Effects of Vaporized Decontamination Systems on Selected Building Interior Materials: Chlorine Dioxide

摘要

The National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) of the EPA established an Interagency Agreement with the U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC) to take advantage of ECBC's extensive expertise and specialized research facilities for the decontamination of surfaces contaminated with chemical and biological (CB) warfare agents. The National Homeland Security Research Center formed a collaboration with ECBC in a mutual leveraging of resources, expanding upon ECBC's on-going programs in CB decontamination to more completely address the parameters of particular concern for decontamination of indoor surfaces in buildings following a terrorist attack. Vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) and chlorine dioxide (CIO2) have been used to decontaminate indoor surfaces contaminated with anthrax and show potential for use in decontaminating indoor surfaces contaminated by chemical agents. This program is specifically focused on the decontamination of the building environment for purposes of restoring a public building to a usable state after a terrorist chemical warfare attack. As building interiors typically contain large surfaces composed of concrete cinder block, wood, steel, carpet, suspension ceiling tile, and painted wallboard, the effort was designed to determine how building materials are affected by the decontaminants. The focus of this technical report is the evaluation of the building interior materials and the fumigant CIO2. The work discussed in this report was conducted from November 2003 to October 2006. under EPA IAG DW 939917-01-0.