The Wildfire Industry Collective (WIC) recently had a discussion with Tim Meilander, President of M2DCON, of Brook Park, Ohio. In this conversation, WIC sits down with M2DCON to discuss how they use their technology to help keep wildland firefighters safe.
WIC: What led you down the path to want to tackle decontamination as a problem in wildfire?
M2DCON: Cleaning up after a wildfire can expose people to many hazards. Choosing the right decontamination solution is important. Almost 20 years ago there were anthrax attacks in the US. The call for decontamination technology to counter the attack was issued. Industry answered by rapidly upgrading and adapting commercial technology to address the problem. This team developed numerous technologies including multiple generations of vaporized hydrogen peroxide decontamination systems to demonstrate efficacy, scalability, and dependability. Today this team is the heart of M2DCON, and we continue to search for the best solutions for decontamination of chemical and biological threats. M2DCON has been at the forefront of tactical decontamination for first responders and the military ever since. We worked closely with the US Army at the Aberdeen Proving Ground and built up additional relationships inside of the US Department of Defense, as well as other federal relationships. We have experienced success on some of the DoD’s chemical, biological, and radiological (CBR) decontamination programs of record, JSEW and JGPD-HME. In the process we had DOD recognize our CBR multipurpose decontamination wipes as a preferred product for Special Operations Command and Explosive Ordinance Disposal Technicians. This success amongst others led us down a path to tackle a growing problem across the country, wildfire.
WIC: In what ways has your mission transformed over the years?
M2DCON: Our primary mission has always been to foster critical thinking and problem-solving. We are a group of scientist and Engineers. Our focus remains on identifying issues and finding solutions. We use this approach across many complex issues. Recently, we’ve noted international challenges, like fentanyl or COVID-19 for example, where many are fixated on individual products. Instead, we believe in addressing the problem from the root cause to the final solution. This is evident in our approach to the wildfire problem. We have many solutions that can decontaminate touch points, garments and is skin safe. We care about what is happening to Hotshots and wildland fire fighters, and want to help keep them safe and healthy for the long-term. At M2DCON, it’s more than just the products. It’s understanding the what, how, and why, then providing the best products for the job. Our products are mission-ready.
WIC: What types of products does M2DCON make for the wildfire industry.
M2DCON: Some of the products that M2DCON has available for the wildfire industry include our SSDX-12 Ready to Use Family of products. SSDX-12 products are rated USDA Bio-Preferred, skin safe, can be used to wash an aircraft, biodegradable, and safe for the groundwater. SSDX-12 wipes and SSDX-12 solution with microfiber clothes can be used to wipe down hard surfaces and disinfect radiological and toxic substances and chemical agents. The wipe can also be used for personal hygiene. Another product, CBR Multi-Purpose wipes (JSEW/M334) are fielded by the US DoD for chemical and biological decontamination. They can be applied by first responders to their masks, vehicles, smartphones, and other similar equipment. In addition, we collaborate with partners to engineer innovative solutions, like Neroshield, which uses advanced green-tech, biodegradable, non-toxic chemical solutions designed to impart fire retardancy into platforms designed to create fire breaks.
WIC: What market trends are influencing your company’s strategy?
M2DCON: I think largely what we do is we look for the most difficult problems and what’s happening with that. We ask ourselves what talent we can bring to bear. I don’t think we play the game like everyone else does – we don’t look for specific market trends and figure out how we’re gonna capitalize. One example of that was COVID. I mean here we are; we specialize in military decontamination, we couldn’t use our technologies in the public sector because we didn’t have FDA and EPA approvals. We wanted to apply for it but we were told that the line was too long, and we didn’t already have approved products so that didn’t happen. But in the meantime, we had healthcare companies come to us and say, hey we have a problem we need your help solving it and we did it with our gas decontamination technology. Because we used our talent in this one area, when the world emerged from COVID, we had other companies reaching out to use our gaseous decontamination technology. This created a new, successful market segment for us.
WIC: It sounds like M2DCON has experienced a lot of success with the significant problem sets that you’ve been tackling but what have been some of the major challenges along the way and how have you addressed them?
M2DCON: The hardest part of any small business venture is funding. Working on Defense Department programs you tend to have cash flow that’s cyclical; It’s either feast or famine. How you balance that is key. We don’t have capital venture money, we don’t have loans and we don’t answer to shareholders, this has all been self-financed. The company is securing its finances to maintain creative freedom. Creativity gets lost because a lot of your freedom gets tied to reporting structures and key targets; this way we’re able to be completely flexible in what we do and how we do it which allows the creative juices to flow and the ability to maneuver from core capabilities for problem-solving – like wildfires for example.
WIC: Contrary to the last question, but what rewards or recognitions has M2DCON received for their work?
M2DCON: Ironically, we’ve not been selected for any real major awards or anything along those lines. That’s not why we are in business. When we set up the company, we won a federal lab technology transfer award with DEVCOM CBC which was really nice. But we’re not here to win titles, honors, or accolades. The winning comes from achieving first-class performance results from government agencies, test results from independent labs, recognition from first responders and warfighters, and knowing someone made it home safe and sound.
WIC: M2DCON’s technology and dedication to the work are what’s important. I think that there are a lot of folks out there who are grateful, and they may not even be aware of your hand in a lot of these different processes to help make situations safer.
M2DCON: As long as we’re protecting and serving that’s a win for us. Knowing that someone was able to come home safely to their parents, children, and loved ones is the big win.
WIC: You’ve talked about the USDA bio preferred certification but what initiatives or precautions is M2DCON taking to promote sustainability and environmental conservation?
M2DCON: As a company we are starting to enter that phase. In keeping with our mission of protection and service are also doing no harm so looking at the chemistries and how they interact and with what is in play. Asking ourselves what’s the environmental impact on those things as part of the normal review of technologies. It plays a lot with the pedigree of the technology and the educational process of doing things for the DoD. It’s always can you make this smaller and lighter, and with a smaller environmental footprint, making selections of certain chemistries makes a big difference on the environment. The nano technology fire retardancy solutions we use from our partner company Neroshield for example are advanced, green-tec, bio-degradable, and non-toxic.
WIC: What are your short-term and long-term goals?
M2DCON: First and foremost, the core of the company wants to always chemical and biological decontamination and what we found out was that that’s just one piece of the puzzle so if we can do that piece of the puzzle really we can bring in others to work on the puzzle and fill in the gaps. Then, what started out as decontamination company, has quickly grown into having capabilities for detection, protection, and mitigation. We’ve grown from being chemical-biological to being chemical-biological-fire protection. Working with partner companies, we have started building out sensor systems, digital, and communications capabilities and determining how we combine all this data into a common operating picture. Doing this in such a way gives commanders and decision-makers the full picture and the best deployable solution. We have grown from a decontamination company through protection, and mitigation towards the goal of being an industry-leading, full-blown technology integrator. We are thankful for the trust and support that our partner companies provide as we expand our mission to serve and protect in new and innovative ways.
WIC: You mentioned the importance of partnerships in M2DCON’s work, especially with entities like the government agencies or programs of record. Could you highlight some of the key partnerships that M2DCON is involved in?
M2DCON: Long-term relationships and partnerships have been integral part of the development of our technologies. The US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical and Biological Center (DEVCOM CBC) is comprised of amazing people; we have worked with/at Aberdeen Proving Ground DEVCOM CBC for almost 20 years. That gave us a chance to interact and collaborate with them to develop new technologies in support of the warfighter. From an industry side, there are a lot of different companies that we’re collaborating with and an ever-expanding number of relationships. Neroshield, a partner of ours, is providing protection against fire. There is a lot of what we can do from binding decontamination technology with fire prevention. It’s going to be something to watch in the future because what we’ve seen in the past and what we continue to see is that where there are industrial chemical accidents or where there are chemicals involved, that fire always plays a part. Having the right tool in your kit is important, which makes this relationship between M2DCON and Neroshield and the development of these technologies really something interesting for the future. Also, looking for new entities like WIC – the important effort they provide and how we can foster not only a relationship at the level of the group but within the components of the group.
WIC: That’s awesome! And thank you for the kind words about WIC. Two final things come to mind: is there anything else you want to add or emphasize about M2DCON? Second, where can everybody learn more about M2DCON and how can they get in touch with you?
M2DCON: Well, the big thing I would say is we are a solution provider. We see where there’s a problem and we look to find the solution to that problem whether it’s chemical, biological, fire, or other. The team here is dynamic, creative, and our relationships give us the opportunity to go and find those solutions for hard-to-solve problems. Generally, people can reach us by email ([email protected]), and on LinkedIn and all my contact information is available there.