Wetenschapsforum

U.S. Army scientists have invented a new cleaning product that can decontaminate surfaces tainted with nerve gas, anthrax spores and other nasty substances — and they say it’s environmentally friendly to boot.


Until now, chemical and biological warfare agents such as mustard gas, the nerve agent VX, anthrax spores or radioactive isotopes have each required their own cleaning agents, says research chemist George Wagner of the U.S. Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in Aberdeen, Md. “There wasn’t really any broad-spectrum decontaminant,” he says. And some of the cleaners that are typically used, such as products containing chlorine bleach, aren’t very environmentally friendly.


So Wagner and his colleagues set out to make a general purpose, greener cleaner. After a decade in the test kitchen, they came up with Decon Green. Not only does Decon Green work — “If the decontaminant comes into contact with the agent, it will destroy it,” says Wagner — but it’s also environmentally friendlier than the disinfectants it is meant to replace.


“Everything just seems to click with this one system,” Wagner says.


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Lees verder: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id...evelopers_claim


Bron: Science news