Chemical
Officials with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Tucson Office of Field Operations recently hosted a two-day conference for law enforcement personnel on the dangers of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Held at the headquarters of the Tucson Police Department, the event featured... Read More »
Hamid Ali Rao, Deputy Director-General for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), recently participated in a ceremony marking the completion of the full destruction of 39,967 metric tons of chemical weapons previously possessed by the Russian Federation.
Largely... Read More »
With the awarding of a contract from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), Bavarian Nordic A/S will be the sole source for the freeze-dried IMVAMUNE smallpox vaccine to the U.S. government.
The contract with BARDA, which operates as part of the U.S. Department of... Read More »
The Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, made a statement Wednesday marking the destruction of the remainder of the chemical weapons possessed by the Russian Federation.
“The completion of the verified destruction of... Read More »
A plan to protect subways in the event of a chemical or biological attack is ready to be put into place and implemented, scientists say.
Mark Tucker, engineer at Sandia National Laboratories, is leading a project to study how to decontaminate chemical and biological weapons attacks, such as... Read More »
Testing for anthrax could soon become a lot quicker, as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced it is in the midst of researching a point-of-care diagnostic test that could determine infection within 15 minutes.
The test determines whether a patient has been infected with... Read More »
The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), in tandem with the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation’s NTP Radioisotopes SOC Ltd (NTP), recently completed conversion of its molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) production process from highly-enriched uranium (HEU), which is frequently used for... Read More »
Police in Bristol, England recently used chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) response training simulators from Argon Electronics for a hazardous material (HazMat) training exercise.
The exercise required participants to provide security for a half-marathon event. While the... Read More »
A five-year, $171 million contract was recently awarded to Emergent BioSolutions by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to supply the company’s Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion kit (RSDL), which protects human skin from chemical warfare agents and the T-2 toxin, for use by all branches of... Read More »
Two genes called Fut9 and SLc35c1, which regulate the metabolism of a particular sugar in cells, are responsible for making ricin so lethal to humans, according to a recently conducted study by researchers from the Austrian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA).
The... Read More »
Emergent BioSolutions said on Monday it has been awarded a contract valued at approximately $63 million by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) for the development of the first antidote spray device for treatment of acute cyanide poisoning.
The single-use... Read More »
A training event focusing on hazardous chemical incident response was recently held for Latin American and Caribbean first responders in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, managed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Part of the Exercise of Assistance and Protection for Latin... Read More »
Available now to the buying public is Reactive Skin Decontamination Lotion (RSDL) from Emergent BioSolutions, a lotion that protects human skin against chemical warfare agents (CWAs).
Specifically, RSDL, which was previously only available to the military, is a patented, broad-spectrum liquid... Read More »
Speaking at a recent meeting of the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü highlighted the successes of the OPCW and reaffirmed its resolve to eliminate all chemical weapons through the Chemical... Read More »
Legal representatives from Ghana, Djibouti, and Benin recently participated in an Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)-sponsored internship program aimed at providing insight for drafting country-specific national legislation related to the implementation of the Chemical... Read More »
Start-ups and small biotech companies are the most-promising developers for new medical countermeasures for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats, but they face serious challenges, according to Battelle's Senior Market Manager for Medical and CBRN Products Russell Coleman.... Read More »
The Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC), part of the U.S. Army’s Research Development and Engineering Command, recently unveiled its newly-renovated chemical agent explosives chamber at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland.
The facility is now the only location in the... Read More »
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) recently exercised an option with Soligenix, Inc. to fund its good manufacturing practices-compliant ricin vaccine, called RiVax, bulk drug substance and finished drug product manufacturing in order to conduct future preclinical... Read More »
As dangerous opioids like fentanyl continue to be an increasing issue for law enforcement, Smiths Detection, Inc. (SDI) recently announced that it has adapted three of its technologies in order to detect and identify fentanyl to limit officers’ exposure to the drug on duty.
Unlike more common... Read More »
Thirty-two chemistry professionals representing 15 Latin American and Caribbean signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) recently convened for a chemical safety and security management training event in Mexico City, Mexico.
According to the Organization for the Prohibition of... Read More »
The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), recently launched a new challenge in August aimed at developing algorithms to accurately predict the changes seen in a chemical’s infrared (IR) spectrum caused by... Read More »
Thirty-two participants representing 31 Member States of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) recently convened at the organization’s headquarters in The Hague for the 18th edition of its flagship chemical capacity-building associate program.
In his opening speech,... Read More »
Emergent Biosolutions said on Monday it has been awarded a contract worth approximately $23 million from the Medical Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Defense Consortium (MCDC) for the development of an innovative multi-drug auto injector for nerve agent antidote... Read More »
Representatives of National Authorities from African State Parties recently convened at a regional meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in Banjul, Gambia to discuss successes and challenges related to the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention... Read More »
More than 300 public safety professionals representing 20 African nations convened in Khartoum, Sudan for an educational event hosted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), where participants trained in various aspects of response operations, radiological hazards, and emergency public... Read More »
Battelle recently received a Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) Homeland Defense and Security Technical Area Task (HD TAT) award with a total value of $13,781,575 to support the National Guard Bureau’s (NGB) Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Division initiative.
The... Read More »
The International Space Station’s (ISS) microgravity environment could provide a means of improving the understanding of toxic nerve agents, such as sarin and VX, and how to combat them, according to a researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-supported Countermeasures Against... Read More »
Fifteen analytical chemists representing Latin American and Caribbean member states to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), recently convened at the Laboratory for the Verification of Chemical Weapons (LAVEMA) in Madrid, Span for a two-week training course on the analysis of controlled chemical... Read More »
The Florida State Department of Health recently entered into a data use agreement and analytics agreement with the University of North Carolina (UNC) to officially join the National Collaborative for Bio-Preparedness (NCBP), a network which aims improve national preparedness for biohazard-related... Read More »
A group of 24 first responders representing 15 Asian Member States to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) recently convened in Tehran, Iran for a training course on emergency assistance and protection against chemical weapons.
The course, which was organized by the Organization for the... Read More »
Medical first responders engaged in emergent chemical incident simulations last month during a training course designed to educate first responders in emergency medical situations involving toxic chemical contamination held in Madrid, Spain and hosted by the Organization for the Prohibition of... Read More »
According to a recent update conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Department of Defense (DOD) has identified an infrastructure manager for the chemical and biological defense program (CBDP) and is in the process of developing the position’s roles and responsibilities.... Read More »
Representatives of customs agencies from member states to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) recently convened at the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to consider improvements to the CWC’s transfer regime during a three-day training seminar.
In... Read More »
During an official visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran on July 2-3, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü reiterated the need to protect and strengthen the global norm against the use of chemical weapons and paid homage to the victims of... Read More »
After the completion of a fact-finding mission (FFM) from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the organization recently confirmed the use of sarin gas on April 4 in the Khan Shaykhun area, Idlib Province in the Syrian Arab Republic.
OPCW’s final report was... Read More »
