Sensing technology for chemical-warfare agents and its evaluation using authentic agents

Some commercially available portable on-site detection equipment (detection paper, gas detection tube, ion mobility spectrometer, surface acoustic wavelength detector, flame photometric detector, gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer) were evaluated using authentic vaporized chemical-warfare agents, from the standpoint of their qualitative detection characteristics, detection limits, response time, frequency of false alarms and residubility on the devices. False alarms and the strong adsorption of agents by the devices are typical drawbacks of such equipment.