Air Pollution and Radiation Monitoring in Collective Protection Facilities.

It has become increasingly important to monitor environment contamination by such chemicals as chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and industrial toxic chemicals (TICs), as well as radiation hazards around and inside collective protection facilities. This is especially important given the increased risk of terrorist or military attacks. The Military Institute of Chemistry and Radiometry (MICR) has constructed and developed the ALERT device for the effective monitoring of these threats. This device uses sensors that detect chemical and radiological contaminations in the air. The CWA detector is an ion mobility spectrometer, TICs are detected by electrochemical sensors, and radiation hazards are detected via Geiger-Muller tubes. The system was designed to protect the crew from contamination. When chemical or radioactive contamination is detected at the air inlet for the shelter, air filtration through a carbon filter is activated. At this time, the air test procedure at the filter outlet is started to test the condition of the filter on an ongoing basis. After detecting contamination at the filter outlet, the system turns off the air pumping and the service can start the procedure of replacing the damaged carbon filter. This paper presents the results of laboratory testing of the ALERT gas alarm detector, which showed high measurements for important parameters, including sensitivity, repeatability, accuracy, and speed.

Application of Optical Methods for Determination of Concentration of Doxorubicin in Blood and Plasma.

The aim of presented research is to develop a simple and quick method of spectrophotometric detection for the determination of doxorubicin hydrochloride in blood and plasma. Anthracycline antibiotics are among the most effective antineoplastic agents. However, despite their high efficacy in the treatment of various types of cancer, their administration is limited primarily because they exhibit myocardial toxicity. This may be a limiting factor in the dosage of medications; nevertheless, drugs exhibiting this mechanism of action constitute a very important group of chemotherapeutics. One of the more widely studied antibiotics from the anthracycline group is doxorubicin. It exhibits the highest antineoplastic activity from among a number of derivative compounds. Because of the adverse effects of doxorubicin, especially cardiotoxicity, it is important to maintain control of its concentration in body fluids. The method in the study consists of extraction doxorubicin from the plasma or blood and measurements of the absorbance of light in the visible light range in a DOX solution with respect to a reference sample. The research used blood and plasma samples spiked with doxorubicin to give concentrations in the range of 0.2-10 µg/mL. Obtained LODs were 1.6 µg/mL and 1.2 µg/mL, respectively.