RESEARCH ARTICLE


Acute Toxicity and Efficacy of Nanomaterial based Decontamination Formulation Developed for Personal Decontamination against Chemical Warfare Agents



Anshoo Gautam1, *, Gangavarapu K. Prasad2, Deeksha Singh3, Rajagopalan Vijayaraghavan4
1 Division of CBRN Defence, INMAS, Delhi, India
2 Division of Protective Devices, DRDE, Gwalior, India
3 E. S. I. Hospital, Kota, India
4 Saveetha University, Chennai, India


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Creative Commons License
© 2019 Gautam et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Division of CBRN Defence, INMAS, Delhi, India; Tel: 011-23905129; E-mail: anshooinmas@gmail.com


Abstract

Background:

This study addresses the efficacy of nanomaterials based formulation developed for personal decontamination application against chemical warfare agents and used in Personal Decontamination Kit (PDK). It has the potential to decontaminate the skin of an individual, protective equipment, and small arms contaminated with chemical warfare agents. As this formulation has been developed for personal decontamination, risk of nanomaterial toxicity would always be there while sprinkling or applying to the affected area. It may get into the body through various routes specifically through the inhalation route.

Aim:

The aim of this study was to evaluate in vivo decontamination efficiency of the formulation and acute inhalation, intratracheal, intranasal, oral, dermal, and intraperitoneal toxicity of the formulation.

Materials and Methods:

14 days survival was recorded for the evaluation of decontamination efficiency of this formulation. Various endpoints were considered while assessing the toxicity of Nanomaterial Decontamination Formulation which include Organ Body Weight Index (OBWI), serum biochemical parameters, and respiratory variables like tidal volume, respiratory rate, time of inspiration, time of expiration, etc. LD50 of the formulation were also determined for various routes. As skin is the primary organ to come in contact with the decontaminant, its primary skin irritation response has also been determined in this study.

Results and Conclusion:

It was found that there is no gross acute toxicity observed at different doses. Though there were some changes in the initial respiratory pattern, they were all later recovered. The preliminary histological evaluation did not show any adverse effect on various organs after exposure with NDF.

Keywords: Chemical agent, Decontamination, Nanomaterial, Dust inhalation, Toxicity, Personal decontamination kit.