Decontamination issues for chemical and biological warfare agents: How clean is clean enough?

Raber, Ellen; Jin, Alfred L.; Noonan, Kathleen A.; McGuire, R.R.; Kirvel, Robert

doi:10.1080/09603120020047519

Cited by 70 publications

(65 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Recent developments in decontamination technology have emphasized the need to reduce the toxicity and environmental damage of decontaminants to be used in practice (Raber et al, 2001). In this experiment, chloroform had 60 days in which to evaporate before the incubation started, so residual toxicity was absent.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Survival of genetically marked Escherichia coli O157:H7 in soil as affected by soil microbial community shifts

et al. 2007

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A loamy sand soil sampled from a species-rich permanent grassland at a long-term experimental site (Wildekamp, Bennekom, The Netherlands) was used to construct soil microcosms in which the microbial community compositions had been modified by fumigation at different intensities (depths). As expected, increasing depth of fumigation was shown to result in progressively increasing effects on the microbiological soil parameters, as determined by cultivation-based as well as cultivation-independent (PCR-DGGE, PLFA) methods. Both at 7 and at 60 days after fumigation, shifts in the bacterial, fungal and protozoan communities were noted, indicating that altered community compositions had emerged following a transition phase. At the level of bacteria culturable on plates, an increase of the prevalence of bacterial r-strategists was noted at 7 days followed by a decline at 60 days, which also hinted at the effectiveness of the fumigation treatments. The survival of a non-toxigenic Escherichia coli O157:H7 derivative, strain T, was then assessed over 60 days in these microcosms, using detection via colony forming units counts as well as via PCR-DGGE. Both data sets were consistent with each other. Thus, a clear effect of fumigation depth on the survival of the invading strain T was noted, as a progressive increase of depth coincided with a progressively enhanced inoculant survival rate. As fumigation depth was presumably inversely related to community complexity, this was consistent with the hypothesis that soil systems with reduced biological complexity offer enhanced opportunities for invading microbial species to establish and persist. The significance of this finding is discussed in the light of the ongoing discussion about the complexity-invasiveness relationship within microbial communities, in particular regarding the opportunities of pathogens to persist.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Survival of genetically marked Escherichia coli O157:H7 in soil as affected by soil microbial community shifts

et al. 2007

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“…Its spores are hardy enough for weaponization and environmental dispersal (10); viable spores of the organism have been recovered after many decades from deliberately contaminated sites (6). The more-recent and malicious use of the spores of B. anthracis in the United States (14) clearly attests to the potential of this organism to cause mortality, morbidity, and general societal disruption and reemphasizes the importance of having available suitable remedial measures for countering any subsequent accidental or deliberate release of such spores.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification by Quantitative Carrier Test of Surrogate Spore-Forming Bacteria To Assess Sporicidal Chemicals for Use against Bacillus anthracis

Majcher

Bernard

Sattar

2008

Appl Environ Microbiol

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The spores of six strains of Bacillus anthracis (four virulent and two avirulent) were compared with those of four other types of spore-forming bacteria for their resistance to four liquid chemical sporicides (sodium hypochlorite at 5,000 ppm available chlorine, 70,000 ppm accelerated H 2 O 2 , 1,000 ppm chlorine dioxide, and 3,000 ppm peracetic acid). All test bacteria were grown in a 1:10 dilution of Columbia broth (with manganese) incubated at 37°C for 72 h. The spore suspensions, heat treated at 80°C for 10 min to rid them of any viable vegetative cells, contained 1 ؋ 10 8 to 3 ؋ 10 8 CFU/ml. The second tier of the quantitative carrier test (QCT-2), a standard of ASTM International, was used to assess for sporicidal activity, with disks (1 cm in diameter) of brushed and magnetized stainless steel as spore carriers. Each carrier, with 10 l (>10 6 CFU) of the test spore suspension in a soil load, was dried and then overlaid with 50 l of the sporicide being evaluated. The contact time at room temperature ranged from 5 to 20 min, and the arbitrarily set criterion for acceptable sporicidal activity was a reduction of >10 6 in viable spore count. Each test was repeated at least three times. In the final analysis, the spores of Bacillus licheniformis (ATCC 14580 T ) and Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 6051 T ) proved to be generally more resistant than the spores of the strains of B. anthracis tested. The use of one or both of the safe and easy-to-handle surrogates identified here should help in developing safer and more-effective sporicides and also in evaluating the field effectiveness of existing and newer formulations in the decontamination of objects and surfaces suspected of B. anthracis contamination.Bacillus anthracis, the etiologic agent of anthrax, is a sporeforming zoonotic pathogen (3). Its spores are hardy enough for weaponization and environmental dispersal (10); viable spores of the organism have been recovered after many decades from deliberately contaminated sites (6). The more-recent and malicious use of the spores of B. anthracis in the United States (14) clearly attests to the potential of this organism to cause mortality, morbidity, and general societal disruption and reemphasizes the importance of having available suitable remedial measures for countering any subsequent accidental or deliberate release of such spores.The biohazardous nature of B. anthracis mandates its handling in laboratories at biosafety level 3, also called containment level 3 (CL-3), in Canada. The availability of only a very limited number of such facilities seriously hampers experimentation with this increasingly significant pathogen, a recognized biothreat agent. This is especially true for developmental studies on decontamination agents, as such work is often conducted in settings without biosafety level 3 facilities. This study evaluated several potential bacterial surrogates for the spores of B. anthracis to enable a wider search for safer and more-effective liquid chemical sporicides to deal with the threat of anthrax. MATE...

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“…To determine the decontamination level or cleanup it is essential to address (i) public perception of risk to health, (ii) political support, (iii) public acceptance of recommendations based on scientific results and criteria, and (iv) economic concerns [35,36]. As described and defined in Chapter 4 the incubation period, infectious dose, and fatality rate for biological warfare agents differ significantly [37,38].…”

Section: ''Is Clean Clean Enough'' or ''How Clean Is Clean Enough''?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Principles and Practice of Disinfection of Biological Warfare Agents – How Clean is Clean Enough?

Richardt¹,

Hülseweh²

2013

CBRN Protection

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Decontamination issues for chemical and biological warfare agents: How clean is clean enough?

Cited by 70 publications

References 8 publications

Survival of genetically marked Escherichia coli O157:H7 in soil as affected by soil microbial community shifts

Survival of genetically marked Escherichia coli O157:H7 in soil as affected by soil microbial community shifts

Identification by Quantitative Carrier Test of Surrogate Spore-Forming Bacteria To Assess Sporicidal Chemicals for Use against Bacillus anthracis

Principles and Practice of Disinfection of Biological Warfare Agents – How Clean is Clean Enough?

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