TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - BIOTECHNOLOGY - Preferred Materials: Suitable active substances include immobilized and soluble or solubilizable enzymes.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - CERAMICS AND GLASS - Preferred Materials: Preferred fiber components include glass, ceramic, boron, silicon carbide and zirconium, titanium, hafnium, niobium, tantalum, tin, cerium, silicon, aluminum, iron, manganese, molybdenum, tungsten and germanium (hydr)oxide fibers.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Materials: Suitable active substances include activated charcoal, carbon black, photocatalysts, metals and noble metals; inorganic materials that ab-/adsorb ions or metals, metalloids and their compounds; metals forming amalgams; activated carbon fibers; activated charcoal enriched with nitrogen or with carboxylate, carboxylic acid, sulfate or sulfonic acid groups; photo-catalytic substances; acid-binding substances; fullerenes and derivatives; zeolites; foliates silicates; metal hydrides with alloy-type hydrogen; zinc; hydrides of platinum groups metals; and alkali(ne earth) carbonate and/or hydroxides.Preferred active constituents include element(s) that:(a) have a high tendency to form complexes; and/or(b) can form highly porous (mixed) oxides with an extended internal and external solid-liquid phase interface simple by hydrolysis and/or oxidation; especially metal(s) of group 1-16, more especially iron, manganese, cerium, magnesium, calcium and/or titanium, (partly) in metallic form.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Materials: Suitable active substances include humic acid, lipophilic substances, organic substances binding mercaptans, organic substances forming complexes with inorganic substances, oils, waxes and resins enriched with carboxylate or carboxylic acid groups and mainly aliphatic high-boiling oils.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - POLYMERS - Preferred Materials: Preferred fiber components include cellulose and polyolefin fibers. Suitable active substances include ion-ab/adsorbing solid and liquid resins.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - TEXTILES AND PAPER - Preferred Materials: The material contains fibers and optionally particles, including active substance(s) with high sorption activity, catalytic activity accelerating oxidation, reduction and/or hydrolysis, photocatalytic activity and/or catalytic activity induced by electric fields and/or substance(s) reacting with constituent(s) of the gas. It can be in the form of a cohesive coating, hanging, bed or apparatus or non-cohesive form. The gas treatment substance(s) is in the form of a coating and/or impregnation with a definite inhomogeneous distribution and is present in definite amounts in different groups of the fibers and/or particles, or homogeneous distribution. The material is connected to depot(s) for this substance, so that more becomes available when the substance is used. The material may be in the form of a loose bed, monolith, fluidized bed, fixed strip and/or filaments, hanging, wall-covering, flocked surface or plaster. The fibrous material is made from pulp(s) and coated and/or impregnated with the active substance(s) to give the required distribution. It is made into products of any shape.Preferred Method: Treatment is carried out (dis)continuously in light and/or an electric field and/or with washing with water. The material is moved (dis)continuously in relation to the gas. EXAMPLE - Dust masks based on cellulose are often used in painting and lacquering operations. They prevent inhalation of paint and lacquer aerosols but not solvent, which is often toxic. Commercially-available protective masks make breathing much more difficult, so that not less than 50% of the working time must be reserved to rests. A dust mask was made from impregnated fiber materials, consisting of 49% cellulose, 49% activated charcoal powder (10 microns) and 2% chitosan as binder. This retained both paint and lacquer aerosols and toxic solvent almost as effectively as a protective mask but did not make breathing significantly more difficult than an unimpregnated dust mask.