European Defense Agency (EDA) Research

Risk Assessment for CB Exposure after Decontamination (RACED) - European Defense Agency (EDA) 2^d Joint Investment Programme on CBRN Issues (JIP-CBRN2)

In military protection against chemical and biological (CB) warfare agents, decontamination is a crucial step. In case of exposed surfaces, this process aims at removing chemical and biological hazards from equipment, vehicles, buildings and outdoor areas. Essential for successful response to an attack involving CB agents is to recover contaminated surfaces into assets sufficiently clean to return for use. Ideally, decontamination is quick, extremely thorough and environmentally inert.

However, removal of the last molecule or last viable cell is utopic. This does not need to be a danger, as long as the remaining number of agent molecules or viable cells is below a critical level and does not pose a health hazard. The challenge is to obtain insight into the status decontaminated objects with regard to the remaining hazard. This exactly formulates the problem the RACED project intents to tackle. In an operational military setting it is not possible to assess the remaining hazard. Moreover, even in state-of-art laboratories it is very difficult to measure the residual contamination after a standard decontamination procedure. And even if residual contamination is known, it is not possible to relate that to the remaining health hazard, let alone how to handle the forthcoming risk. The overall challenge can subsequently be formulated as: the need to find out how much of what is left, how that can reach and affect humans and how can that risk be managed.

To counteract this cascade of challenges, RACED takes the following staged approach: 1. Decontaminate a representative number of CB agents / surfaces by standard means and procedures. 2. To apply state-of-the art analytical and micro/molecular biological assays to identify and quantify residual agent. 3. Simulate and understand transport from decontaminated surface to exposure of human airways and skin. 4. Relate exposure to toxicity and infectiousness, respectively. 5. Design a risk profile and identify measures to mitigate or at least manage those risks.

The end-result is a risk management tool that allows the operational decision maker to rationally and confidently declare an asset clean, or to re-launch a decontamination step or to abandon an asset as too dangerously contaminated to maintain. In achieving this, RACED will deliver a crucial contribution towards answering the how-clean-is-clean paradigm.

EBLN - European Biodefense Laboratory Network

The objective of this project is to contribute to the establishment of a laboratory network and common genetic database. The project will improve the EU capability to verify the use of biological agents (B – agents) in the military and civil context such as international regulations, e.g. BTWC (Biological and Toxin Weapon Convention). In the case of a suspected use of B-agents, unambiguous identification of the agent has to be performed. The forensic proof of use of these agents must be such that it cannot be refuted. Microbial forensics has been implemented in the US to ascertain whether an event was natural or intentional and to verify the intentional use of B-agents. Currently, Europe has capability gaps caused by a lack of coordination, standardization, and evaluation of methods to detect, identify type B-agents. Coordinated efforts will contribute to discourage B-terrorism and improve European bio defense capabilities. Identifying agents and sources in a forensic context relies on a spectrum of features, including epidemiological data and high-resolution analysis. A secure database on B-agents will be established (e.g. sample handling and processing, detection and diagnostic methods, genome sequence and other typing data) to further strengthen the European bio defense capability. In addition, implementation of technical developments in terms of more rapid analysis and higher resolution will be pursued. Sharing experiences on standardization and quality controls are also essential elements of the project. Creation of a strategic European bio defense network around the database based on agent specific expertise will be the end results of the project.