Emergency personnel responding to biological-chemical terrorist attacks face a dilemma: If they enter the scene without knowing the risks, they might endanger themselves. But if they wait for evaluation, people could die or the agent might spread, causing even more widespread casualties.

The options just got better, thanks to researchers at the government's Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., who've created a foam that begins neutralizing both chemical and biological agents in minutes. Because it's not harmful to people, it could be dispensed on the disaster scene immediately, even before casualties are evacuated.

The developers think the decontaminating foam soon may be the best first response available in the event of a bio-chem attack. "Whatever you do, it's best to act very quickly," said co-developer Maher Tadros. "This foam can start neutralizing an agent or combinations of agents right away, even before you know what you're dealing with."

The foam, a cocktail of ordinary substances found in common household products, neutralizes chemical agents in much the same way a detergent lifts away an oily spot from a stained shirt. Its surfactants, like those in hair conditioner, and mild oxidizing substances, like those in toothpaste, begin to chemically digest the chemical agent, seeking out the phosphate or sulfide bonds holding the molecules together and chopping the molecules into nontoxic pieces.

According to Tadros, currently available sprays, fogs or other decontaminating products are typically based on bleach, chlorinated solvents, or other hazardous or corrosive materials. In addition, he says that many new and emerging decontaminants, which are designed to work against only a limited number of either chemical or biological agents, are expensive. For example, a new nerve-agent decontaminant made in Germany costs about $150 per pound, whereas the Sandia foam can be produced for about 15 cents per pound.

As it expands to about 100 times its liquid volume through a special nozzle that draws air into the spray, the foam fills space and automatically seeks contact with chemical or biological agents in crevices and other hiding places, or in the air for airborne agents. In several hours it collapses back to its compact liquid state and, in theory, is benign enough following a bio-chem incident to be washed down the drain.

In laboratory tests, the Sandia foam destroyed simulants of vx, mustard gas and soman, the most worrisome chemical agents, and killed a simulant of anthrax, the toughest known biological agent. Against the anthrax simulant, only one spore out of 10 million was still alive after one hour.

International law prohibits the Sandia researchers from possessing real chemical or biological agents, so they took samples of the foam to the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, where the foam was tested against actual vx, mustard gas and soman.

In those tests the foam neutralized half of the remaining chemical agent molecules every two to 10 minutes, depending on the agent. For most chemical agents, the contamination remaining after one hour of exposure to the foam was insignificant. The foam neutralizes viral particles in minutes, as well.

The foam gets around the traditional approaches that have high water demand and use more damaging chemicals. Like a fire retardant, which is another of its uses, the foam could be sprayed from handheld canisters. For open areas, arff trucks could be employed.

Tanks of the foam could be incorporated into the fire sprinkler systems of high-profile government buildings or other potential targets, including embassies, congressional buildings, the White House, subways and the New York Stock Exchange.

"That's the best scenario," said Tadros. "You could flip the switch as you evacuate and begin decontaminating immediately."

Ill wind blows for California wildfires Last fall, the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif., released the first-ever analysis of the potential effect of global climate change on California wildfires.

In most cases, the researchers concluded that climate change would lead to dramatic increases in both the annual area burned by California wildfires and the number of potentially catastrophic fires - doubling these losses in some regions. These changes would occur despite enhanced deployment of fire suppression resources, implying that climate change could precipitate an increase in both fire suppression costs and economic losses due to wildfires.

Fire danger has long been linked to climate, with hot, dry spells creating the highest risk. Concerns over the consequences of global warming were rekindled last year by the effects of El Nino. Droughts linked to that weather pattern were followed by widespread fires in Florida, Indonesia and elsewhere.

The latest predictions suggest that global warming may also create conditions that intensify wildfire danger, by warming and drying out vegetation, and by stirring the winds that spread fires. Faster fires are much harder to contain, and thus are more likely to expand into residential neighborhoods, causing substantial damage to property.

To evaluate the potential effects of global climate change on wildfire damage in California, the research team combined local weather and fire data, previously validated fire and fire suppression models, and state-of-the-art general circulation models of global climate change.

An abstract of this report, as well as a complete copy in pdf format, can be downloaded from the Web at .>

First responders at a suspected chemical terrorism incident are faced with one overwhelming question: "What are we dealing with?"

To help with the detection of chemical agents, researchers at John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., have developed and tested a highly sensitive and selective sensor that can detect minute traces of sarin and soman, potentially lethal nerve agents that were used against troops during the Iran-Iraq war and in a terrorist attack on a Tokyo subway.

The researchers developed a polymer that they paint on the tip of an optical fiber, which glows when illuminated by a laser through the fiber. However, in the presence of either of the gases, the polymer glows at a more yellowish wavelength. In practice the device, which reacts within a minute, could be snaked into a suspected bio-chemical scene ahead of rescuers, providing time to don masks.

The sensor was actually designed to detect small traces of sarin and soman in water because of the prevailing fear that these compounds, which are currently leaking from stockpiles of aging weapons in the United States, may be contaminating some water supplies. Of course, there's also concern that terrorists may use such chemicals to try to poison water supplies.

"Our sensor can detect sarin and soman in water at levels as low as 600 parts per quadrillion, which is a million times more sensitive than other devices being used," said George Murray, apl research chemist. Some detection devices can't tell the difference between a chemical agent and a pesticide, which can cause false readings, but the apl sensor detects only the chemical agents it's designed to find.