On-site soil and water analysis using D TECH{trademark} immunoassays for RDX and TNT
- Strategic Diagnostics Industries Inc., Newark, DE (United States)
The secondary military explosives, trinitrotoluene (TNT) and hexahydro-1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine (RDX) are commonly found in soils and ground water at munition load and pack operations, and demilitarization facilities. RDX is very mobile in soils, and is often used to indicate the leading edge of an explosives plume, whereas the rate of migration of TNT in the soil is far less. The development of the D TECH field screening methods for RDX and TNT in both soil and ground water have been designed to greatly benefit the explosives remediation effort. The use of these inexpensive field screening methods will reduce the total cost and improve the efficiency of site surveys and remediation projects. Field screening techniques can also circumvent the long turnaround time of laboratory analysis by providing reliable on site results. The portable RDX and TNT enzyme immunoassays (EIA) are quick, cost effective, highly specific, and user friendly. The application of these tests in the field has been demonstrated at several sites across the US. Results from a 42 sample TNT field trial at Army Ammunition Plant reported 2% false positives and no false negative results. When confirmed by EPA SW-846 Method 8330, 74% of the samples were in direct agreement. During a series of RDX field trials, the RDX EIA reported 3% false positives and no false negatives. In all field trials the EIA demonstrated a correlation coefficient of at least 90% when compared with Method 8330. Results from larger field studies have shown these tests to be cost and time effective as well as accurate.
- OSTI ID:
- 276363
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950209--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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