Background

Pathogens are a determining factor in emergency response due to their life-threatening nature, both for the public as well as for the First Responder’s safety. At the same time, pathogen contaminations are also difficult to detect, and require specialized technologies, tools, and procedures to handle them. Pathogens can easily spread via water and may cause contaminations of large areas, far from their origin.

Waterborne pathogen contamination events can occur anywhere and may be caused by various reasons. These include: Natural events (e.g., earthquakes may cause failures in the urban drinking water and wastewater network); Accidents or malicious attacks (e.g., when some unknown pathogen contaminant enters the drinking water supply); Illegal activities (such as dumping of animal waste into lakes or rivers); Cascading events (such as a failure in the power system which affects disinfection), and many others.

During these emergencies, First Responders (FR) may need to operate within a certain pre-defined incident area and are likely to be exposed to contaminated water originating from various sources, such as surface water, wastewater or drinking water. This can pose a significant risk of illness, disease or even death, through skin contact, ingestion, or inhalation.