Gas detector kits

Office of the Chief, Chemical Warfare Service, New Gas Detector Kit, Washington DC CWS (12 September 1944), Information. 

Column (12) refers to the standard nerve gas or N.G. test obtainable with the vapour detector kit supplied by the Home Office. 

The major changes that are required are the installation of a capillary injector and the addition of make-up gas for the detector. Kits for this purpose are available from lab supply houses, and McMurtrey and Knight [13] have described the construction of a homemade one. The easiest conversion is from packed columns to wide-bore columns [14] Jennings [IS] has discussed the procedure in detail. The conversion is rather simple as a minimum, all one needs are some fittings and tubing. These columns are useable with thermal conductivity detectors [16] as well as flame ionization detectors. 

The Vends MX4 multi-gas detector is the perfect instm-ment for use in confined spaces. Its optional, integral pump is powerful, yet lightweight, and is capable of drawing samples from up to 100 feet. Confined space kits are also available to meet the needs of multiple confined space applications. Learn more at www.indsci.com/ vends. Industrial Scientific, wwwindscijcomiventis, (8(X)) DETECTS. Circle 266... 

By March 1942 a number of blister gas detectors, all of which were based on color changes in a dye base and had their origins in British and American developments in 1918, had been standardized. They included the M4 vapor detector kit, capable of registering even faint concentrations of nitrogen and sulphur mustards M5 liquid vesicant detector paint M6 liquid vesicant detector paper and M7 vesicant detector crayon, sensitive to mustard and lewisite. Although the CWS had not discovered a better dye base than that developed by the British, NDRC chemists at the University of Chicago, at the University of Virginia, and at Ohio State improved its composition and developed new detector materials. ... 

In addition to large quantities of service equipment, toxic agents, and raw chemicals the CWS in World War II procured a variety of defensive and offensive munitions. Included among the defensive items were the gas masks, impregnite, impregnating plants, protective ointment, detector kits, decontaminating apparatus and such miscellaneous items as shoe impregnite and dust respirators. 

Problems of manufacture of CWS defensive items sprang chiefly from the attempt to put items that had not been fully developed into mass production. Of all these items the gas mask had been developed to the greatest degree, yet the pressure to produce new models during the war gave rise to many manufacturing difficulties. Such items as protective ointments, detector kits, and decontaminating apparatus were at primitive states of development when the CWS awarded production contracts for them. Development of these items proceeded simultaneously with their production. 

The analysis scheme implemented at the Cos Cob site used three sets of tools hand-held test kits, an on-site mobile laboratory equipped with gas chromatograph/ electron capture detector (GC/ECD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and an off-site laboratory with rapid turnaround capabilities (<48 h for virtually all analyses). By implementing all of these tools at the same time, the project eliminated the need for multiple sampling events and allowed the team to perform additional real-time sampling, enabling the team to delineate the extent of potential hot spots quickly. 

Lewisite is reported to possess a characteristic (geraniumlike) odor in the range of 0.8 mg/m to more commonly cited 14-23 mg/m median detection (Pechura and Rail, 1993). US forces have detectors for lewisite-paper and kits (M7 and M9A). Other forensic techniques for soil and material analysis already exists (e.g. gas chromatography). In biological tissues, increased arsenic levels are a surrogate for lewisite (Haddad and Wincester, 1983). 

The M18 detection kit and the M256A1 kit are mihtary items. The M18 is a colorimetric device for measuring the concentration of selected airborne chemicals. The Ml8 comes with detector tubes for cyanide, phosgene. Lewisite, sulfur mustard, and nerve agents GA, GB, GD, and VX. 

For gas chromatography with a thermal conductivity detector, it is possible to collect samples that have passed through the column. One method uses a gas-collection tube (see Figure 22.10), which is included in most microscale glassware kits. A collection tube is joined to the exit port of the column by inserting the fS/S inner joint into a metal adapter, which is connected to the exit port. When a sample is eluted from the column in the vapor state, it is cooled by the connecting adapter and the gas-collection tube and condenses in the collection tube. The gas-collection tube is removed from the adapter when the recorder indicates that the desired sample has completely passed through the column. After the first sample has been collected, the process can be repeated with another gas-collection tube. 

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