Volume 1, Number 4 April 2004 

Newsletter of U.S. EPA’s Safe Buildings Monitoring 

and Detection Technology Verification Program 

What is ETV? 

The U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA) established the 

Environmental Technology 

Verification (ETV) Program in 1995 

to verify the performance of 

innovative technical solutions to

problems that threaten human health 

or the environment. 

ETV’s mission is to accelerate the 

use of new environmental 

technologies in the domestic and 

international marketplace. 

ETV provides third-party, qualityassured performance data so buyers 

and users of environmental 

technologies can make informed

purchase and application decisions.

ETV works through public/private 

testing partnerships (called Centers)

to evaluate the performance of

environmental technologies. 

The program 

The Safe Buildings Monitoring 

and Detection Technology Verification Program is part of the U.S. 

EPA’s National Homeland 

Security Research Center 

(NHSRC). The program operates 

under the auspices of ETV to 

verify technologies that monitor 

and detect chemical and 

biological contaminants in 

buildings and public places. 

The Safe Buildings Monitoring 

and Detection Technology 

Verification Program develops 

test plans and protocols, conducts 

verification tests, and reports the 

technologies’ performance. 

For further information, contact 

Helen Latham at Battelle, 505 

King Ave., Columbus, OH 

43201-2693; phone 614-424-

4062; fax 614-424-5601; or e-mail 

lathamh@battelle.org.

April set for second round

Meetings of Detection Vendors, 

Stakeholders Support Test Plans 

After attending a meeting in 

February, five vendor representatives have expressed interest 

in participating in the second 

round of verification testing of 

chemical detection technologies 

that can be used by first responders 

to diagnose or respond to an 

indoor contamination event. 

Detection technologies for 

biological contaminants in indoor 

air or on indoor surfaces are still 

largely under development. Those 

technologies can be submitted for 

testing when they are ready for 

commercial use. 

The chemical detection technologies are being tested by 

Battelle in collaboration with the 

U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency’s (EPA) Safe Buildings 

Monitoring and Detection

Technology Verification Program, 

a part of the agency’s National 

Homeland Security Research 

Center (NHSRC). 

(See Second Round on Page 2)

Tests are being planned for several 

possible technologies— photoionization detectors (PID), surface 

acoustic WAVE (SAW) detectors, 

and flame spectroscopy detectors. 

In the initial verification test, a 

portable ion mobility spectrometer 

(IMS) instrument—the RAID-M—

developed by Bruker Daltonics, 

Inc., was successfully tested. 

The objective of testing chemical 

detection technologies is to assess 

the performance of commercially 

ready, portable chemical detectors 

under a range of conditions and 

practices that mimic field use by 

emergency first responders in an 

indoor environment. The chemical 

Technologies That 

May Be Tested 

At left is Proengin SA’s flame 

spectroscopy (AP2C) Detector. 

Below, from left to right are: RAE 

Systems, Inc.’s photoionization 

detector (PID); Process Analyzer’s 

PID; Microsensor Systems’ surface 

acoustic wave (SAW) detector; and 

BAE Systems’ SAW detector. 
April

6-7 DoD Advance Planning 

Briefing for Industry (APBI) 

Chemical Biological Defense, 

Kossiakoff Center, Laurel, MD. 

21-23 5th Annual Science & 

Engineering Technology 

Conference, Charleston, S.C. 

May 

4-6 EnviroExpo 2004, Boston, 

MA. 

25-28 20th Annual National 

Defense Industry Association 

Symposium & Exhibition, 

Arlington, VA. 

June 

22-25 Air & Waste Management 

Association’s 97th Annual 

Conference & Exhibition, 

Indianapolis, IN. A paper will be 

presented about the Safe Buildings 

and Detection Technology 

Verification Program by Dr. 

Thomas Kelly of Battelle.

July

4-17 Annual Conference for 

National Association of County & 

City Health Officials (NACCHO), 

St. Paul, MN. 

Stakeholders Suggest 

Technology Priorities 

Members of the stakeholder 

committee for the Safe Buildings 

Monitoring and Detection

Technology Verification Program 

have recommended that the 

detection technologies be 

prioritized for testing as follows: 

High priority—infrared detectors, 

other IMS technologies, flame 

photometric detectors, and 

biodetectors such as field polymerase 

chain reaction (PCR) technologies. 

Medium priority—surface acoustic

wave (SAW), mini-CAD, field gas 

chromatography with mass 

spectrometric detection (GC/MS). 

Low priority—colormetric tubes. 

Performance tests included 

response time, response threshold, 

repeatability, accuracy, recovery 

time, temperature and relative 

humidity effects, interferent effects, 

cold start behavior, and battery 

operation. Testing the operational 

characteristics of the instruments 

included ease of use, signal/data 

output capabilities, and the cost of 

the instrument. 

Additional vendors interested in 

having their chemical detection 

technologies tested should contact 

Dr. Thomas Kelly at Battelle by 

phone (614-424-3495) or e-mail 

(kellyt@battelle.org). 

test compounds in the experimental design of the first verification test were chosen to 

represent important classes of 

compounds. Included were toxic 

industrial chemicals (TICs) such as 

cyanogen chloride, hydrogen 

cyanide, phosgene, and arsine, 

along with two chemical warfare 

agents—sarin and sulfur mustard. 

Second Round (from Page 1) Meet the Stakeholders

Mark A.

Durno 

On-Scene 

Coordinator 

U.S. EPA,

Region V 

Mark A. Durno, who currently serves as the 

on-scene coordinator for the U.S. EPA’s 

Region V, has a bachelor of science in civil

engineering from the Rose-Hulman 

Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, IN. 

After graduating in 1992, he was employed 

by Ecology and Environment, Inc., serving 

as a consultant to EPA. Since 1997, Mr. 

Durno has been an on-scene coordinator in 

the Emergency Response Branch of the 

EPA-Region 5’s Superfund Program. 

During those years, he supported or completed more than 20 fund-lead 

removal actions and has overseen a number of responsible-party lead

cleanups. In 1998, he coordinated the EPA’s emergency response efforts at 

the Ohio flood site declared to be a federal disaster by the Federal 

Emergency Management Agency. A year later, he assisted in managing the 

Kirby Tire fire emergency response efforts. EPA presented awards to him 

for his outstanding efforts. 

Mr. Durno assists in coordinating EPA’s mercury reduction outreach efforts 

and counter-terrorism preparedness efforts in Ohio and all of Region V. In 

2001, he was named Region V’s On-Scene Coordinator of the year. He is 

also heavily involved in combined area contingency planning with the U.S. 

Coast Guard and other local and state response organizations. 

His efforts were recognized in 2000 when the rear admiral of the U.S. Coast 

Guard’s Ninth District presented a merit award to him. In 2001-02, Mr. 

Durno responded to the U.S. Capitol’s anthrax incident. His duties have 

included designing characterization and verification sampling approaches for 

the detection of weaponized biological agents on Capitol Hill. 

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