The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and a team of federal, state and local agencies recently updated 2006 protocols that addressed standard procedures for hazmat teams collecting and preserving samples of suspicious powders. While the methodology has stayed much the same, there was a significant change in the language as it refers to public-safety sample collection — a method used by a first responders to collect a powder and then send the sample to an offsite laboratory for confirmation — and the need to follow law-enforcement evidence collection protocols, said Jayne Morrow, a NIST research engineer who led the revision project.

“We removed reference to evidence collection,” Morrow said. “So an individual who does a public-safety sample collection can use the method to collect the sample in response to a public safety event. If it turns out to be a credible threat, though, that evidence can still be used for law-enforcement purposes.”

Morrow said existing protocols outline a two-step process for collecting bulk samples of suspicious powder from a solid surface, such as a desktop or tile, and the collection of residual material with swabs for use in field evaluation. However, after working with a focus group of first responders and public-health agencies, the evidence collection language was adapted because there was confusion over whether the sample collection method and then the residual material left on the surface could be used for law-enforcement purposes. During the revision, she said meeting with FBI, law enforcement and hazmat teams led to the development of new guidance language that would let hazmat teams address the immediate incident without having to worrying about evidence collection. Yet it also ensures, in the language, that the sample taken using current methods can still be used as evidence.

“The key point of the new protocols is that first responders can collect the sample and get it to laboratory without concerning themselves about the standards for the collection of evidence,” she said. “The language has been removed and updated so the evidence collected in the current sample collection method is sufficient for use by law enforcement.”

The revised protocols are discussed in “Standard Practices for Bulk Sample Collection and Swab Sample Collection of Visible Powders Suspected of Being Biothreat Agents from Nonporous Surfaces” (E2458-10) and the “Standard Guide for Operational Guidelines for Initial Response to a Suspected Biothreat Agent” (E2770-10), both available as free downloads through ASTM International starting Jan. 1, 2011.