Releases of biological threat agents may take place intentionally or accidentally. Biological threat agents fall into the typical four categories: bacteria, viruses, toxins and rickettsial pathogens. These can be further classified on the basis of their availability, easiness of dissemination, transmission capability from a person to person, mortality rates, degree of public health impact and potentiality for causing public panic and social disruption and the nature of actions required for public health preparedness.

Hazardous biological agents are numerous, odorless and invisible and they are challenging to detect against the normal biological background present. They are typically effective in small amounts and people can be exposed to them through skin, by inhalation or by ingestion. Some of them are contagious. Depending on the agent, their incubation time ranges from a few hours or days to several weeks, meaning that people may start to show symptoms and get ill after a long time period from the exposure.

Early detection and identification of life-threatening biological agents is an essential step for the whole process of bio threat management. It enables timely early warning and protection, further analysis of the released agents and correct medical countermeasures to reduce the number of casualties and fatalities.

Environics Biodetection Solutions cover the steps from early warning bioaerosol detection to subsequent provisional BWA identification. This approach supports the typical biodetection principles and workflow in the threat situations. They include compact, robust and practical tools for biodetection and provisional identification to be used in fixed installed and mobile CBRN monitoring systems and in personal protection applications.