Neutralization results (mean, median, standard deviation, minimum, and maximum efficacy observed across all materials) for PPE and related materials contaminated with malathion, carbaryl, and 2-CEES are shown in Fig. 2. A smaller whisker box can be associated with neutralization efficacy values that are independent of the surface material and would indicate a decontaminant that can be used for multiple surface types. In the case of malathion, two decontamination products, namely, full strength bleach and RSDL1, were found to be significantly more efficacious (approximately 60% efficacy) than any of the other six decontamination technologies after a 2.0 min dwell time. Malathion amounts recovered from test coupons for the other six decontamination technologies were in the 85–95% range of the positive control amounts, resulting in statistically not significant efficacy values of just 5–15%. Since malathion and carbaryl were dissolved in ethanol at 500mg/mL and 20mg/mL, respectively, both malathion and carbaryl may have absorbed into some of the more permeable materials making these chemicals less accessible to the decontaminant on the surface. The degree to which this may have occurred is unknown and would be material dependent. Based on visual observations, the vast majority of the chemical deposited remained on the surfaces and were therefore accessible to the decontaminants. The impact of the malathion and carbaryl dilution in a solvent on the decontamination efficacy of the neat chemical is therefore considered to be minimal.
The decontamination of materials contaminated with carbaryl was most efficacious when using EasyDecon1 DF200 as a liquid (average 47% efficacy across all materials) or foam (average 64% efficacy). Other decontamination products were much less efficacious, observing only as high as 20% on average over all materials. None of the decontamination products were able to neutralize more than 90% of the carbaryl from any surface during the 2.0 min dwell time. For 2-CEES, no decontamination solution showed a high (better than 50%) average efficacy across the tested materials. Most (6 out of 8) of the decontamination technologies showed an approximately 30% efficacy. Detergent and water and diluted bleach showed no efficacy against 2-CEES on a 2.0 min dwell timescale.