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Carpet and rugs currently represent about half of the United States flooring market and offer many benefits as a flooring type. How carpets influence our exposure to both microorganisms and chemicals in indoor environments has important health implications, but is not well unders...

A study was conducted to assess the efficacy of ozone gas in inactivating spores of both Bacillus anthracis and Bacillus subtilis inoculated onto six building materials (glass, wood, carpet, laminate, galvanized metal, and wallboard paper). Testing conditions consisted of ozone g...

The study was conducted in four phases, each using viable spores of Bacillus atrophaeus var. globigii (Bg), a surrogate for Ba. Phase I and II were part of a bench-scale study using a Lab Line Incubator-Orbital Shaker to simulate a washing machine. The experiment was conducted us...

On May 8-10, 2018, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Office of Research and Development’s National Homeland Security Research Center (ORD/NHSRC) hosted the 10th U.S. EPA International Decontamination Research and Development Conference at the EPA facilities in Re...

This report describes a streamlined bench scale procedure which has been developed for testing the efficacy of chlorine bleach for the inactivation of Bacillus spores in wash water originating from a cleanup of a site contaminated with Bacillus anthracis spores.

The Underground Transport Restoration (UTR) Operational Technology Demonstration (OTD) was a full-scale study focused on remediation of a subway system after contamination with a Bacillus anthracis (Ba) surrogate (Bacillus atrophaeus, subspecies globigii [Bg]). The study involved...

This peer reviewed journal article summarizes research on comparison of an enrichment-PCR assay compared to a processing protocol for soil samples potentially contaminated with Bacillus anthracis

This effort sought to assess the impact of potential real-world interferents (RWIs) present in Sponge-Stick and Vacuum Cassettes (VCF) samples on current culture and molecular analysis methods. Having an assessment of the impact, if any, will help EPA understand limitations of th...

In the present study, we quantified how well an activated carbon (AC) sample maintained its adsorption capacity for Methyl bromide (MeBr) over several adsorption/desorption cycles, using three different gas conditions. During the adsorption phase, the AC was exposed to a feed gas...

The effect of sporicidal fumigation with methyl bromide or methyl iodide on the functionality of electronic equipment was evaluated using desktop computers as surrogates for valuable electronic equipment under target conditions of 200–250 mg/L fumigant for 48 hours at 24–30 °C an...

Francisella tularensis, which causes potentially fatal tularemia, has been considered an attractive agent of bioterrorism and biological warfare due to its low infectious dose, reported environmental persistence, and ability to be transmitted to humans via multiple exposure route...

Although the military has been developing decontamination methods for their purposes for decades, research conducted or funded by nondefense government agencies with a focus on the decontamination of civilian facilities had been minimal prior to 2001. That changed following the i...

Following a biological contamination incident, the spatial extent of the contamination should be determined using established sampling and analytical methods such as culture or RV-PCR. A previous study demonstrated that a sampling strategy involving native air samplers could be i...

Technical Brief

Environmental sampling is a critical component of the post decontamination verification process following a bioterrorism event. This journal article describes work performed to produce a less labor-intensive method for processing cellulose sponge-wipes used for sampling areas pot...

This report discusses results from a bench scale study that investigated the impact of dirt and grime on pH amended bleach and diluted bleach decontamination efficacy as commonly encountered on relevant subway rolling stock and subway infrastructure surface materials, including t...

This technical brief reviews the bench-, pilot-, and field-scale decontamination research conducted by EPA under the Underground Transport Restoration (UTR) project. This summarizes the findings most applicable for operational use in decontamination methods for railcar and relate...

Report on the decontamination efficacy of low levels of hydrogen peroxide vapor (HPV) was evaluated on common building materials (glass, bare pine wood, carpet, painted wallboard paper, unpainted concrete, and ceiling tile) contaminated with Ba spores.

A large-scale outdoor biological disaster requires a better understanding of how rainfall and water-based decontamination measures would transport contaminants. Over the last few years, the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Homeland Security Research Program...

This report chronicles the study undertaken to evaluate the decontamination efficacy of diperadipic acid, under application conditions that were found to be effective for pH-adjusted bleach (a common sporicidal liquid). The results showed that diperadipic acid demonstrated >6 Lo...

Personnel decontamination is an integral part of any emergency response. This report discusses a decontamination project that evaluated the decontamination efficacy and physical migration (transport) of Bacillus spores and operational efficiency of two types of sprayer technologi...

This report focus for fixed site surface decontamination and cleanup, two distinct options among liquid disinfectants include pH-adjusted bleach (pAB) and Spor-Klenz® (S-K; per-acetic/peroxide formulations). Efficacy of these two sterilants in lab-scale studies has been well-docu...

Historically, street sweeping primarily has been conducted to remove the regular buildup of litter and trash along urban streets. Recent developments in sweeper technology, such as regenerative sweepers and “dustless sweepers”, enable municipalities and transportation departments...

Model/Guide

Ricin is a highly-toxic compound derived from castor plant beans. Several incidents involving contamination of structures due to ricin production or dissemination have occurred in recent years. The goal of this study was to determine whether ricin bioactivity could be attenuated ...