A hazmat incident can demand a lot of things. One of those is often decontaminating team members, civilians, cops and objects. We sat down with Marketing and Brand Manager Leticia Menzzanoto learn more about how Fast-Act dry decon works in hazmat settings.
What inspired your initial idea?
Our story starts at the U.S. Department of Defense, where Fast-Act was born from research focused on safely destroying chemical warfare agent stockpiles. When we saw how well our materials performed in everyday conditions, we pushed further as this early performance outside controlled lab conditions signaled that the material had practical value far beyond its original military mission. After years of science and testing with advanced earth minerals, we developed a dry decontamination technology that works through a destructive adsorption mechanism, breaking down and neutralizing target chemicals upon contact.
How did that idea evolve into what we see today?
As we realized the sorbent worked reliably in everyday conditions — not just against chemical warfare agents — we saw a broader mission: help first responders, industrial safety teams, and hazmat professionals handle real-world spills and releases. Several early pilots highlighted the need for faster deployment formats and easier integration with existing PPE routines, which directly informed later product adaptations.
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From there, we refined Fast-Act into practical, field-ready formats: optimized formulations for a wider range of TICs and TIMs, delivery systems like canisters and bulk powders for different spill sizes, and packaging that integrates with standard PPE and decon workflows. We pursued certifications, built training and protocols, and validated performance in drills and real incidents. Today’s Fast-Act reflects that evolution — science translated into scalable products that work quickly, safely, and consistently wherever hazardous chemicals pose a threat.
What did you learn from early failures?
In the beginning, we spent a lot of time trying to convince agencies to replace their existing decontamination products and solutions with Fast-Act, and naturally we met resistance. As we gained more experience, we learned that positioning Fast-Act as a complementary tool allowed teams to integrate it without disrupting their established workflows. Once agencies saw that Fast-Act enhanced the tools they were already confident in, they began to adopt it more widely.
What have you learned from taking your product into the hazmat market?
Many agencies told us they needed a dry option that could be deployed immediately during mixed or unknown chemical incidents, especially when full wet decontamination could not begin right away. Cold weather also plays a major role in response planning, since water-based systems can be slow, limited, or unusable in freezing conditions. What’s also essential is our commitment to ongoing testing and updates to ensure our products are effective against the latest threats.
What has been the most profound story you have heard from a customer?
The incident took place in a confined operational space where responders needed an immediate way to reduce airborne concentration so they could safely regain control of the area. Watching the vapor drop quickly allowed the team to stabilize the scene without escalating their response posture, and their feedback reflected how much they appreciated having a tool that could act that fast during a high-stress moment.
What’s the biggest misconception about Fast-Act’s role in emergency response?
The biggest misconception is that Fast-Act is a one-size-fits-all replacement for hazmat tools and tactics. It isn’t. It is a complementary tool designed to fit into existing decontamination protocols. In actual practice, it fits best during the early stages of an incident when responders need rapid vapor reduction or quick neutralization of liquids to stabilize the scene. Many teams told us they appreciated that Fast-Act supports their existing protocols rather than replacing them, which made it easier to integrate into their response workflow.
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What that really means:
- It’s for rapid hazard reduction, not for every task. Use it to knock down vapors, neutralize specific liquids, and buy time for containment and cleanup.
- It works best when guided by monitoring and SOPs
- It doesn’t replace training or judgment. It expands options when speed and safety matter.
- It has limits (solid chemicals, for example)
For a hazmat team, what’s the biggest barrier to entry into Fast-Act?
Hazmat teams rely heavily on consistent training cycles and established routines, so any new tool must fit cleanly into those patterns without slowing down their process.
What problem keeps you up at night?
Ensuring new adopters succeed in real-world, high-risk conditions. I worry about the details — clear guidance, realistic training, and intuitive deployment — so teams can use Fast-Act to its full potential under pressure. I also think about supply readiness and the need to ensure every batch performs consistently, because agencies depend on reliable tools when conditions are unpredictable. Knowing that a product will behave the same way every time matters to responders who are making decisions in high-risk environments, and maintaining that level of trust is always a priority.
What does the near-term future look like for your company?
Busy! We have several technical and capability briefings over the next few months scheduled. We spend a significant amount of time preparing for these in-person events, tailoring each session to the specific needs, equipment, and operational capabilities of the agency we are meeting with. These are not cookie cutter demonstrations. They are customized briefings designed to show how Fast-Act fits into their real-world workflow, and they give us direct insight into what responders value and what they want to see improved.
What does the long-term future look like for your company?
Our long-term future is user-driven. We listen for recurring pain points in the field and turn them into focused R&D sprints, expanding Fast-Act from individual products into an integrated response ecosystem. That means broader chemistries to cover emerging threats, modular delivery systems for everything from quick knockdown to large-scale incidents, and tighter integration with meters, digital playbooks, and training platforms. We’re investing in more rigorous third-party validations, global certifications, and partnerships with fire, industrial, and healthcare networks to standardize best practices.
Operationally, we’re building resilient supply chains, scalable manufacturing, and sustainable packaging to keep agencies stocked and ready. Ultimately, we aim to make hazardous chemical response faster, simpler, and safer—everywhere it’s needed. We are also tracking the rise of new industrial chemicals, illicit lab materials, and unconventional commercial products that responders increasingly encounter. Understanding these trends helps guide our research so FAST-ACT continues to support agencies as their challenges evolve, rather than falling behind the threats they face.
What’s your boldest prediction for Fast-Act’s future role in hazmat and emergency response?
That Fast-Act becomes the standard dry decon tool for first responders and hazmat teams. We’ll streamline SOPs across police, fire, hospitals, and industry so that whenever a chemical incident occurs, Fast-Act is the trusted, go-to option where appropriate — and every end user knows exactly how to deploy it. This direction reflects what we are already seeing across fire, hazmat, law enforcement, and healthcare teams that are moving toward simpler and more standardized dry decontamination steps. As agencies look for ways to reduce complexity during the first minutes of a response, Fast-Act becomes a natural fit within that shift.
