Commentary on Watson et al.'s Articles on Airport Remediation Following a Chemical Terrorist Attack.

It was an honor to be associated in the review process with the work done by Dr. Watson and co-authors (2011a,b) on the first-time, open-literature documentation of multi-pathway, health-based remediation exposure guidelines for toxic industrial compounds and chemical warfare agents in preparation for a terrorist attack. Such preliminary planning is vital to the country's security. One would imagine that all colleges and universities that provide environmental/engineering and public health programs would be interested in what can be considered a “beginning” document for this type of planning. Military facilities may be particularly interested in this approach for teaching purposes. This study may serve as a template for other site-specific planning profiles that are, unfortunately, necessary today.

The most current information from the literature was used in this analysis. For example, recent research by Love and co-workers (2009, in press) was especially appropriate since, through their work on properties of wall surfaces, identifying porous surfaces for rapid decontamination to reduce the potential for adherence and absorption is possible. Love , in press) found different timeframes in adherence/persistence of compounds to different wall coverings: “Materials evaluated included stainless steel, glass, latex-painted wall board and vinyl tile. This persistence study was designed in part to identify materials that should be targeted for application of rigorous, compound-specific active decontamination and containment or potential removal” (pg. 20). Using such data, remediation of various areas can be prioritized and, more importantly perhaps, new buildings could require the best materials for safety.

Lessons learned from the Tokyo subway terrorist incident and other incidents were a useful addition. Full operation was restored in Tokyo 24 hours after release of nerve agent GB and a liquid chlorine release in South Carolina was cleaned up within 16 days. Such statistics demonstrate the possibility of fast return to normal operations when appropriate actions are identified through early planning. Contributors to a small number of deaths during these events include pre-planning development of decision criteria and advance exercises. Planning operations indicated in the Watson et al. articles could be used as a template for response planning to terrorist incidents.

In addition, work from Yang and co-workers (Yang 1995, 1999; Yang , 1994) on half-lives was used to predict the presence of chemicals and metabolites.

This coordination of a new (Watson ,b) investigation with recently published chemical, behavioral, and remediation data allowed for combining known parameters relative to early planning, toxicity and remediation decisions, and assigning priorities that can be applied to other vulnerable sites and at-risk populations in order to establish a valuable tool in implementing the safety process.