The Emergency Preparedness market has exploded since September 11, 2001.  Currently a Multi-Billion Dollar market, it is expected to double in size in the next few years.

Chemical warfare directed against civilian populations, either by terrorists or state sponsored is a major concern. For example, the sarin attack by the Aum Shinrikyo sect against Japanese civilians resulted in more than 5500 injuries and several deaths. Casualties of the sarin attack included 10% of the first responders. Similar large-scale chemical exposures with mass casualties have already arisen as a result of industrial accidents (for example, the isothiocyanate event in Bhopal).

Irrespective of the source, current response strategies and mitigation measures against devastating chemical threats are of limited efficacy and are not suitable for mass exposure scenarios involving civilian populations.

Further complicating the threat, organophosphates (OPs) have been identified by leading individuals and institutions as among the highest priority chemical threats. Unfortunately, agricultural organophosphates are easily accessible in large quantities - making them relatively easy for terrorists to acquire. Furthermore, nerve agents have become increasingly easy to synthesize and are known to be in the possession of terrorist groups; as demonstrated in the terror attacks in Japan and in state sponsored terrorism by the former Iraqi government wherein 5000 civilians were killed and another 10,000 affected. In addition, organophosphates are used widely in agriculture, so the possibility of mass exposure due to accidents, by so-called toxic industrial chemical (TIC) exposure, is a significant risk.

Besides the extremely toxic OPs, other widely available and easily synthesized chemical threats include vesicants, such as sulfur mustard, and blood agents such as cyanide or phosgene.