Monitoring of Sulfur Mustard (HD) Vapor in the Presence of Absorptive Building Materials.

In the event of an accidental or intentional release of a chemical warfare agent (CWA), environmental samples must be collected and analyzed to assess the level of the contamination. Equally important is an understanding of the fate and transport of a CWA in the presence of porous materials, which may impact the ability to collect environmental samples. Air monitoring techniques may be used to rule in/out the presence of a CWA.

Decontamination options for indoor surfaces contaminated with realistic fentanyl preparations.

The significant increase in illegal use of the synthetic opioid fentanyl is leading to unintentional overdose fatalities. Spills of fentanyl where it is abused or prepared for illegal distribution can result in persistent contamination of areas. Remediation can be attempted through physical removal but may benefit greatly from application of decontamination solutions that provide in-situ degradation of fentanyl.

Symptom burden in malignant and non-malignant disease on admission to a palliative care unit.

Background: There is increasing recognition that patients with non-malignant diseases have comparable physical and psychosocial symptom burden to patients with cancer. There is currently limited data directly comparing symptom burden between these patient groups.

Objective: To investigate differences in symptom burden between patients with malignant and non-malignant conditions admitted to a palliative care unit (PCU).

Surface decontamination for blister agents Lewisite, sulfur mustard and agent yellow, a Lewisite and sulfur mustard mixture.

Sulfur mustard (HD) and Lewisite (L) are blister agents that have a high potential for terrorist use; Agent Yellow (HL) is the eutectic mixture of HD and L. Bench-scale testing was used to determine the residual amount of these chemical warfare agents remaining on three building materials (wood, metal and glass) after application of various decontaminants (household bleach, full strength and dilute; hydrogen peroxide 3% solution; and EasyDECON(®) DF200). All decontaminants reduced the amount of L recovered from coupons.