Military

Firefighting Foam may have Contaminated Groundwater

The military is beginning to check whether chemicals from its firefighting foam may have contaminated groundwater at hundreds of sites nationwide, according to the Defense Department.

The Navy began sampling water at bases in December.

ECBC’s Biothreat Detection Self-Test Kit for Soldiers

The Edgewood Chemical Biological Center’s (ECBC) newly developed biological self-test kit can quickly tell soldiers on the ground whether they’ve been exposed to a biological threat agent, and automatically send it in to the warfighter and his commander.

Known as SmartCAR, the device uses a colorimetric assay to identify the presence of a pathogen of concern such as ricin, anthrax or plague. The warfighter or a field medic can take a sample, place it in a small vial containing a reagent that will bind the pathogen of concern, then place a drop of the solution on the strip.

IAB Standards Adoption

The following standards were submitted for adoption by the Standards Coordination SubGroup. After an Executive Committee vote, the standards were officially adopted by the IAB.

Military Wound Dressing for Junctional Wounds Approved for Civilian Use

XSTAT 30, a hemostatic device for the treatment of severe bleeding in the axilla or groin area, was cleared for use in both battlefield and civilian trauma settings by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The clearance expands the device’s indication from use by the military only to use in adults and adolescents in the general population.

XSTAT 30 by RevMedx works by injecting a group of small, rapidly-expanding sponges into a wound cavity using a syringe-like applicator.

NASA and the U.S. Air Force Test a New Ground-Based GPS

Anyone who has struggled to pinpoint his or her location in a mall, airport or urban canyon amid skyscrapers has experienced a GPS gap firsthand. In fact, the global positioning network is filled with them: buildings, jammers and the landscape itself can block a signal's path between GPS satellites and receivers in a smartphone or other digital device.

How Much Will the First Responder Anthrax Preparedness Act Cost?

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this week released their cost estimate of the S. 1915 First Responder Anthrax Preparedness Act.

Under the bill, anthrax vaccines from the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile would be provided to first responders who volunteer to receive them, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would establish a tracking system for the vaccine and would provide educational outreach for the program.

Vaccines nearing the end of their labeled dates would be prioritized for utilization under the Act.