concentrations will tend to be reduced by a more fa-
desorb surface contamination relative to still air, and
vorable partitioning into water. Observed decreases and
will thus have a major influence on contaminant trans-
redistribution of surface contamination after landmines
port from buried mines under field conditions.
have been buried tend to support this conclusion (field
results, Fort Leonard Wood, 1999). Therefore, after de-
LITERATURE CITED
ployment, mine surface concentrations (and fluxes) are
expected to be under the influence of local wetting and
drying cycles. This point will be discussed in more de-
Bender, E., A. Hogan, D. Leggett, G. Miskolczy, and
tail elsewhere (Leggett et al., in prep.; Leggett and
S. MacDonald (1992) Surface contamination by TNT.
Cragin, in prep.).
Journal of Forensic Science, 16731678.
Hogan, A., D. Leggett, T. Jenkins, and P. Miyares
(1992) Surface contamination of depot-stored
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
landmines: Results of preliminary analysis. Memoran-
dum to Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
The earlier study, which included a greater range of
(unpublished).
mine types, found surface contamination ranging more
Humanitarian Demining Database (1999) http://
widely than found here. The frequency distributions
www.demining.brtrc.com.
were highly skewed, approximately log-normally.
Leggett, D., and J. Cragin (in prep.) Permeability of
Greater variability in the earlier study may also have
plastic materials to explosive compounds. U.S. Army
been ascribable in part to researchers taking single
Engineer Research and Development Center, Cold Re-
swabs using an invasive solvent. With some exceptions,
gions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Technical
the current data ranged over approximately an order of
Report.
magnitude within each mine type for each of the major
Leggett, D., T. Ranney, J. Cragin, and T. Jenkins (in
signature components and were less skewed. Sampling
prep.) Flux of explosive contaminants from landmines.
of painted metal and plastic surfaces with solvent disks
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Cen-
may have extracted contamination dissolved in the
ter, Cold Regions Research and Engineering Labora-
material as well as that on the surface. In any event,
tory, Technical Report.
surface samples underestimate the size of the reservoir,
Thibodeaux, L. (1979) Chemodynamics. New York:
which is three-dimensional. Surface contamination is
John Wiley.
renewable by contaminant vapors permeating through
Walsh, M.E., and T.A. Ranney (1998) Determination
casing materials and by external contamination from
of nitroaromatic, nitramine, and nitrate ester explosives
other mines in proximity. External conditions such as
in water using solid-phase extraction and GC-ECD:
temperature, wind, and moisture will influence surface
Comparison with HPLC. Journal of Chromatographic
concentrations. Liquid water, in particular, will quickly
Science, 36: 406416.
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