How Chemical Agent Disclosure Spray in Revolutionizing the Traditional Way of Chemical Agent Decontamination

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1 How Chemical Agent Disclosure Spray in Revolutionizing the Traditional Way of Chemical Agent Decontamination By Dr. Markus Erbeldinger, Product Manager, FLIR Systems Abstract This paper will show how the revolutionary Fido C2 chemical agent disclosure spray improves the responder tool kit by offering greater sensitivity than existing sensors and reducing decontamination costs up to 5-fold. Fido C2 is the key component of the Contamination Indicator Decontamination Assurance System (CIDAS) an US acquisition program in excess of 50 Million US$. CIDAS itself is part of the US Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JPEO CBD) Decontamination Family of Systems (DFoS) program. Fido C2 is a sprayable, water-based formulation that uses enzymes to detect the exact location of specific chemical agents at trace level on surfaces by changing color. It utilizes select enzymes, which are inhibited by chemical agents to drive the spray chemistry. One of the key aspects of enzyme-based sensing technologies is the fact that the catalytic enzyme reaction is extremely fast. Thousands of reactions can occur per second depending on the enzyme/substrate combination and concentration utilized allowing for a very powerful amplification effect. Only a few target molecules from the environment are needed to shut down the reactions thereby triggering detection. Because of this amplification effect, the enzyme-based sensing spray Fido C2 is extremely sensitive. Fido C2 is available in formulations that specifically detect Nerve Agents (G- & V-series) or sulfur mustard (HD). This system is the most sensitive point detection technology on the market, and is intended to provide improved mapping of chemical agent contamination for sensitive site exploitation missions and personnel / equipment decontamination. Fido C2 reacts directly on surfaces to disclose trace contact hazards within 5 minutes, and revolutionizes the traditional way of decontamination by making the invisible threat visible. This provides significant savings in time and money (around three to five fold) for decontamination by enabling the user to locate contamination and focus decontaminant application. In addition, Fido C2 can be used to visualize contamination hot spots on surfaces to provide a map for decontamination or to identify the perimeter of a hot zone. This paper will also discuss the CIDAS program, a US $50+ Million US program which utilizes the Fido C2 disclosure spray for decontamination of chemical agents. Fido C2 disclosure spray will provide the United States Joint Services with the capability to locate trace CWA contamination on surfaces of military equipment, in a $30 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract from the US Army s Chemical and Biological Defense Program. The 10-year contract is for Contamination Indicator/Decontamination Assurance System (CIDAS), a Program of Record within the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense s (JPEO-CBD) Joint Product Manager for Protection Office, and will provide the Joint Services with the capability to identify the location of CWAs on surfaces, improve the efficiency of the decontamination process, and provide a confirmatory check that the process has been thoroughly effective.

2 Introduction There is a need to make chemical warfare agent (CWA) decontamination efforts more effective. Existing chemical agent vapor detectors do not locate chemical agents on surfaces at the required sensitivity since they are limited to high-volatility agents. Decontamination operators operate blindly as they cannot see CWA on surfaces, therefore wasting resources on clean surfaces rather than focusing on contaminated surfaces. Chemical agent disclosure spray addresses this capability gap by pinpointing contaminants that require decontamination and making the invisible threat visible. Decontamination Line with Integrated Disclosure Spray Integrated into the decontamination process, disclosure spray reveals specific CWA hot spots and trace level contamination. This enables operators to focus effort, reduce the amount of decontaminant used, and lower decontamination costs by up to 60%. In addition to significant cost and time savings, disclosure spray can dramatically improve the organization, tempo, and reliability of the traditional field decontamination process. The decontamination line is configured to allow the application of the disclosure spray after the primary wash and after the rinsing the decontamination material. Depending on the outcome of the indicator application, there are three possible routes of decontamination (Figure 1): (1) no decontamination, (2) focused decontamination at specific locations, and (3) full decontamination that is not targeting specific locations. Traditional decontamination procedures have to assume the worst-case scenario with a full decontamination targeting the entire vehicle. Disclosure spray enables a triage prior to decontamination which allows substantial savings in resources since a full decontamination is not required in cases where a vehicle is clean or where decontamination is only required at specific locations. Figure 1. Chemical agent disclosure and decontamination line

3 At the triage stage, disclosure spray is used to rapidly identify clean vehicles that require no decontamination (1). In this case the use of disclosure spray completely eliminates the need to perform decontamination and allows a rapid return of material and equipment to their mission. Vehicles with only small areas of contamination can go through a focused decontamination line for specific locations (2). In this stage, they are quickly decontaminated, rinsed and a secondary application of disclosure spray is used to verify the decontamination. Heavily contaminated vehicles can enter a full decontamination line (3), complete with scrubbing of necessary surfaces. After the rinse, disclosure spray can be reapplied to the vehicles to confirm that there is no residual agent contamination. If residual contamination is present the vehicle can be returned to the focused or full decontamination line. The implementation of disclosure spray adds a new feedback loop to the standard decontamination procedure. A secondary application of disclosure spray allows verification of successful decontamination. If the decontamination was successful and the vehicle was found to be clean, the vehicle can move to the final rinse (4). If is a vehicle was found to still have contamination after decontamination procedures were performed, it needs to loop back to the decontamination stage (5). Both the triage step and the verification step are novel compared to traditional decontamination procedures. Based on thorough decontamination protocols set forth by currently adopted doctrine in the US Multiservice CBRN Decontamination Field Manual (FM ), the average vehicle requires 500 gallons of water, 30 personnel in protective equipment, and 4-6 hours of effort during Detailed Equipment Decontamination (DED). The Table 1 provides an estimate for the amount of personnel, equipment, consumables, time and cost without the use of disclosure spray. Decontamination of ten vehicles costs approximately $40,000 and requires the use of 4,700-5,100 gallons of water, 1,000-3,000 pounds of decontaminant, and the support of personnel at a total of man hours. The Table 2 provides an estimate for the amount of personnel, equipment, consumables, time, and cost with use of disclosure spray. The use of disclosure spray can lead to a cost savings of greater than 60%. Table 1. Multiservice CBRN Decontamination Field Manual (FM ) Decon Station Water (gal) Man Time (man-hr) Decon (lb) Cost ($) Primary Wash Decon ~$40,000 Contact Time Rinse Check Totals ~$40,000

4 Table 2. Multiservice CBRN Decontamination Field Manual (FM ) with disclosure spray Decon Station Water (gal) Man Time (man-hr) Decon (lb) Cost ($) Primary Wash ~$2,500* Decon ~$10,000 Contact Time Rinse Check ~$2,500* Totals without ~$40,000 Totals with Fido ~$15,000 * Savings ~83% ~57% ~58% ~69% ~63% Fido C2 Agent Disclosure Spray Overview The FLIR Fido C2 agent disclosure spray is the most sensitive point detection technology available. It discloses trace levels of nerve agents (G- & V-series) or sulfur mustard (HD) directly on a surface at submicrogram sensitivity within five minutes (Figure 2). In addition to making the chemical agent decontamination process of personnel or equipment highly efficient, the colorimetric response of the Fido C2 disclosure spray has utility during consequence management and sensitive site exploitation missions. In consequence management missions, disclosure spray facilitates isolating hot zones or mapping boundaries of hot zones following a CWA attack. In sensitive site exploitation missions, the disclosure spray enables spot-checking of suspicious laboratory equipment such as fume hoods, sinks, tabletops, and glassware to determine if a laboratory is being used to synthesize CWAs. Figure 2. Disclosure spray being used The Fido C2 agent disclosure spray uses enzyme technology to reveal chemical agent contamination. Enzymes are commonly used as catalysts because they cause a very specific reaction and are highly resistant to interferents. The enzymes used in the Fido C2 specifically react to chemical agents detected

5 on a surface and rapidly drive a color change from yellow to red, revealing the location of chemical contamination on the surface. The Fido C2 agent disclosure spray is available for nerve agent detection and blister agent detection. A separate training formulation uses a benign simulant to provide safe, realistic, and low cost training for operators. For use in poor visibility or low light conditions, an optional fluorescent additive enhances the visual response when used with an ultraviolet (UV) light. A forensic version of the Fido C2 disclosure spray only allows the threat to be seen under UV-light, a critical feature for covert operations. A coldweather additive lowers the operational temperature of the nerve agent and training formulations from 0 F to -4 F (-20 C). With faster and targeted detection, military decontamination experts can locate trace levels of contamination and take action to mitigate the threat. The innovative Fido C2 disclosure spray represents a new class of chemical detection technology providing unprecedented performance while reducing the overall cost of decontamination operations. Contamination Indicator/Decontamination Assurance System (CIDAS) Fido C2 disclosure spray will provide the United States Joint Services with the capability to locate trace CWA contamination on surfaces of military equipment in a recently-announced award. This $30 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract from the US Army s Chemical and Biological Defense Program will provide the Joint Services with a capability to identify the location of CWAs on surfaces, improve the efficiency of the decontamination process and provide a confirmatory check that the decontamination process has been thoroughly effective. This 10 year contract is for the Contamination Indicator/Decontamination Assurance System (CIDAS) program, a Program of Record within the Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical and Biological Defense s (JPEO-CBD) Joint Product Manager for Protection Office. Summary Existing chemical agent vapor detectors do not locate chemical agents on surfaces at the required sensitivity since they are limited to high-volatility agents. This requires vehicles returning from their mission to be fully decontaminated, regardless to the level of contamination. The use of an agent disclosure spray during the decontamination process addresses the urgent need of detecting and locating chemical warfare agents on surfaces at trace levels below contact hazard levels. Fido C2 agent disclosure spray is the most sensitive point detection product available for CWAs. There is no existing comparable technology. By using Fido C2 disclosure spray to reveal specific contamination areas, operators can focus their decontamination application and reduce the amount of decontaminant used. The reduction in the amount of decontamination personnel, equipment, consumables, time, and material can lead to a cost savings of approximately 60%.