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COMPILATION OF AVAILABLE DATA ON BUILDING DECONTAMINATION ALTERNATIVES
Citation:
Science Applications International Corporation. COMPILATION OF AVAILABLE DATA ON BUILDING DECONTAMINATION ALTERNATIVES. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-05/036, 2005.
Description:
The report presents an analysis of selected technologies that have been tested for their potential effectiveness in decontaminating a building that has been attacked using biological or chemical warfare agents, or using toxic industrial compounds. The technologies selected to be addressed here fall into three categories: (1) Liquid-based topical agents, including hypochlorite (bleach), aqueous chlorine dioxide, aqueous hydrogen peroxide, and a proprietary product (TechXtract); (2) Foams and gels, including Sandia Foam and Decon Green, CASCAD, and L-Gel; (3) Gaseous and vapor technologies (fumigants), including chlorine dioxide gas, vapor-phase hydrogen peroxide, paraformaldehyde, and methyl bromide. Each of these technologies is reviewed in terms of its principles of operation, technical maturity, available data, concerns for the user, commercial availability, and advantages or disadvantages. No single technology is applicable in all situations. As a broad generality, liquids are effective cleaners of non-porous surfaces, but may cause corrosion or degradation of the surface. Foams and gels have shown some promising results against both biological and chemical contaminants, but present post-decontamination cleanup issues and require further demonstration. Gases and vapors have been demonstrated to be effective in destroying biological contamination under controlled conditions (e.g., in sterilization chambers) and, in some cases, in field remediations, but have not been effective in removing chemical contamination and warrant further demonstration under the less well controlled conditions that exist during fumigation of a large building.