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  Research Highlights

Analytical Methods for Chemical Warfare Agent Degradation Products

Image: Laboratory equipment used to analyze samples for CWA degradation products in air or surface matrices.
Chemical warfare agents (CWAs) have been used in the past to incapacitate and kill, and their potential use in a homeland security incident is a concern. Many CWAs don’t persist in the environment but quickly degrade into other harmful substances. EPA has several suggested methods for analyzing CWAs and their degradation products in environmental matrices, but most of these methods have not been validated. EPA has teamed up with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and others to support development of additional analytical methods for air and surface matrices. 

The effort to develop these standardized analytical methods addresses concerns from state and federal agencies, particularly public health and environmental laboratories, to ensure that analysis can be performed accurately, efficiently, and safely. The standardized and validated analytical methods identify requirements for the most appropriate determinative techniques, analyses of environmental matrices, instrument calibration, detection limits, and performance metrics. They also identify associated interferences.

Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS) is currently being used by NIOSH to analyze matrices such as air and surfaces. EPA will work collaboratively with NIOSH to use the existing LC/MS methods and extend them to the CWA degradation products. EPA wants to extend the methods first to the most persistent and toxic CWA degradation products. Methods developed from the collaboration between EPA and NIOSH will be standardized, validated, published, and used as guidance for laboratories in need of methods to analyze for CWA degradation products in air or surface matrices. These methods will provide the means to ensure environmental contamination has been remediated to adequate levels. These methods may also be evaluated for inclusion in subsequent editions of the EPA’s Standardized Analytical Methods for Environmental Restoration Following Homeland Security Events (SAM).

Project Progress

EPA has signed an interagency agreement with NIOSH and has begun work on a Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP). Method development is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2007. The project should near completion by early 2008. EPA hopes to tie in the method development at NIOSH with other Agency-wide method development projects so that all environmental matrices of concern are addressed. As a result of this collaborative work, additional research needs may become apparent.

For more information, visit the NIOSH Web site.

See Also
Standardized Analytical Methods for Environmental Restoration Following Homeland Security Events Revision 4.0 (PDF) (266 pp, 10.1 MB) (EPA/600/R-04/126D) September 2008

Contact: Erin Silvestri

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