An Inexpensive Biological and Chemical Decontamination Solution from a Powdered Concentrate

All levels of government and law enforcement are making plans to contain the effects of a terrorist attack using chemical and biological warfare agents. An important containment strategy is to enable emergency response personnel (e.g., police, fire fighters, etc.) to neutralize the threat using decontamination methods. The two primary decontamination solutions used by the military are supertropical bleach and DS2, neither of which is being commercialized for civilian use, primarily because of their hazardous chemical composition. Two separate aqueous-based decontamination formulations have been developed recently for civilian use. One product performs poorly against spores, and the kit weighs almost 100 pounds and can prepare only 10 gallons of decontamination formulation. The other is reasonably effective against spores but requires a high capital investment for a specialized delivery system, and the formulation contains a chlorine-based decontaminant and a cosolvent, neither of which is safe for humans or the environment. This project describes a dry powdered formulation that can be easily and rapidly dissolved in water to yield a formulation capable of decontaminating all stockpiled CBW agents and does not require specialized delivery equipment. At the core of the proposed technology are novel oxidants that can destroy chemical warfare agents, inactivate viruses, and kill vegetative organisms and bacterial spores. The oxidants are structurally related to a well-known and proven biocide but are solids at room temperature and considerably more stable. Preliminary results have demonstrated the capability of these oxidants to rapidly destroy both sulfur mustard and VX surrogates in minutes and to sterilize spore-contaminated surfaces in fewer than 10 minutes. In Phase I, Lynntech, Inc. will optimize the formulation and demonstrate its capability to decontaminate surrogates on realistic surfaces, including bare stainless steel, stainless steel painted with polyurethane paint, bare wood, varnished wood, and concrete. The Phase II research will demonstrate the utility of the formulation to destroy live biological and chemical agents.