Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats-Decontamination technologies and recent patents: A review

Abstract

With the increase in the intensity of threats perception and possibility of mass casualties in case of a chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) emergency, there is a need to develop novel and effective systems for decontamination. The natural calamity in Japan leading to world's most critical nuclear emergency exposed lack of decontamination formulation and technologies globally. There is a need to develop novel and effective systems for decontamination as the current technologies are expensive and cannot be used by victim themselves. Decontamination formulations that can be used by victims themselves are need of time. The review gives a brief introduction about the various CBRN agents and a concise discussion about the decontamination technologies available globally. The article also provides a review of the existing patents on the methods, equipment/devices used in CBRN decontamination. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.