Star Staff Writer
The Environmental Policy and Information Center at Jacksonville State University will host a demonstration of “state-of-the-art” chemical agent detection equipment that could be used to enhance the air monitoring system at the Anniston Army Depot.
The event is open to the public, and will take place Thursday at 10 a.m. in Martin Hall.
The Open-Path Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer uses a beam of invisible light to “read” contaminants in open air.
Dr. Brent Olive, professor at University of North Alabama and a former weapons inspector for the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq, will lead the demonstration.
“I hope … this technology will be evaluated for possible implementation in places where it would increase safety,” said Pete Conroy, director of EPIC. “Open-path air monitors are being used right now to monitor air at sites where chemical agent exists or could exist.”
The equipment has been used, among other places, in Spring Valley, Md., where obsolete mustard agent munitions were found buried in a residential neighborhood.
Conroy is hosting the event on behalf of Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who supported a Congressional amendment calling for better air monitoring at chemical weapons storage sites, the Calhoun County Commission, and members of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission.