Science Inventory

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Ricin is a highly toxic protein, capable of inhibiting protein synthesis within cells, and is produced from the beans of the Ricinus communis (castor bean) plant. Numerous recent incidents involving ricin have occurred, many in the form of mailed letters resulting in both buildin...

Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of steam heat for inactivation of SARS-CoV-2 when applied to materials common in mass transit installations. Methods and Results: SARS CoV-2 (USA-WA1/2020) was resuspended in either cell culture media or synthetic sali...

Bacillus anthracis and other environmentally persistent pathogens pose a significant threat to human and environmental health. If contamination is spread over a wide area (e.g., resulting from a bioterrorism or biowarfare incident), readily deployable and scalable sample collecti...

Management of waste from wide-area radiological incidents will be complicated by several major issues: 1) the potentially enormous quantities of solid and aqueous waste, lightly contaminated with one or more radionuclides, that will need to be properly managed; 2) the profound im...

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the role that airborne transmission can play in the spread of disease. Accordingly, there is increased interest in technologies that claim to reduce or eliminate virus transmission via aerosols in occupied indoor spaces, such as in schools, t...

Management of waste from wide-area radiological incidents will be complicated by several major issues: 1) the potentially enormous quantities of solid and aqueous waste, lightly contaminated with one or more radionuclides, that will need to be properly managed; 2) the profound im...

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised interest in using chemical air treatments as part of a strategy to reduce the risk of disease transmission, but more information is needed to characterize their efficacy at scales translatable to applied settings and to develop methods for evaluat...

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the role that airborne transmission can play in the spread of disease. Accordingly, there is increased interest in technologies that claim to reduce or eliminate virus transmission via aerosols in occupied indoor spaces, such as in schools, t...

Ultraviolet-C (UVC) radiation has long been used to disinfect air, water, and surfaces. The COVID-19 pandemic has recently raised interest in using UVC devices as an alternative approach for disinfecting surfaces and materials, as an increasing number of UVC devices come to marke...

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the role that airborne transmission can play in the spread of disease. Accordingly, there is increased interest in technologies that claim to reduce or eliminate virus transmission via aerosols in occupied indoor spaces, such as in schools, t...

The spread of radiological contamination from rainfall events is well documented from both the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear disasters. However, the inclusion of stormwater modeling into local, state, and federal response planning and response is limited. The goal and purpose o...

This publication will provide data useful for predicting the efficacy of wash-down methods in an outdoor urban environment. Wash-down methods may be deployed to reduce contaminant concentrations on buildings, sidewalks, vegetation, and roadways. Understanding the effectiveness of...

Stormwater management seeks to reduce runoff and improve water quality, and EPA's Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) has been used for decades to conduct hydrologic, hydraulic, and water quality simulations that aid in planning, analyzing, and designing stormwater drainage system...

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness in the spread of disease via airborne transmission. As a result, there has been increasing interest in technologies that claim to reduce concentrations of airborne pathogens in indoor environments. The efficacy of many of these emerging ...

These slides are for the U.S. EPA’s Homeland Security Research Program  1-day virtual radiological stormwater modeling workshop. The workshop is sponsored by the DHS’s National Urban Security Technology Laboratory and co-organized with the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory. Durin...

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, mater...

This paper compared simulation results from different model constructions of a Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) after radiological contamination from a hypothetical dirty bomb scenario. The model constructions included a utility-provided combined sewer stormwater model, a high...

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness about the airborne transmission of diseases and increased interest in different types of aerosol treatment technologies that claim to reduce or eliminate airborne pathogens. Because many of these technologies are devices, EPA does not re...

This website update provides a summary of efficacy testing with the Knorr 3-Stage Air Filtration and Purification System in a large aerosol test chamber with a recirculating HVAC system. The unit's efficacy was evaluated against aerosolized MS2 (a bacteriophage).

Under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP), research is being conducted necessary for identification of methods and technologies that can be used during hazardous materials remediation and cleanup efforts. The th...

Managing the response to urban radiological terrorism requires advanced planning and rapid response to minimize health risks to residents and mitigate long-term impacts to municipal infrastructure and the environment.  A radiologic dispersal device can result in a widespread...

Data report on UV disinfection results of materials contaminated with SARS-CoV-2 or two potential surrogates thereof. Data report is intended for publication on the ORD CoVID -19 environmental research webpage

This website update provides a summary of efficacy testing with the RGF Photohydroionization® (PHI) technology in a large aerosol test chamber with a recirculating HVAC system. The unit's efficacy was evaluated against aerosolized MS2 (a bacteriophage).

Second update to the ORD CoVID-19 Environmental Research website on UVC disinfection.

Although SARS-CoV-2 is primarily an airborne risk, the COVID-19 pandemic also highlighted the need for self-disinfection surfaces that could withstand the demand of high occupant densities characteristic of public transportation systems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ...