A new facility at North Carolina State University will help provide increased protection to first responders by testing their turnout gear against potentially harmful chemical and biological threats.
The Man-in-Simulant Test (MIST) laboratory, located in NC State's College of Textiles, will allow researchers to evaluate the capabilities of protective garments against non-toxic vapors that resemble chemical and biological agents. The new facility will give researchers the necessary technological advances to provide test results and analysis faster than similar facilities.
The MIST facility is the only one of its kind located at a university in the United States. The laboratory was funded by a two-year, $2 million grant from the Department of Defense secured by U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, who serves on the U.S. Homeland Security Committee.
In the main testing chamber, researchers can test the penetration of chemical vapors through protective clothing on mannequins and human subjects. During testing, subjects can perform the same tasks as a first responder, such as climbing a ladder, crawling, or carrying a victim to safety, in an environment that can be controlled for temperature, wind speed and vapor concentration.
The MIST facility
During my brief tenure as a high school
The Director of Loyola University Medical Center's clinical microbiology laboratory is reported as saying that rapid flu tests are a p
Yesterday I worked my way through the hundred's of comments on PZ's I am Pro-Test post.