EmergencyTech.org

After 9/11 workers were exposed to all manner of toxins. During the recovery even those well away from Ground Zero, those who were working on mortuary details for example, were exposed to unsafe levels of Asbestos.

In March of last year, New York City paramedic Deborah Reeve died of mesothelioma, an asbestos-related form of cancer. There is little doubt she was first exposed to asbestos on Sept. 11, 2001, when she responded to the scene at Ground Zero.

There is equally little doubt that she continued to be assaulted by the substance sometime during the next eight months when she was assigned to the morgue, where she helped medical examiners do body-part identification.

Dr. Emily Craig, Kentucky’s forensic anthropologist, had already given a lot of thought to the problem of contaminated corpses before the World Trade Center was attacked. But she stood endless days in the same morgue as Deborah Reeve. She breathed the same air while combing bags of rubble for slivers of bones so that DNA could name what remained.

“Ziplock-like” body bag technology developed by Dr. Craig attempts to address the issue of cross contamination from handling remains.

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Acetone peroxide explosives, as we discussed yesterday, present numerous challenges to responders when considering the difficulty of detecting and identifying not only the explosives but their component chemicals in the field. This threat is highlighted by recent evidence that focuses on an alleged terror plot to bring down commercial airliners with separate component chemicals that, when combined, would create a volatile liquid explosive. U.S. and British government sources have confirmed since our posting yesterday that the evidence found points toward the possibility of TATP or other acetone peroxide based explosives being used in future attacks, a fact that doesn’t suprise leading counterterrorism experts.

An alert the FBI and DHS sent out Thursday to state and local law enforcement agencies — which is classified “For Official Use Only” and was obtained by TIME — warns them that the peroxide-based explosives could also be employed in future attacks here. . .

The FBI-DHS report next warns law enforcement agencies about the two peroxide-based liquid explosive that could be used in a future attack against the U.S.–triacetone triperoxide (TATP) or hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD). The report describes how a terrorist would assemble bombs with these chemicals. Peroxide-based liquid explosives “are sensitive to heat, shock, and friction, can be initiated simply with fire or electrical charge, and can also be used to produce improvised detonators,” the report states. “For example, TATP or HMTD may be placed in a tube or syringe body in contact with a bare bulb filament, such as that obtained from inside a Christmas tree light bulb, to produce an explosion.” The report doesn’t mention anything about a terrorist assembling such a bomb on a plane, but it does warn that manufacturing such a device can be dangerous for the bombmaker. “Because of the instability of these substances,” the report notes, “spontaneous detonation can occur during the production process.”

Obviously, as the technological expertise of terrorists increases, so must the technologies that we use to detect them and mitigate their effects.

The increased responder-level awareness of TATP and other explosives, as always, should lead to a higher index of suspicion when searching all suspects, not simply those suspected of terrorist activities. Keep in mind, however, that these hommade explosives are made in similar conditions and with similar chemicals as another law enforcement and hazardous materials concern–narotics. The manufacture and distribution of narcotics such as methamphetamines and crack cocaine has presented challenges for the LE community that have bred several technological solutions including chemical kits designed to test for the presence of illicit substances. Historically, officials have first relied on visual identification of suspected substances and have then deferred to these kits for confirmation and further identification.

The introduction of home made peroxide explosives to this equation creates a host of new, and very dangerous, problems as revealed in DHS documents from the Explosive Devices module (PDF 1.2MB) of the Awareness Level WMD Training Program Office for Domestic Preparedness, June 9, 2005. These explosives (when not in “liquid form”) often look like crack cocaine or methamphetamines but, “will react violently with drug field test kits.

In other words, if you confuse these substances in the field and attempt to use commonly available identification technologies (the ones that most officers use daily) to make a determination then you could lose important body parts or your life. Here’s the whole blurb on Peroxide Explosives from the manual:

Peroxide-based improvised explosives are an emerging threat domestically. However, these IED have been a common explosive used by international terrorists for some time.

Hexamethylenetriperoxidediamine (hex-a-meth-i-len-tri-per-ox-id-di-a-men) (HMTD) and Triacetonetriperoxide (tri-ass-e-ton-tri-per-ox-id) (TATP) were initially developed 100 years ago. They are both extremely sensitive and are used as an explosive by terrorists/bombers as both an initiator (blasting cap) and as a main charge. TATP is commonly found as the main charge being employed by Middle East terrorists in suicide bombings.

HMTD has between 60-116% of the power of TNT, and is comprised of peroxide (ideally 30% or above), citric acid, and hexamine (heat tabs). TATP has 88% of the power of TNT and is comprised of peroxide, acetone, and sulfuric (battery) acid.

WARNING: In dry form, HMTD and TATP could appear similar to crack cocaine. These explosives will react violently with drug field test kits. Individuals should consider, and look for, any indicators present on a drug scene that may also be indicators of explosive manufacture — this is becoming more common. If so, the investigator should consider marking the evidence as a possible explosive and sending it to their lab for testing. HMTD and TATP are ideal as explosives for improvised blasting caps, and were originally developed for such use.

The documents don’t say much after that ominous warning and a bit of internet digging didn’t turn up much either. The caveat here is when multiple detection technologies intersect there can be problems that one would not associate with either one. In this case, the detection regime for one substance can lead to disasterous results when you imagine a scenario where an IED lab is mistaken for a methamphetamine lab.

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Maryland’s CDEX, Inc. has developed what is being called a “meth gun” which is designed to detect and identify chemical substances from, what the patent application calls, “large stand-off distances.”

Detection is accomplished by scanning a spectral beam across a surface to detect the presence of trace amounts of contamination left behind by methamphetamine, other illicit drugs, or other chemical substances. The device has the look and feel of a traffic radar gun, is battery operated, is capable of wired or wireless up/down loading of data, time and date stamps of all tests, and stores all test results for later retrieval.

Apparently, “significant stand-off distance” is 12 inches away from a 4 inch sample (scroll down the patent app. a bit, it’s in paragraph 0018) which, to me, doesn’t seem to be that far away as it still requires the user to be “suited up” in a potential hazmat situation; however, it is further away than many other testing systems which require direct manipulation of the substance or surface to be tested. CDEX’s goal is to make the “gun” as common as the radar guns in patrol cars.

The battery-powered device will cost under $10,000 when it debuts, said Jerry Blair, CDEX’s director of healthcare marketing. Future models will be about the size of two cell phones with a color LCD display. Desktop units made by competitors, which cannot be brought to a crime scene, cost $30,000 to $50,000, Blair said. The meth gun could eventually cost no more than $1,500 a unit after the technology is further improved, Poteet said.

Final production models will be the size of a cellphone and have color LCD displays. No word on if it will play custom MP3 ringtones, as well.

Via BoingBoing

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Norwegian researchers announced the development of the unfortunately named “Anna Konda” robot, a 3 meter long water-powered beast that is designed to replace firefighters in hazardous environments (like, um, fires? - eds.), according to Roland Piquepaille’s Technology Trends:

The snake contains 20 water hydraulic motors that move the robotic joints. And the energy needed to power these motors comes from water pressurized to 100 bars and already available inside the fire hose. This gives enough energy to this water-powered robot to climb up stairs, to lift a car up off the ground or even break through a wall.

The design offers a flexibility that most existing robotic firefighting systems lack, namely, by increasing autonomy and reducing the burden on its operators. The robot can be directed to travel from point A to point B, for example, and it will navigate the terrain itself by using computer controlled actuators. The beauty is in the simplicity and modularity of its design, allowing for easy repair and maintainance and a steep learing curve for operation.

More after the jump.

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You know, robots do a lot of things that humans cannot, but they do one thing particularly well and that is go where humans really would rather not. The problem is that humans do a lot of things better than robots, like think. When humans think themselves into a problem it is usually not a bad idea to send in a robot to save our bag-of-goo butts. Now, Maryland’s Vecna Technologies has developed a robot that is:

Designed to find, pick up and rescue people in harm’s way, the humanoid BEAR robot can do what humans can’t: Lift heavy loads and carry them long distances. Whether on a battlefield, in a nuclear reactor core, near a toxic chemical spill, or inside a structurally-compromised building after an earthquake, the BEAR can rescue those in need as well as or better than humans can, without risking additional human life.

While the battlefied application is clear the true potential of this technology is exciting. This robot could revolutionize inpatient transfer and extend the length of time patients can remain in the home by assisting other family members with patient movement. It could also save the backs of countless prehospital care workers (present company included). Imagine rolling this baby out of the side cabinet on your ambulance.

Here’s a video clip of the thing in action.

Via Futurismic.

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