CBRNe News October 2009

It’s an emergency!

Idaho Technology itself got approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for its JBAIDS systems to be used in the identification of H1N1. The Emergency Use Authorisation comes via the CBMS-JPEO for military units deployed in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dib dib dib...

Recon Robotics has also introduced its throwable robot for the SWAT and military markets. Looking like a jogging dumbbell, weighing 1.3 lbs, the Recon Scout XT is able to go over most terrain at speed with the operator using only a single joystick, and can feed video back up to 100ft indoors and 300ft outdoors. The XT is simpler, more rugged and lightweight that their existing Scout robot. While the XT is black, their new Scout Rescue is bright yellow and is to be used in search and rescue in confined and dangerous environments.

MedCM News

Emergent Biosolutions wins $4.9 million anthrax vaccine grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The grant is for dmPA7909, which was designed to meet the US need for an advanced anthrax vaccine that can provide a rapid immune response with long term stability.

Not such good news for prospective anthrax vaccine manufacturer Human Genome Science, however, they were questioned by the FDA as to whether it worked better than existing treatments. They have questioned the efficacy in humans because of the large amount of animal testing done – human testing was only done on safety, rather than efficacy against anthrax. Their ABthrax has not yet received regulatory approval, but this has not stopped DHS purchasing 20,000 doses for Emergency Use in the national stockpile.

Quoth the Raven – sarin!

Smiths Detection, meanwhile, has its eyes set on loftier heights as they work on UAV chemical detection. Working with ECBC and AeroVironment, manufacturer of the Raven UAV, they will contend with other companies in this field (such as Environics) to allow airborne early warning of chemical threats. Smiths was able, in a successful test at Dugway, to detect and identify a chemical plume using a cylindrical version of their LCD technology.

Smiths also announced it had an exclusive agreement to distribute GenPrime’s PrimeAlert system. Prime Alert is a biodetector that uses DNA fluorescence and antibody-based lateral flow technology. Previously marketed by Scott Health and Safety, it will be interesting to see whether they have more success. Smiths also announced another contract from the US TSA, this one worth $21.9 million for their RespondeR raman bottle scanner. The contract is part of the TSAs liquid screening program – Bottle Liquid Scanner (BLS) – and will be under an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity: which sounds like the best sort of contract to have!

Like Quicksilver…

Quicksilver announced that its CBRE Transport Case Sampling Kit and CBRE Hard Case Sampling Kit, and their training versions, are now available for purchase on GSA: www.gsaadvantage.gov .

Northrop’s new UK facility

Northrop Grumman officially opened its new UK manufacturing facility for UGVs. The site will work on Wheelbarrow and Cutlass – the UK’s next-generation UGV – and the site was opened by Lieutenant General Gary Coward, Chief of Materiel (Land).

Avon in Malaysia

Avon announced the opening of a new service centre in Malaysia to repair and support the Malaysian product lines. Meanwhile, the FM12 was chosen to be part of the Quick Don ensemble – which means that they retain their hold on the UK civil market. In further Avon news their FM53 received NIOSH approval under title 42, Part 84 (42 CFR 84). This included the CTF12 riot agent canister, under approval number TC-14G-0304, the ‘53’ has been a good product for Avon, and they are clearly hoping that they will be able to transfer their success into the civil market.

Mmmm, bendy...

Perhaps not News per se, but a neat product ‘discovered’ at Belcoast is Durr NDTs range of light, thin and, most importantly, flexible image plates to be used with their (or other peoples) X ray devices. In most demonstrations the bag, or device, is usually conveniently placed in the middle of the floor, making X-ray interrogation easy. Durr’s image plates are able to flex around corners – to be placed in overhead plane luggage bays, for example - come in a range of sizes, and can be combined on a fleece wall for larger images.

#37!

Behind that rather arbitrary number is a rather big achievement for a CBRN company, as ICx was chosen as one of Deloitte Touche’s Fast 500 companies, and came in at number 37 - the only CBRN company to do so. Deloitte announced that ICx had had a 5,518 per cent growth over the past five years - a period that saw them grow from a revenue of US$3m dollars to $171m! While not quite as stratospheric as ReachLocal, the #1 company which had a 146,050 per cent increase in the same period, it does confirm their position as a company to watch.

Part of this increase has been a $3.6 million contract with PFPA for their Griffin and ChemSense range of instruments. The GC/MS and MS/MS contract will last 12 months and, interestingly, is via the PEO for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation.

Decon station

Cristanini announced it has started an “important co-operation” with the Danish procurement agency for a deployable decon field station. This military system will join the civilian variant already in service with the Danish Department of Homeland Security.

You Ponce!

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have developed what they think it a high speed test to deal with biological contamination detection. Adrian Ponce within JPL has used a method using dipicolonic acid as a trigger for a luminescing effect on terbium - terbium is the chemical that generates the colour green on television screens. Once the dipicolnic acid and the terbium connect the colour change can be seen under a UV lamp – this colour change is symptomatic of live endospores. As with anything that does contamination detection (especially bio) if it works it will be truly revolutionary to the industry.

Threat Watch

Yes, it is mustard... It does burn...

Legacy WW1 (and later) shells routinely wash up, or get caught in trawler nets, around the Welsh, Cornish and Irish coast, so it should have come as no surprise that when a shell, marked as mustard, is blown up on Whitesands Beach in the Gower, South Wales, that it contains mustard. Two members of the EOD team that did not take precautions were later treated at hospital for mustard burns. Presumably this has to happen every decade or so to remind people that mustard has an exceptionally long ‘Use By’ date.

Nunn-Lugar gets bigger

The final US Defence Authorisation Bill is to have language very similar to the Nunn-Lugar treaty contained within it to be able to deal with the threat of bio terrorism. This would mean that the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Improvement Act would have more flexibility to meet unexpected threats and to be able to act in countries where certain laws would bar the use of such funds. There is also likely to be a $20 million increase in the $424 million requested for Nunn-Lugar to deal with the bio threat.

Libya joins the ‘Demil is harder than we thought’ Club

Libya has been forced to ask for more time to destroy their chemical stockpile of 25 tons of mustard. They already have until April 2012, but their decision not to have the US high-temperature incinerator, or it could be further Libyan finangling over the amount of financial assistance that it should receive.

Oh god, he didn’t say foolproof did he?

Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal was breezily confident when discussing the preparations for the international ‘Commonwealth Games’ in 2010: “'Delhi has successfully organized various international meets. […] Not only [for the] Games but we are looking at the security of the city holistically. We are working in close coordination with various agencies.

We have a foolproof security plan in place.' (Reported Mangalorean.com). This is a bold boast indeed considering the security concerns that were raised from the Mumbai attack and the sheer number of terrorist groups that would love to have a go at the games. The Police force have created Quick response Teams and also teams to deal with chemical, biological, radiological, radiological and nuclear weapons.

Please forward any items for consideration in this section to the editor, Gwyn Winfield This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it