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Operation desert crust

Gulf war veterans may be surprised by an admission buried in a patent filed by the US government’s Naval Research Laboratory: the polyacrylamide compound used since the second world war to stop dust blowing off desert airfields and roads degrades to an acrylamide monomer that is “a known neurotoxin to humans”, says the patent. So the lab has developed a safe alternative. Granulated sugar or corn syrup is mixed with dishwashing liquid, phosphate, starch and water to form a hard crust on dusty land or sand. Tests by the Marine Corps in the desert near Yuma, Arizona, show the crust can withstand the…