recent Advances in decontamination of chemical Warfare Agents

The recent turmoil and volatile situation in many countries and the increased risk of terrorist activities have raised alarm bells for the field of defense against toxic chemical/materials. These situations poses threats to society as terrorists can take advantage of such situations to strike and cause public mayhem. A number of chemicals have the potential of being used as chemical warfare (CW) agents. CW agents could immediately kill or incapacitate the affected individuals even when they are present in very low concentration. CW agents should be removed quickly to minimize their deleterious health effect. There is no single decontamination system that can be used against all types of chemical warfare (CW) agents. The review briefs about different decontamination processes and approaches for chemical decontamination and also discusses about various decontamination products available globally. Defence Science Journal, 2013, 63(5), pp.487 -496 , DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.63.2882