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Improving Surface Decontamination Methods for Permeable Materials Contaminated with Chemical Warfare Agent Surrogates Malathion and 2-CEPS
Citation:
Oudejans, L., B. Wyrzykowska-Ceradini, K. Ratliff, E. Morris, A. Korff, A. Mikelonis, C. Fuller, AND A. Touati. Improving Surface Decontamination Methods for Permeable Materials Contaminated with Chemical Warfare Agent Surrogates Malathion and 2-CEPS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-22/120, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
A release of persistent chemical warfare agents such as VX or sulfur mustard (HD) will create an acute and significant exposure risk to the public as well as remediation contractors who would be tasked to cleanup a contaminated site. Remediation operations will benefit from improved knowledge on the degree of transport of these agents into porous and/or permeable building materials and its impact on the expected decontamination efficacy which typically is reported for nonporous contaminated materials . This report describes research that was conducted to measure the efficacy of various decontaminants on two chemical warfare agent simulants, malathion and 2-CEPS that were partially permeated into paint and sealant layers. The results of this research will inform the EPA response community and other Federal, State, Tribal and Local agencies on the expected partitioning of chemical warfare agent simulants malathion and 2-CEPS into permeable materials (e.g., paints and sealants) and its impact on the decontamination processes as a critical part of the remediation strategy to cleanup these contaminated sites.
Description:
This report addresses options to improve on the decontamination of permeable materials that are contaminated with a toxic chemical that has transferred into such material. Here, two surrogates of chemical warfare agents are considered to investigate the degree of transport, material interaction and subsequent efforts to degrade the chemical via in situ degradation.