| The latest defence in the war on terrorism is a thin coat of plasticized paint first developed to line the beds of pickup trucks but which is now being used to protect the Pentagon and Canadian military buildings from bomb blasts. When the paint, marketed under the name Paxcon, is sprayed onto the outside walls of a building, it can protect it from up to 500 kilograms of explosives, according to its California-based manufacturer. Scott Jewett, a spokesman for Line-X Corp., said the company had no idea that a product developed for trucks would prove so effective at protecting buildings from the effects of truck bombs or other terrorist attacks. He said the blast-resistant spray-on paint helps the surface of a concrete or masonry wall hold together in an explosion, where an untreated wall shatters into thousands of deadly fragments. |