Weapons of Mass Destruction - WMD

With terrorism as a constant threat to modern society, we get numerous questions about the application of detector tubes to detect the weapons and chemical or biological agents they use.  Detector tubes with their direct reading format and powerless operation can be effective tools for first responders.

First, we do not offer detector tubes that will detect all explosive or incendiary devices prior to their detonation.  While this would be a very useful product, we don't have such a tube at this time.  Second, we do not have detector tubes that detect nuclear agents or biological pathogens that carry cholera, anthrax, smallpox or salmonella.  However, we can detect some of the toxic chemicals that are used including chlorine, phosgene and hydrogen cyanide.

Chemical agents utilized in chemical warfare fall into several categories.  There are blister agents like mustard gas, blood agents like hydrogen cyanide, choking agents like phosgene and nerve agents like sarin, tabun and soman as well as propellants like fuel oil.  Our detector tubes can be used to detect some of the chemical agents, but not all of them.  Some of these applications are listed below.

 

Chemical Agent	Detector Tube No.	Measuring Range	Detecting Limit
Phosgene (Military C G)	146S	0.1 to 20 ppm	0.05 ppm
Chlorine	109U	0.05 to 2 ppm	0.01 ppm
Hydrogen Cyanide (Military AC)	112SB	0.5 to 100 ppm	0.2 ppm
Arsine	121U	0.05 to 100 ppm	0.02 ppm
Methylene Chloride	180S	10 to 1000 ppm	5 ppm
Chloropicrin	172S	0.05 to 16 ppm	0.02 ppm

 

Fuels/Propellants	Detector Tube No.	Measuring Range	Detecting Limit
Fuel Oil	187S	50 to 1400 ppm as Hexane	5 ppm