Hazardous materials response trucks are packed with equipment and instruments that give incident commanders and firefighters a critical look at the hazards they will be facing during a hazmat incident.
Such equipment includes material analyzers, atmospheric monitoring systems, weather stations, multiple gas detectors, radiation detectors, and drones and robotics for performing surveillance and human-free activities.
Mark Norman, PhD, senior field applications scientist for 908 Devices, says a hazmat firefighter might face an array of hazardous materials, such as toxic industrial chemicals (TICs), toxic industrial materials (TIMs), and chemical warfare agents (CMAs). Norman notes that his company recently launched a chemical analyzer called VipIR” that uses a combination of Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy technology to identify potentially hazardous solids and liquids.
He points out that FTIR spectrometers analyze how materials absorb infrared radiation to identify unknown chemical substances, while Raman spectroscopy analyzes laser radiation scattering to allow for the rapid and safe identification of hazardous chemicals and materials through certain containers, reducing the need for direct sampling and minimizing exposure risks for first responders.
“VipIR puts both technologies in one handheld 8-pound box that uses a smart spectral processing (SSP) algorithm to search a 23,000-compound FTIR library and a 16,000-compound Raman library to produce a one-button single result,” Norman says. “VipIR can report up to six components of a mixture and assign each a series of star ratings to indicate identification confidence.”
1 908 Devices makes the VipIR chemical analyzer that uses FTIR and Raman spectroscopy technology to identify potentially hazardous solids and liquids. (Photo 1 courtesy of 908 Devices.)
Norman says that 908 Devices also makes XplorIR®, a handheld gas analyzer that can accurately detect, identify, and quantify thousands of unknown chemicals and vapors in seconds. “Hazmat technicians can use XplorIR to continuously monitor for immediate answers during high-threat operations or change to point mode for isolated target intelligence,” he points out. “It also is able to identify and quantify up to six gas components in real time within complex mixtures and provides detection in as quick as four seconds, with positive identification results displayed within a minute.”
XplorIR can detect and identify more than 5,600 unknown gas and vapor chemical threats in seconds and with quantification added can report parts- per-million (ppm) readings for nearly 5,000 airborne chemicals, he adds. Some of the hazardous chemicals XplorIR can detect and identify, Norman says, include TICs, TIMs, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), fire gases, refrigerants, petroleum products, industrial gases, solvents and corrosives, as well as nerve agents, blister agents, choking agents, and blood agents.
Another hazmat detection product that 908 Devices makes is ProtectIR®, a handheld FTIR device that can rapidly provide solid and liquid identification and analysis for hazardous materials, narcotics, and explosives, Norman says. “Its handheld FTIR technology utilizes a diamond attenuated total reflection (ATR) sample interface to identify unknown powders and liquids,” he points out, “enabling hazmat response teams and first responders to analyze bulk substances in seconds.”
2 This Rosenbauer RTE robot can be sent into a hazmat scene and be