Abstract
ABSTRACTThis article presents solid phase extraction (SPE) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) methods for the trace detection of the peroxide explosives triacetone triperoxide (TATP) and hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD). Furthermore, experimental studies use these methods to explore the efficiency of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) processes at removing trace levels of peroxide explosives from water samples to assess the application of the developed methods for the detection of explosives in the environment. The principal results of this study showed that the greatest removal of TATP and HMTD from spiked water samples occurred following the biological treatment stage, however, the WWTP processing did not completely remove all of the analytes from the water, suggesting that such chemicals could contaminate downstream river water samples. The toxicity of chemical pollutants is often determined by their concentration, however, even at trace levels, the monitoring of explosives in the natural environment could be extremely informative for the detection of criminal activity as well as long-term effects upon aquatic life. These findings also have significant implications for crime prevention and disruption approaches that can use this type of data as intelligence to guide investigations regarding the source and attribution of detected explosives.
Highlights
The use of organic peroxides to make homemade explosives (HMEs) is becoming increasingly popular among terrorists due to the precursor materials being relatively inexpensive and easy to acquire (Widmer et al, 2002)
Common chemicals used for the manufacture of homemade peroxide explosives include hydrogen peroxide, acetone, and hexamine
Thames river water samples were collected on three separate occasions in June, July, and October 2013 in order to replicate the experiment with three different sets of water samples at different times of the year
Summary
The use of organic peroxides to make homemade explosives (HMEs) is becoming increasingly popular among terrorists due to the precursor materials being relatively inexpensive and easy to acquire (Widmer et al, 2002). The identification and quantification of these explosives and precursor chemicals in environmental samples can provide information regarding their spatial and temporal distribution within the wastewater system, and provide data that can offer insights to their provenance This is an approach similar to that of “sewage epidemiology” used to back-calculate drug consumption per population (Zuccato et al, 2008; Loos et al, 2009; Karolak et al, 2010; Postigo et al, 2010; Valcarcel et al, 2010; Baker and Kasprzyk-Hordern, 2011; Irvine et al, 2011; van Nuijs et al, 2011; Thomas et al, 2012; Lai et al, 2013)
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