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Decontamination is the process of cleansing to remove contamination, or the possibility (or fear) of contamination. Decontamination is sometimes abbreviated as "decon", "dcon", or "decontam". Persons suspected of being contaminated are usually separated by sex, and led into a decon tent, a decon trailer, or a decon pod, where they shed their potentially contamined clothes in a stripdown room. Then they enter a washdown room where they are showered. Finally they enter a drying and re-robing room to be issued clean clothing, or a white Tyvek jumpsuit, or the like. Some more structured facilities, as shown in the drawing, include six rooms (stripdown room, washdown room, examination room, for each of men's and women's side). Some facilities, such as Modec's, and many others, are remotely operable, and function like "human carwashes". In describing the plans for Los Angeles authorities, by The ACI World Aviation Security Standing Committee:
[edit] Mass decontaminationMass decontamination is the decontaminating large numbers of people. Hospitals are often prepared for handling a large influx of patients from a terrorist attack: [1] University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University have developed anti-terror software that tracks patients who show up at hospitals with symptoms such as diarrhea, skin rash and respiratory illness. The software, known as the Real-time Outbreak Disease Surveillance system, is used by about 27 hospitals in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as in eight states. RODS was the nation's first automated bioterrorism warning system when it was first deployed in 1999. The RODS software has been made available free, as an open-source application, to any local, or state health department, by the University of Pittsburgh. [edit] Decontamination Exercises
Decontamination Exercises are frequently used to test the preparedness of emergency plans and personnel. Exercises are of three types:
[edit] Unified command
Collaboration among various levels of authority, and among various countries, is required to address bioterror threats, because contamination knows no boundaries. Disease and contamination do not stop at the border from one country to another. Thus organizations such as NATO, bring together member countries to practice how to contain an outbreak, setup quarantine facilities, and care for displaced persons. [edit] The collection of personal belongings for evidenceDofficers (Decontamination officers in the "doffing" or disrobing area) are often police or military personnel, ready to handle potentially unruly persons who refuse to cooperate with first responders. For example, the U.S. ARMY SOLDIER AND BIOLOGICAL CHEMICAL COMMAND suggests that:
Paul Rega, M.D., FACEP, and Kelly Burkholder-Allen also note, in "The ABCs of Bioterrorism" an additional advantage in decontaminating everyone found at the scene of an incident, because this will help the authorities in searching through everyone's clothes to find suspicious items:
Chris Seiple, in "ANOTHER PERPSECTIVE ON THE DOMESTIC ROLE OF THE MILITARY IN CONSEQUENCE MANAGEMENT" suggests that the evidence gathering process of identifying contaminated people and their belongings should also include the process of video surveillance:
Although there are the obvious privacy concerns in surveillance, one can also argue that due to the high risk nature of terrorism, such surveillance is warranted, as it is in other high risk areas like bathing complexes where surveillance is often used because of the risk of drowning. In these cases the importance of safety may often be thought to outweigh privacy concerns. [edit] Handling uncooperative victimsOne of the elements that separates a drill from a real-life situation is dealing with panicked or uncooperative victims. In a real attack, the perpetrators may be among the victims, or some of the victims may be in possession of contraband, or of evidence that might help law enforcement in solving the crime. Another consideration is that some of the perpetrator victims might refuse to go through decon because this would result in discovery of the contraband they may be hiding. For example, a person with explosives strapped to his or her body, under their clothing, would likely not be so willing to take it off. Such a victim might try to escape, and need to be restrained for decon. Separate male and female dofficers (decon officers) deal with potentially unruly patients, by restraining the hands using flex cuffs, and cutting off the shirt, then removing shoes and pants normally. This usually requires a couple of officers. The Belfast Telegraph of Sept 22, 2004 describes such a situation:
See also [2] BATTALION CHIEF MICHAEL FARRI:
[edit] See alsoRefinery Equipment Decontamination [edit] External links
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