Mustard detection

Mobile colorless liquid with a pungent odor like mustard detectable at 0.8 ppm. This material is hazardous through inhalation, skin absorption, penetration through broken skin, and ingestion, and produces local skin/eye impacts. Acts synergistically with alcohol in blood. 

R-Biopharm AG has released a qualitative, real-time PCR mustard detection kit, the SureFood Allergen Mustard Kit [10]. The kit targets and amplifies a DNA fragment present in S. alba. The sensitivity of the system is reported to be approximately 10 mg of mustard per kilogram of sample. No cross-reactivity to other plant species has been reported. 

Malmheden-Yman I, Almgren J, Kruse B, Perm M (2008). Mustard detection in food samples. National Food Administration, Uppsala, Sweden. Poster presented at the Fifth Workshop on Food Allergen Methodologies, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, May 2008. 

Carbon disulfide [75-15-0] (carbon bisulfide, dithiocarbonic anhydride), CS2, is a toxic, dense liquid of high volatiUty and fiammabiUty. It is an important industrial chemical and its properties are well estabUshed. Low concentrations of carbon disulfide naturally discharge into the atmosphere from certain soils, and carbon disulfide has been detected in mustard oil, volcanic gases, and cmde petroleum. Carbon disulfide is an unintentional by-product of many combustion and high temperature industrial processes where sulfur compounds are present. 

An excellent reagent for detection and quantitative estimation of the mustards is j -nitrobenzylpyridine (11). On treatment of the reaction product with alkah a blue color appears, which detects as Httie as 0.1 p.g of mustard. 

Parasorbic acid (Figure 2) was isolated from fruits of Sorbus aucuparia. Germination of mustard seed Sinapis alba) was affected adversely by parasorbic acid at 3.5 X 10-3 M and growth of excised tomato roots was inhibited at approximately 8.5 X 10 4 M (25). The acid also antagonized indoleacetic acid (IAA) in the Avena assay. Cornman 29,30) reported that parasorbic acid slowed down mitosis. Metaphase stages were observed to accumulate, but abnormalities were not detected. 

In a Food and Dmg Administration (FDA) summary of the levels of pesticides in ready-to-eat foods in the 10-year period from 1982 to 1991, methyl parathion was found 12 times in 8 kinds of food, at an average concentration of 0.0035 ppm (Kan-Do Office and Pesticides Team 1995). A 5-year analysis of domestic and imported foods and animal feeds for the years 1982-1986 detected 94 samples out of 19,851 total samples that contained methyl parathion (Hundley et al. 1988). Eighty-nine of the samples had concentrations in the range of 0.05-0.5 ppm, and five had levels ranging from 1.0 to 2.0 ppm. Methyl parathion was found in celery, citms, coriander, cantaloupe, Chinese peas, hay, alfalfa feed, Italian squash, lettuce, mustard greens, okra, parsley, peppers, spinach, strawberries, tomatillos, and tomatoes. 

The dearrangement of phenylthiourea may be demonstrated very simply by heating a small quantity of the material in a test-tube. It undergoes a violent decomposition slightly above its melting-point, the odors of ammonia, of aniline, and of phenyl mustard oil may be detected, and the residue which consists largely of sym.-diphenylthiourea gives with ferric chloride the a ed color characteristic of thiocyanic acid. 

Brinkley et al. demonstrated89 a simple to use, easy to interpret, low cost, and environmentally friendly colorimetric detector of the chemical warfare agent - mustard gas (HD, l,l-thiobis(2-chloroethane)). An optically transparent xerogel encapsulating Cu(II) acetate was fabricated to detect HD analogues and can serve as the optical sensor based on metal-ligand charge-transfer mechanism. 

Pure vesicants have little or no odor. However impurities can give them an easily detectable and identifiable smell. The odor of sulfur vesicants has been described as similar to garlic, horseradish, onions, or mustard. The odor of nitrogen vesicants has been described as fishy, fruity, musty, or even soap-like. 

Recently, sulfur mustard has been shown to alkylate a cysteine residue in human serum albumin (10). The site of alkylation was identified in a tryptic digest of albumin from blood exposed to [14C]sulfur mustard. A sensitive method for its analysis was developed based on Pronase digestion of alkylated albumin to the tripeptide S-[2-[(hydroxyethyl)thio]ethyl-Cys-Pro-Phe, and detection using micro-LC-MS-MS. In vitro exposure of human blood to > 10 nM sulfur mustard could be detected employing this method. The analytical procedure was successfully applied to albumin samples from Iranian casualties of the Iraq-Iran war. 

Van der Schans, G.P., Scheffer, A.G., Mars-Groenendijk, R.H., Fidder, A., Benschop, H.P., and Baan, R.A. (1994). Immunochemical detection of adducts of sulfur mustard to DNA of calf thymus and human white blood cells. Chem. Res. Toxicol., 7, 408-413. 

Noort, D., Fidder, A., Hulst, A.G., Wooffitt, A.R., Ash, D., and Barr, J.R. (2004). Retrospective detection of exposure to sulfur mustard improvements on an assay for liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry analysis of albumin-sulfur mustard adducts. J. Anal. Toxicol., 28, 333-338. 

For less well defined incidents however, these detection systems may be inadequate. Portable chemical detectors may not be able to be deployed to the site, not detect the agen, or give inconclusive results. Clinical findings may be non-specific, present in an atypical manner, or for example in the case of sulphur mustard, have a latency period that delays firm pattern recognition. Due to the physico-chemical properties of the agent or the time between release and collection, environmental samples may have low agent levels or sufficiently high contaminants to prevent adequate results. 

Clinical signs and symptoms from mustard (H/HD) are not apparent until hours later skin blisters might not appear for up to twenty-four hours, but tissue damage occurs within two minutes. If decontamination is not done within the first two minutes after exposure, nothing can be done to prevent a mustard injury. Since mustard (H/HD) can be detected by human beings by smell in concentrations of 0.6 to 1.0 mg/m3 as a garlic, horseradish, or mustard odor an alert person will most likely smell the mustard vapor before encountering the liquid. 

Thioether. Mustard agent received its name because of garlic, horseradish, or mustard odor that can be detected by smell. The human nose can detect mustard (H, HD) in concentrations of 0.6 to 1.0 mg/m3. It must be understood that until recently, the U.S. military had no automatic vapor/liquid detection capability. Therefore, alert soldiers would most likely smell the agent vapor before encountering the liquid (after release, H or HD appears as a thick, colorless or pale yellow liquid HL, or mustard/lewisite mixture, appears as a dark oily cloud that can be detected visually). 

Automatic Continuous Air Monitoring System (ACAMS) This system can detect G agents, VX, or mustard agents at very low levels. It is an automatic gas chromatograph that first collects agent on a solid sorbent and then thermally desorbs the agents into a separation column for analysis. 

M90 Automatic Agent Detector (AMAD) An automatic nerve and mustard agent detector that detects agents in vapor form. It transmits an alarm by radio to a central alarm unit. It is currently used in the Air Force. 

Support Function Protective Clothing for Hazardous Chemicals Operations - NFPA 1993. Quincy, MA. Technical Bulletin - Assay Techniques for Detection of Exposure To Sulfur Mustard, Cholinesterase Inhibitors, Terrorism Incident Annex to the Federal Response Plan. Washington, D.C. 1995. 

Acoustic wave sensors are also used to detect nerve and blister agents. The surface acoustic wave chemical agent detector (SAW Mini-CAD) is a commercially available, pocket-sized instrument that can monitor for trace levels of toxic vapors of sulfur-based mustard agents (e.g., distilled mustard) and G nerve agents (e.g., tabun, sarin, soman) with a high degree of specificity. Colorimetric tubes are the... 

Releases of thiocyanate to soil result from anthropogenic and natural sources. Anthropogenic releases occur primarily from direct application in herbicidal formulations (e.g., amitrol-T, a mixture of ammonium thiocyanate and amino-1,2,4-triazole) and from disposal as byproducts from industrial processes. Nonanthropogenic sources include damaged or decaying tissues of plants from the family Brassica (e.g., mustard, rape) (Brown and Morra 1993). Thiocyanate has been detected in soil samples collected at 2 of the 8 hazardous waste sites, and in sediment samples at 3 of the 8 hazardous waste sites where thiocyanate has been detected in some medium (HazDat 1996). The HazDat information used includes data from both NPL and other Superfund sites. 

The drug melphalan (phenylalanine mustard, 11.33, R = R = Cl) is another good example of a nitrogen mustard that undergoes hydrolytic dechlorination. Melphalan administered to cancer patients gives rise to the monohydroxy (11.33, R = Cl, R = OH) and dihydroxy metabolites (11.33, R = R = OH), which were detected in the plasma with a combined AUC (area-under-the-curve) amounting to 29% of the AUC of the drug [68],... 

Colorless, mobile liquid with a pungent, mustard-like odor at high concentrations. At low concentrations, odor resembles that of ethyl alcohol. Katz and Talbert (1930) and Dravnieks (1974) reported experimental detection odor threshold concentrations of 3.3 mg/m (1.4 ppmv) and 5 mg/m (2.1 ppmv), respectively. 

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