2020 ‘ ASTORS ’ Champion : DHS Science and Technology
Directorate www . AmericanSecurityToday . com 2020 CHAMPIONS - Edition 51
DHS Science & Technology ( S & T
)
• Chemical Security
Analysis Center Chemical Agents
Reac- tions Database ( CARD
)
• Excellence in Homeland Security
CARD , a chemical synthesis and chemi- cal informatics centric data system ( e . g
. boiling point , melting point , toxicity ,
or spectroscopic information ) containing both unclassified and classified data , is accessible from a classified website maintained on a serv- er hosted by the DoD
.
It explains how chemi- cals of interest could
be produced along with
a detailed description of how each chemical
is prepared- to
include info relevant to each step , the
reagents and reactants that are needed and the conditions necessary
for the reactions to take place , such as time
, temperature , mixing — like a recipe . If law enforcement were to discover a ta- ble full of labeled chemicals in a
clan- destine laboratory , they would put these names as a list in
CARD to find out what the suspects are making – illicit drugs
, poisons , or warfare agents
.
CARD can also be used to identify com- ponents for a chemical
. For example , if police capture a suspect with a vial of sarin gas ( a nerve agent that can kill in minutes after inhalation ), they can use
CARD to determine which chemicals are used to make it . Police can then search the suspect ’ s illicit lab for those chem- icals and obtain further evidence of wrongdoing .
CARD is a tool for assisting federal law enforcement with interdiction , prosecution , and reduction of drug proliferation .
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