National Academies Press: OpenBook
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Protecting Building Occupants and Operations from Biological and Chemical Airborne Threats: A Framework for Decision Making. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11965.
×

PROTECTING BUILDING OCCUPANTS AND OPERATIONS FROM BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL AIRBORNE THREATS

A FRAMEWORK FOR DECISION MAKING

Committee on Protecting Occupants of DOD Buildings from Chemical and Biological Release

Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology

Board on Life Sciences

Division on Earth and Life Studies

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Protecting Building Occupants and Operations from Biological and Chemical Airborne Threats: A Framework for Decision Making. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11965.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This study was supported by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) under Award No. HDTRA1-06-C-0052. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of DTRA, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. government.

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-10955-0

International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-10955-8

Additional copies of this report are available from the

National Academies Press,

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Copyright 2007 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Protecting Building Occupants and Operations from Biological and Chemical Airborne Threats: A Framework for Decision Making. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11965.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine


The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.


The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.


The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.


The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.


www.national-academies.org

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Protecting Building Occupants and Operations from Biological and Chemical Airborne Threats: A Framework for Decision Making. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11965.
×

COMMITTEE ON PROTECTING OCCUPANTS OF DOD BUILDINGS FROM CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL RELEASE

Co-chairs

DAVID R. FRANZ,

Midwest Research Institute, Fredrick, Maryland

NORMAN L. JOHNSON,

Referentia Systems, Honolulu, Hawaii

Members

WILLIAM P. BAHNFLETH,

Pennsylvania State University, University Park

CYNTHIA BRUCKNER-LEA,

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington

STEVEN B. BUCHSBAUM,

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, Washington

SHELDON K. FRIEDLANDER (deceased),

University of California, Los Angeles

MURRAY HAMLET,

U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Kingston, Massachusetts

STUART L. KNOOP,

Oudens Knoop Knoop + Sachs Architects, Chevy Chase, Maryland

ANDREW MAIER,

Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment, Cincinnati, Ohio

R. PAUL SCHAUDIES,

GenArraytion, Inc., Rockville, Maryland

RICHARD G. SEXTRO,

E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California

LINDA D. STETZENBACH,

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

LINDA M. THOMAS-MOBLEY,

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

DAVID R. WALT,

Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts

Staff

EVONNE P.Y. TANG, Study Director,

Board on Life Sciences

ERICKA M. MCGOWAN, Associate Program Officer,

Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology

DOROTHY ZOLANDZ, Director,

Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Protecting Building Occupants and Operations from Biological and Chemical Airborne Threats: A Framework for Decision Making. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11965.
×

BOARD ON CHEMICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY

Co-chairs

F. FLEMING CRIM (NAS),

University of Wisconsin, Madison

ELSA REICHMANIS (NAE),

Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, New Jersey

Members

PAUL T. ANASTAS,

Green Chemistry Institute, New Haven, Connecticut

GARY S. CALABRESE,

Rohm & Haas Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

JEAN DE GRAEVE,

Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium

PABLO G. DEBENEDETTI,

Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey

MILES P. DRAKE,

Weyerhaeuser Company, Allentown, Pennsylvania

GEORGE W. FLYNN,

Columbia University, New York

MAURICIO FUTRAN,

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, New Brunswick, New Je rsey

PAULA T. HAMMOND,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

ROBERT HWANG,

Sandia National Laboratory, Albuquerque, New Mexico

JAY V. IHLENFELD,

3M Research & Development, St. Paul, Minnesota

JAMES L. KINSEY,

Rice University, Houston, Texas

MARTHA A. KREBS,

California Energy Commission, Sacramento

CHARLES T. KRESGE,

Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan

SCOTT J. MILLER,

Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

GERALD V. POJE, Independent Consultant,

Vienna, Virginia

DONALD PROSNITZ,

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California

MATTHEW V. TIRRELL,

University of California, Santa Barbara

Staff

DOROTHY ZOLANDZ, Director

TINA M. MASCIANGIOLI, Program Officer

ERICKA M. MCGOWAN, Associate Program Officer

FEDERICO SAN MARTINI, Associate Program Officer

KATHRYN HUGHES, Postdoctoral Fellow

JESSICA PULLEN, Research Assistant

KELA MASTERS, Project Assistant

SYBIL A. PAIGE, Administrative Associate

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Protecting Building Occupants and Operations from Biological and Chemical Airborne Threats: A Framework for Decision Making. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11965.
×

BOARD ON LIFE SCIENCES

Chair

KEITH YAMAMOTO,

University of California, San Francisco

Members

ANN M. ARVIN,

Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California

JEFFREY L. BENNETZEN,

University of Georgia, Athens

RUTH BERKELMAN,

Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

DEBORAH BLUM,

University of Wisconsin, Madison

R. ALTA CHARO,

University of Wisconsin, Madison

JEFFERY L. DANGL,

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

PAUL R. EHRLICH,

Stanford University, Stanford, California

MARK D. FITZSIMMONS,

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, Illinois

JO HANDELSMAN,

University of Wisconsin, Madison

ED HARLOW,

Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

KENNETH H. KELLER,

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

RANDALL MURCH,

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Alexandria

GREGORY A. PETSKO,

Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts

MURIEL E. POSTON,

Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York

JAMES REICHMAN,

University of California, Santa Barbara

MARC T. TESSIER-LAVIGNE,

Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, California

JAMES TIEDJE,

Michigan State University, East Lansing

TERRY L. YATES,

University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

Staff

FRANCES E. SHARPLES, Director

KERRY A. BRENNER, Senior Program Officer

ANN H. REID, Senior Program Officer

MARILEE K. SHELTON-DAVENPORT, Senior Program Officer

EVONNE P.Y. TANG, Senior Program Officer

ROBERT T. YUAN, Senior Program Officer

ADAM P. FAGEN, Program Officer

ANNA FARRAR, Financial Associate

TOVA G. JACOBOVITS, Senior Program Assistant

MERCURY FOX, Program Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Protecting Building Occupants and Operations from Biological and Chemical Airborne Threats: A Framework for Decision Making. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11965.
×

Dedication

Dr. Sheldon Friedlander passed away on February 9, 2007, while he was serving on the Committee on Protecting Occupants of DOD Buildings from Chemical and Biological Release. The committee felt honored to have worked with him on this report. Sheldon was a world renowned expert in aerosol science and technology and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. His hard work and dedication to the National Academies and the field of aerosol research will always be remembered. Sheldon will remain fondly in the minds and hearts of all who knew him.


—The staff and committee members of the Committee on Protecting Occupants of DOD buildings from chemical and biological release

Page viii Cite
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Protecting Building Occupants and Operations from Biological and Chemical Airborne Threats: A Framework for Decision Making. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11965.
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Preface

The Department of Defense (DOD) has identified acts of terror that employ biological or chemical airborne threat agents as a priority. Protecting buildings from release of biological and chemical airborne threat agents is only one aspect of DOD’s effort to develop an active defensive program. In its simplest expression, protection of building occupants from biological and chemical airborne threats requires the creation and maintenance of a protective system sufficient to deter such an attack and to minimize its impact should an attack occur. The Immune Building Program was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for that purpose. As the Immune Building Program progressed from the research and development stage to the active deployment stage, DOD reassigned management of the program to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). Prior to the inheritance of that program, DTRA determined that a multifaceted look at building protection would be helpful in determining the future of building protection efforts within DTRA. The National Academies was asked to convene an expert committee to evaluate the proper terminology to exchange information; the metrics to be used to evaluate test beds and current deployments; the applicability of lessons learned from previous test beds and deployments—both in the military and the public domain; the protocols to be used; and the cost-benefit of different approaches and their relative risks. The ultimate goal of this study is to provide guidance in the complex-wide deployment of building protection to DTRA. Although the requirement is simply stated, its fulfillment is much more challenging.

The committee held four meetings in Washington, D.C., and St. Louis, Missouri, from September 18 to December 19, 2006. The committee was briefed by representatives of federal agencies and other entities that have deployed building

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Protecting Building Occupants and Operations from Biological and Chemical Airborne Threats: A Framework for Decision Making. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11965.
×

protection or relevant programs. On-site visits of test beds and current deployments were made at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and Washington, D.C. The committee also reviewed information available from the open literature, as well as new materials prepared by experts.

Early in the study, the committee attempted to provide a detailed implementation plan for the deployment and operation of building protection. As the committee delved more deeply into the study, it quickly became apparent that designing and implementing building protection is a complex process that involves many factors. Therefore, the committee’s approach was to develop guiding principles to building protection. Although the charge concerned protection of military facilities, the guiding principles provided in this report are applicable to protection of public facilities as well. For many of the members of the committee, the challenges to provide defense from biological and chemical threats have been a lifetime concern, yet the present study provided an opportunity to examine a little-studied component of that defense.

We, co-chairs, wish to express our sincere appreciation to the National Academy project staff, who—behind the scenes—played an equal part with the committee in ensuring the quality of this report. We also want to express our personal appreciation to the individual members of the committee for the dedication and energy with which they tackled this challenging task. The report would not have been possible without the perspectives of these experts, their valuable time commitment, and their patience in integrating our diverse disciplines.


David R. Franz

Norman L. Johnson

Co-chairs, Committee on Protecting Occupants of DOD Buildings from Chemical and Biological Release

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Protecting Building Occupants and Operations from Biological and Chemical Airborne Threats: A Framework for Decision Making. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11965.
×

Acknowledgments

This report is a product of the cooperation and contributions of many people. The members of the committee thank all of the speakers who briefed them on different programs. (Appendix C contains a list of presentations to the committee.)

This report has been reviewed in draft form by persons chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards of objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following for their review of this report:


Daniel Cousins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory

Charles Haas, Drexel University

Charles Kolb, Aerodyne Research, Inc.

Benson Kwong, Project Management Services, Inc.

Lewis S. Nelson, New York University School of Medicine

Leslie Robertson, Leslie E. Robertson and Associates, R.L.L.P.

Scott Rusk, Biosecurity Research Institute

Timothy Swager, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

James Woods, HP-Woods Research Institute


Although the reviewers listed above provided constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations,

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Protecting Building Occupants and Operations from Biological and Chemical Airborne Threats: A Framework for Decision Making. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11965.
×

nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Dr. David C. Bonner and Mrs. Hyla S. Napadensky. Appointed by the National Research Council, Dr. Bonner and Mrs. Napadensky were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.

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Protecting buildings and their occupants from biological and chemical attacks to ensure continuous building operations is seen as an urgent need in the Department of Defense, given recent technological advances and the changing threats. Toward this end, the Department of Defense established the Immune Building Program to develop protective systems to deter biological and chemical attacks on military facilities and minimize the impacts of attacks should they occur. At the request of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the National Research Council convened a committee to provide guiding principles for protecting buildings from airborne biological or chemical threat agents and outline the variables and options to consider in designing building protection systems. This report addresses such components of building protection as building design and planning strategies; heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems; filtration; threat detection and identification technologies; and operational responses. It recommends that building protection systems be designed to accommodate changing building conditions, new technologies, and emerging threats. Although the report's focus is on protection of military facilities, the guiding principles it offers are applicable to protection of public facilities as well.

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