CBRNe News March 2010
Product Watch
Pittcon 2010
Pittcon, for those that don’t know it, is largely lab based equipment – and lots of it, about 1,000 stands and 30,000 delegates - but here and there are some absolute chemical gems. The Editors first pick would be 1st Detect - www.1stdetect.com – with their manportable ion trap mass spectrometer (which has recently had $1.8 million pumped into it by the Texan Emerging Technology Fund).
As opposed to other systems this is properly manportable, weighing in at 7kg and able to be held in the hand like other chemical detectors - Raid,
Third prize would probably go to Delta Nu for their range of raman detectors, especially their Rapid ID - another competitor seeking to unhorse Ahura (now of course Thermo Scientific) as lead runner in the raman race. Indeed Pittcon was a wealth of raman detectors, all with their own unique selling point – Perkins Elmer with their Identicheck, and InPhotonics with their Inphotote, for example. The Editor was out-nerded by many orders of magnitude...
A play with four acts...
Smiths Detection launched their Bio-Act a ‘complete emergency response assessment solution’ for identification of bio agents. Bio-Act is a collection of some of their established products, as well as some new ones, so old boys Bio-Seeq Plus and Hazmat ID Ranger have been joined by the relative new boy of Prime Alert and now also by BioCheck - a ‘best in class’ protein assay.
Smiths believe that this gives the user the ability to quickly determine the threat level, though it is, in many respects, a compendium of products – rather than anything revolutionary.
Million mask man
Avon Protection presented the millionth S10 respirator to General Sir Kevin O’Donogjue – the
Striding into the airport
ICx announced that they had completed the initial portion of the radiation detection testing for DHS’ Domestic Nuclear Detection Office and their International Commercial Aviation Passenger and Baggage (Pax/Bag) Pilot program.
As part of their field test multiple Stride detectors were installed at
Alpha and Omega
BPSI claimed to have surpassed 100,000 hours of operation with zero false alarms. Their Sentry One CBRN detection system has been designed to work in buildings, mass transit stations and public venues and they seem dashed proud of it too.
Sadly the press release didn’t state whether the hours had been spent in a laboratory on the field, what the environment was, or whether there had been any testing done to ensure that the system was working. CBRNe World will try and find out more…
Turkish lab
Spanish company Indra notched up a contract to provide the Turkish Ministry of Defence with a CBRN mobile lab. $4 million contract has to be executed in 18 months and also includes logistic support and training - local partner Nirol will provide many of the mechanical tasks involved in the contract. This is in addition to a contract from the EDA for the definition of a future European Command and Control system to tackle CBRNE threats.
Indra will be involved in the development of technical and operational requirements as well as architecture for the future system. It will also be able to represent the operation scenario graphically and to enable the different responding units with timely CBRN information.
Office politics
Following the trend of comments in the Winter edition about the need to set up a European office, Bruker Detection (new name, same kit! Detection being less scary than Daltoniks in the
Threat Watch
Leaky…
The James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies – and if you don’t know it I would recommend it (www.cns.miis.edu) released a report on the state of Iraq’s chemical legacy and the challenges it faces in destroying it - now that it is signed up to the CWC. Some of the munitions were damaged by allied bombing - presumably on purpose! - and other have been badly stored there will be numerous challenges involved in the safe handling and storage of the agent.
No doubt this will be handed to a contractor, but in a volatile environment like
Not just the US
Just to show that it is not only in the
Let the train take the strain
The British government warned that a new rail line might be at risk from anthrax or plague! The new Crossrail line, that will provide
Yeah, yeah, course you do...
Afghan Regional Commander, Mullah Doud, stated to the British Daily Express: 'We use anthrax so when a bomb explodes it produces a toxic cloud.'" This has been cited as a cause for concern for British troops, yet still has the old delivery system problem – taleban mortar fire is notoriously poor – and there is little proof to back up the same old claims.
Where was our invite!
The editor fumed when he realized he had missed a CBRN conference held in
Woo-woo, gravy train is leaving town
The World at Risk report required the Commission to provide a report card, on how the
The US received an F grade, rather than a fail, and this has resulted – please suspend all disbelief – in Jim Talent and Bob Graham, the former Senators, in starting a non-profit organisation: The Bipartisan WMD Research Center. This is very exciting, finally a chance for pork-barrel money for all those other underpaid research institutions… Time to get greased up and get down to the trough.
Not just the US
Just to show that it is not only in the
Not only that but he was a white supremacist too! He ticks all the boxes - BINGO! Sadly these are dangerous idiots with an agenda, and, as hapless as they might be, eventually they will get lucky…
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