enabled fully automated sample loading specifi cally for UV-Visible/NIR Spectrophotometers


This sample loading automation will not only save time from the rigours manual sample loading, but operators will also experience an increase in productivity, analytical performance and even a minimisation of the carry-over.


The on-board solvent reservoir allows the probe and the whole fl ow path to be cleaned before processing the next sample, with the option to program the number of washing cycles according to the sample’s physical and chemical properties. Furthermore, sample replicas and calibration curves will be performed more regularly and without complaint because the whole process is carried out unattended.


HT1500U is available in multiple confi gurations: it supports stainless steel as well as polymeric needle to deal with metal sensitive applications and a wide choice of fl uidics to deal with different levels of fl ow through cells, including also nano fl ow through cuvettes, micro cuvettes and macro cells. Different types of tubes are supported too: open or sealed tubes can be hosted to fi t any applications. Moreover, the tubes are organised in multiple racks, each of them removable, to enable continuous sample feeding and improved organisation during analyical tasks.


Regardless of the application, whether environmental analysis, routine measurements, advanced research or quality control in production lines, the HT1500U will meet and even exceed expectations in terms of quality and reliability whilst requiring no or just minimal training.


Automating a UV-Visible/NIR Spectrometer requires just a preliminary step to make the spectrophotometer suitable for automation using the HT1500U: the standard quartz cell/cuvette must be replaced with a fl ow cell. This fl ow cell will be then fully handled by HT1500U and all the samples will be automatically processed. No additional action is required: you can simply leave the HT1500U to do its work and return later for the post-production data management.


Ultra-fast GC can help make testing labs more profi table and sustainable Analytical testing laboratories are seeing ever growing numbers of sample. A highly


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competitive marketplace means end users are demanding faster turn-around times and lower analysis costs. This means companies need to look at the latest techniques and technology available to ensure they can offer the best service at a competitive price, whilst still achieving good profi tability and operating a sustainable business.


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One technique that can greatly increase sample throughput is ultra-fast GC. The term has been banded around recently with some manufacturers even claiming a conventional GC with 2 channels is ultra-fast, So what really is an ultra-fast GC? A True ultra-fast GC directly heats the analytical column rather than using a conventional air blown oven. This offers several distinct advantages a conventional air blown GC cannot. The column can be heated at much faster ramp rates, this can help sharpen peaks and decrease analysis time. As only the column is being heated rather than an entire oven the cool down time is greatly decreased, this means that the injection-to-injection cycle time can be a fraction of that of a conventional GC. Directly heating the column rather than an entire oven also mean signifi cantly less energy is consumed per sample, helping companies further reduce their carbon footprint and meet their sustainability goals.


Ellutia has been a pioneer in ultra-fast GC technology for over 20 Years. The latest 500 Series GC is an innovative new design that can switch between operating as a conventional air-blown GC with regular fused silica column to an ultra-fast GC that directly resistively heats a metal column. The 500 Series GC features a compact footprint that means several GC’s can fi t under a single autosampler further increasing the sample throughput of a system.


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New air quality standard outlines methods for analysing airborne formaldehyde


A new ASTM International standard describes a range of techniques that can be used to analyse formaldehyde concentrations in indoor air. ASTM’s air quality committee (D22) developed the standard, which will soon be published as D8407.


A naturally occurring organic compound, formaldehyde is an ingredient in many materials, such as resins used for particleboard and coatings.


“Formaldehyde is a concern in the air we breathe because it is nearly ubiquitous and a known human carcinogen,” says ASTM International member Dustin Poppendieck. “Hence, determining the airborne concentration of formaldehyde in various environments and time scales is important to human health.”


Poppendieck, a research engineer, notes that there are many ways to determine formaldehyde concentration. The new standard provides an overview of ten different approaches to quantifying formaldehyde concentrations.


“The new guide highlights the sampling rate, detection limits, advantages, and limitations of each technique,” says Poppendieck. “This allows the user to select or learn about the most appropriate technique for their application.”


“Increased regulation surrounding the emission of formaldehyde to indoor and in-vehicle environments has driven analytical system manufacturers to develop instruments and address the growing need of material manufacturers and laboratories,” says ASTM member Caroline Widdowson, Markes International Ltd. “The new standard highlights the options to improve throughout, reduce running costs, improve safety, and the ability to include formaldehyde in the same analysis as other volatile compounds of interest.”


The guide will also aid those in regulatory bodies to understand the limitations of data supplied by the newer techniques. The guide can also be noted in other ASTM International standards as a reference for alternative formaldehyde quantifi cation.


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