Science Inventory

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A probability-based sampling design can be used to create statistically defensible sampling plans. However, these plans may have sampling collection and/or processing demands that exceed allotted resources. Targeted sampling designs, also referred to as judgmental sampling, use p...

In the event of a chemical, biological, radiological, and/or nuclear (CBRN) wide-area incident, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for environmental remediation, waste disposal processes, data collection, and data quality checks to advise decision-makin...

Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of inhalation anthrax, is one of the most highly studied biological threat agents. Significant gaps remain related to the remediation of a wide area following such biological release. This extends to the remediation of critical assets owned...

Report on the Wide Area Demonstration (WAD) under the Analysis for Coastal Operational Resiliency (AnCOR) project. The AnCOR WAD was conducted from May 2 through May 27, 2022. The test venue was located at Fort A.P. Hill (FAPH), Bowling Green, VA. All work will was conducted at F...

Waste is produced at all stages of the response and recovery (including decontamination) following a biological contamination incident. Types of materials that generate a significant proportion of the waste at every stage of the response include personal protective equipment (PPE...

The Analysis for Coastal Operational Resiliency (AnCOR) program is an interagency collaboration between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the United States Coast Guard (USCG). The overall purpose of this multiagency pro...

Rapid decontamination following a biological terror incident is paramount for the return of a city’s operations and economy to normalcy. An outdoor urban biological agent incident may require remediation of thousands of vehicles. In this research, the utilization of widely availa...

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...

Large-scale biological contamination incidents pose unique yet significant challenges to remediation operations. Previous incidents have demonstrated the utility of readily available commercial and municipal equipment for conducting remediation tasks. Pre-identification and evalu...

Los Angeles Metro (LA Metro) sent samples of CuVerro V antimicrobial self-adhesive film (EPA Reg# 85353-5) to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Center for Environmental Solutions and Emergency Response, Homeland Security and Materials M...

This summary outlines the current progress US EPA’s Homeland Security Research Program (HSRP) has made through development of scientific products that support capabilities for non-spore-forming biological incident response. These products are meant to advance the body of sc...

Analytical methods exist to detect biothreat agents in environmental samples during a response to biological contamination incidents. However, the coastal zone facilities and assets of the United States Coast Guard (USCG), including response boats in diverse geographical areas an...

This report summarizes novel air sampling research conducted for the multi-agency Analysis for Coastal Operational Resiliency (AnCOR) program which sought to develop and demonstrate capabilities and strategic guidelines to prepare the US for a wide-area release of a biological ag...

Outdoor contamination incidents such as those following non-spore-forming zoonotics (Burkholderia, tularemia, FAD, etc) may necessitate decontamination. Currently, COTS disinfectants have been assessed for a limited number of indoor and outdoor (concrete) materials. Previous inci...

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...

This tech brief provides an overview of the tools and frameworks available to support the remediation activities related to wide-area sampling planning and implementation during a biological incident and a workflow illustration that depicts the relationship and sequence of the to...

This document provides step-by-step instructions for the use of swabs, wipes, and sponge-sticks to collect samples from surfaces potentially contaminated with microbiological agents. It is intended to be used in conjunction with the analytical methods listed in U.S. Environmental...

Sub-product reports the evaluation and development of sampling extraction and processing procedures for difficult matrices samples. Such samples may contain high organic and environmental material, which will be challenging to process and analyze using the existing bio agent samp...

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...

Aims: This study aimed to provide operationally relevant SARS-CoV-2 surface disinfection efficacy information. Methods and Results: Disinfectants were evaluated against SARS-CoV-2 on material coupons and were tested using Spray (no-touch with contact time) and Spray & Wipe (w...

The Town Hall will provide three different case studies that show how clearance goals developed by city and county health officials interact with characterization and sampling that occurs in response to cleaning up a biological and chemical incident. EPA will describe real-life e...

The management of response and recovery operations from a biological contamination incident is complicated by the fact that contamination may spread following the incident and subsequent initial extent-of-contamination characterization efforts due to impacts of wind, precipitatio...

An outdoor, wide area release of a persistent biological agent has the potential to significantly disrupt society. An unexplored aspect of consequence management is the need to minimize risk from immediate and delayed exposure to low concentrations of a biological agent transport...

Recovery is profoundly impacted by waste management issues and the strategies selected to manage them. The quantification, segregation, transportation, and storage of waste can be an arduous and costly undertaking. Furthermore, these processes are intricately linked with the deci...

The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of selected commercially available decontaminant products and cleaning methods to disinfect coronaviruses from surfaces. Specifically, List N products that are effective on hard, non-porous materials were evaluated on challen...