Chemical warfare agents, storage sites

Several military bases contaminated with chemical-warfare agents as a result of storage and past disposal practices are slated to be closed pursuant to the Base Realignment and Closure Act. Before those military bases can be transferred to civilian use, contaminated soil and water must be cleaned to levels that are considered safe. To help make decisions on restoration required at contaminated sites and on the potential uses of the former military installations (e.g., for housing, occupational, or wildlife purposes), the U.S. Army developed interim chronic oral reference doses and, where appropriate, oral slope factors for six chemical-warfare agents that are likely to be encountered at contaminated sites. Similar information for inhalation exposure is under development. 

Medical officers with assignments to U.S. Army depots or other installations storing chemical warfare agents face a number of unique challenges. Not only will newly assigned general medical officers provide patient care to both military and civilian workers, they will also have a myriad of additional duties unique to chemical weapons storage sites. 

Decontamination of chemical warfare agents, such as the nerve gas, VX, is required in a variety of situations including battlefields, laboratories, storage facilities, and destruction sites. Most research has dealt with battlefield decontamination due to the speed and ease of use of a decontaminant required in this situation. Because of the requirements of battlefield decontamination, reactive inorganic powders have been widely explored as possible catalysts for CWA decontamination. Studies have been performed examining the neutralization of VX on nanosized MgO (5), nanosized CaO (2), AgY (9), and nanosized AI2O3 (7) and other similar compounds on nanosized MgO (79). 

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