Sensitive detection of chemical agents and toxic industrial chemicals using active open-path FTIRs

Author(s):  
William T. Walter
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 51-64
Author(s):  
Kannan Gajendran Balachandar

Though the possibility of terrorist groups obtaining chemical weapons and inflicting mass destruction are relatively low, the relevance of chemical agents still remains high since use of such chemical agents in causing potentially dangerous consequences remains very high. Sporadic chemical attacks and chemical disasters happen all over the world and they cause long lasting damages. Easy accessibility to variety of toxic industrial chemicals and the relatively simple know-how needed to synthesize chemical agents pose a serious threat. However, technological developments and the easy availability of information have empowered the security forces and the law enforcement agencies to formulate responsive mechanism to mitigate the ill effects of chemical disasters. Though the international and national agencies strive hard to ward off the debilitating effects of chemical agents and disasters, the capability of such efforts in addressing the potential risks remains doubtful. This review describes the characteristics and classification of chemical agents and toxic industrial chemicals, their physico – chemical properties, detection, decontamination and response by the security agencies and first responders in addressing the threat to mankind in the form of chemical terrorism and chemical disasters.


Author(s):  
Irfan Aziz ◽  
Birendra Shrivastava ◽  
Chandana Venkateswara Rao2 ◽  
Sadath Ali

Liver disease or liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer mortality in the world. Hepatitis viral infection, food additives, alcohol, fungal toxins (aflatoxins), toxic industrial chemicals, air and water pollutants are the major risk factors of liver cancer. Moreover, due to high tolerance of liver, HCC is seldom detected at an early stage and once detected treatment faces a poor prognosis in most cases.Fumaria indica possesses hepatoprotective activity as evidenced by the significant and dose dependent restoring the activities of entire liver cancer marker enzymes, diminution in tumor incidence, decrease in lipid peroxidation (LPO) and increase in the level of antioxidant enzymes (GSH, CAT, SOD, GPx and GST) through scavenging of free radicals, or by enhancing the activity of antioxidant, which then detoxify free radicals. These factors protect cells from ROS damage in NDEA and CCl4-induced hepatocarcinogenesis. Histopathological observations of liver tissues too correlated with the biochemical observations. Thus, present investigation suggested that the Fumaria indica would exert a chemoprotective effect by reversing the oxidant-antioxidant imbalance during hepatocarcinogenesis induced by NDEA and CCl4. Besides Fumaria indicais very much effective in preventing NDEA-induced multistage hepatocarcinogenesis possibly through antioxidant and antigenotoxic nature, which was confirmed by various liver injury and biochemical tumour markers enzymes. The hepatoprotective activity of a Fumaria indicaof 50 % ethanolic extract was studied using rats. The animals received a single intraperitoneal injection of N-nitrosodiethylamine 200mg/kg body wt followed by subcutaneous injection of CCl4 in a dose of 3 ml/kg body wt. Fumaria indica extract dose dependently and significantly the increase in serum hepatic enzyme levels after NDEAand CCl4 treatment compared to the toxin control group. The results of this study confirmed the antioxidant and hepatoprotective activity of the Fumaria indicaextract against carbon tetrachlorideand N-nitrosodiethylamine induced hepatotoxicity in rats. In addition to this, studies on molecular aspect of hepatoprotective therapy will give mechanistic information in hepatoprotective therapy and also critical balance should be there between the animal model and clinical research. The hepatoprotective properties of Fumaria indicashould provide useful information in the possible application in hepatic liver disease.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (15) ◽  
pp. 5045
Author(s):  
Victor Bocos-Bintintan ◽  
Ileana Andreea Ratiu

Sensitive real-time detection of vapors produced by toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) always represents a stringent priority. Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is definitely a TIC, being widely used in various industries and as an insecticide; it is a reactive, very flammable, and highly toxic compound that affects the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, eyes, nose, throat, and also has systemic effects. Moreover, HCN is considered a blood chemical warfare agent. This study was focused toward quick detection and quantification of HCN in air using time-of-flight ion mobility spectrometry (ToF IMS). Results obtained clearly indicate that IMS can rapidly detect HCN at sub-ppmv levels in air. Ion mobility spectrometric response was obtained in the negative ion mode and presented one single distinct product ion, at reduced ion mobility K0 of 2.38 cm2 V−1 s−1. Our study demonstrated that by using a miniaturized commercial IMS system with nonradioactive ionization source model LCD-3.2E (Smiths Detection Ltd., London, UK), one can easily measure HCN at concentrations of 0.1 ppmv (0.11 mg m−3) in negative ion mode, which is far below the OSHA PEL-TWA value of 10 ppmv. Measurement range was from 0.1 to 10 ppmv and the estimated limit of detection LoD was ca. 20 ppbv (0.02 mg m−3).


2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 425-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascale Ribordy ◽  
David Rocksén ◽  
Uno Dellgar ◽  
Sven-Åke Persson ◽  
Kristina Arnoldsson ◽  
...  

AbstractIntroductionMobile decontamination units are intended to be used at the accident site to decontaminate persons contaminated by toxic substances. A test program was carried out to evaluate the efficacy of mobile decontamination units.ObjectiveThe tests included functionality, methodology, inside environment, effects of wind direction, and decontamination efficacy.MethodsThree different types of units were tested during summer and winter conditions. Up to 15 test-persons per trial were contaminated with the imitation substances Purasolve ethyl lactate (PEL) and methyl salicylate (MES). Decontamination was carried out according to standardized procedures. During the decontamination trials, the concentrations of the substances inside the units were measured. After decontamination, substances evaporating from test-persons and blankets as well as remaining amounts in the units were measured.ResultsThe air concentrations of PEL and MES inside the units during decontamination in some cases exceeded short-term exposure limits for most toxic industrial chemicals. This was a problem, especially during harmful wind conditions, i.e., wind blowing in the same direction as persons moving through the decontamination units. Although decontamination removed a greater part of the substances from the skin, the concentrations evaporating from some test-persons occasionally were high and potentially harmful if the substances had been toxic. The study also showed that blankets placed in the units absorbed chemicals and that the units still were contaminated five hours after the end of operations.ConclusionsAfter decontamination, the imitation substances still were present and evaporating from the contaminated persons, blankets, and units. These results indicate a need for improvements in technical solutions, procedures, and training.RibordyP, RocksénD, DellgarU, PerssonS, ArnoldssonK, EkåsenH, HäggbomS, NerfO, LjungqvistA, GrythD, ClaessonO. Mobile decontamination units—room for improvement?. Prehosp Disaster Med.2012;27(4):1–7.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 529-536 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peyman Z. Moghadam ◽  
David Fairen-Jimenez ◽  
Randall Q. Snurr

A novel and quick computational strategy is developed based on water Henry's constants to distinguish different levels of hydrophobicity among metal–organic frameworks. The technique is applied to a large database of MOFs to identify hydrophobic materials.


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