Decontamination for Hazardous Materials Emergencies

96 Pages·1999·6.456 MB·English

by  Henry, Timothy V.

Decontamination For
Hazardous Materials
Emergencies
Timothy V. Henry
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Materials Emergencies
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Timothy V. Henry
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6789 10 17 16 15 14 13
PREFACE
This booklet is designed to provide the reader with an extensive overview of decon
tamination procedures along with the reasoning for such procedures. It satisfies the
need for information in plain language on laws and standards, toxic effects of haz
ardous materials, and decontamination at an uncontrolled release. This booklet can
be used as a supplement to a Hazardous Materials First Responder training program.
The goal of this document is to provide useful information to emergency respon
ded in charge of developing emergency preparedness plans or training programs.
The author drew from his twenty-plus years of hazardous materials work experience
at the federal, state, and local levels of government to compile the information.
The people who will benefit most directly from this information are the first
responders, as it might help them prevent injury or death. Others in the industrial or
public emergency response preparedness field may also find it useful when attempt
ing to locate requirements regarding decontamination or when developing pre-plans.
The author chose to use incident management terminology from the Incident
Command System (ICS) as adopted by the National Fire Academy. The reader will
need to be flexible with the terminology, and focus on the function of the position,
applying the appropriate term or title from his or her own incident management
system.
v
CONTENTS
Preface v
Acknowledgments vii
Chapter 1 Contamination and Toxicant Characteristics 1
Contamination Versus Exposure 1
Types of Contamination 2
Acute Exposure and Chronic Exposure 3
Exposure Factors 3
Measures of Toxicity 4
Chapter 2 Emergency Decontamination 5
Methods and Techniques of Decontamination 5
Emergency Decontamination for Non-Protective Clothing 8
Transporting a Contaminated Patient to the Hospital 12
Emergency Decontamination for Structural Fire-Fighting
Clothing 13
Precautionary Decontamination 17
Decontamination Priority 18
Chapter 3 Decontamination Procedures 19
Decontamination Plan 19
Decontamination Methods 21
Methods for Thorough Decontamination 21
Specific Procedures 24
Pre-Planned Decontamination Systems 27
Decontamination Set-up Process 32
Chapter 4 Developing a Decontamination Policy 39
Planned Decontamination Policy 39
Types of Contaminants 40
Decontamination Solutions 40
Method of Decontamination 40
Decontamination Categories 40
Secondary Decontamination 41
Decontamination of Equipment 41
Disposal of Contaminated Materials 42
Testing Methods 43
Establishment of Control Zones 43
Position Descriptions and Functions 44
iii
iv ■ Contents
Chapter 5 Laws and Standards 47
Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986
(SARA) 47
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 47
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 50
National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 50
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations (JCAHO) 50
APPENDIX
OSHA 29 CFR 1910.120 Hazardous Waste
Operations and Emergency Response,
Section L 51
B OSHA 29 CFR 1910.120 Hazardous Waste
Operations and Emergency Response,
Section Q 53
NFPA 471—Recommended Practice for
Responding to Hazardous Materials
Incidents 63
NFPA 472—Professional Competence of
Responders to Hazardous Materials
Incidents 69
NFPA 473—Competencies for EMS Personnel
Responding to Hazardous Materials
Incidents 73
GLOSSARY 77
■ 1 ■
CONTAMINATION AND
TOXICANT CHARACTERISTICS
This chapter provides an overview of contamination and gives the reader the basic
terminology needed to fully benefit from this booklet.
■ CONTAMINATION VERSUS EXPOSURE
The terms contamination and exposure are often improperly interchanged. To under
stand the best way to prevent and document possible effects of exposures, it is
important to understand the difference between contamination and exposure.
Contamination: For the purpose of hazardous materials response, contamination is
defined as a hazardous substance that has come in contact with a human, the envi
ronment, a piece of equipment, or an animal, and physically remains on the surface.
There is also a risk of secondary contamination to others who may come in contact
with the contaminant.
Secondary contamination: occurs when a hazardous substance is transferred from
one individual or object to another. This process is sometimes referred to as cross-
contamination.
Contaminants that have made contact with the surface of personal protective
clothing or equipment may permeate (soak through) the material if proper deconta
mination is not completed. A contaminant that has permeated a material can proceed
through the material until it reaches the inner surface. This process is called "break
through" and can cause unanticipated exposure.
Exposure: This term is used for several different meanings, depending on which
organization or agency is referenced. For the purpose of this booklet, the term exposure
is defined as an adverse effect on the human body caused by a hazardous substance that
was inhaled or ingested, or that penetrated through the skin.
The amount of time the contaminant remains on the skin, the quantity of the con
taminant, and the concentration of the contaminant will all determine the adverse
effect on the body. The longer the hazardous substance is in contact with a person,
the greater the extent of the exposure. A rise in the chemical's temperature may
speed the penetration of a hazardous substance through the skin. Skin contact with
a corrosive substance may cause chemical burns or dissolve the tissue. The results
1
2 ■ Chapter 1
of this exposure can be seen even after decontamination. However, some types of
exposure cannot be seen so readily. For example, a radiation exposure of 10 REM
may not display any signs or symptoms of an adverse effect, but since the body accu
mulates radiation over time, this would still be considered a significant exposure.
The degree of toxicity, as defined in The Dose Makes the Poison (by Ottoboni, pub
lished by Van Nostrand Reinhold), is dependent not only on the dose-time relationship,
but also on its route of exposure. The first route is by penetration through the dermal
layer (skin or eye contact), the second is by absorption through the lungs (inhalation),
and the third is by passage across the walls of the gastrointestinal tract (oral ingestion).
When contact with hazardous substances becomes unavoidable for a hazardous
materials team member, the team should create a planned decontamination proce
dure before the team member enters the contaminated area.
When a first responder invariantly becomes contaminated, a well-practiced emer
gency decontamination procedure should be in place. All emergency responders
should be wearing the appropriate level of personal protective clothing. For a first-
responding fire fighter, this outfit should include structural firefighting clothing and
a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA). These pieces help to reduce or avoid
exposure, thereby preventing acute or chronic health problems.
Contamination does not necessarily have to lead to an exposure. Preventing con
tamination or immediately removing the contaminant can prevent an exposure.
Prevention is the wisest method of reducting contamination. Personal work practices
and departmental procedures that minimize potential contact with hazardous sub
stances can, in most instances, prevent both contamination and exposure.
■ TYPES OF CONTAMINATION
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, contaminants can be located on the surface of
personal protective equipment, or they may have permeated into the material. Those
contaminants on the surface may be easy to recognize and eliminate. However, con
taminants that have permeated a material are very difficult to identify and remove.
If contaminants that have permeated a material are not extracted by decontamina-
Permeation Penetration Degradation
Fig 1-1 The process for failure of protective clothing
Contamination and Toxicant Characteristics ■ 3
tion, they may continue to permeate from the outer surface to the inner surface. This
is called break-through and causes unanticipated exposure.
■ ACUTE EXPOSURE AND CHRONIC EXPOSURE
A chronic exposure is one that occurs repeatedly over long periods of time, usually
to low concentrations of toxic materials. An acute exposure is a one-time exposure
to a relatively high concentration of material. For example, a continued exposure to
pesticides or insecticides during application can cause damage to the liver, eyes, and
kidneys, which ultimately would cause death and is considered a chronic exposure.
A one-time exposure to a high-level radioactive source (REM over 25) most likely
will cause mutations of body cells and the development of cancer or reproductive
toxicity. This type of exposure would be classified as an acute exposure.
Neither acute nor chronic exposure can occur without the following criteria; if
one of the prerequisites can be removed, exposure will not occur:
• Sufficient quantity and concentration
• Available route of entry
• Contact time
Even if an exposure occurs, the toxic effect may not develop because the body's
own defense processes may interfere with the toxicant, keeping it from reaching the
vulnerable target organ.
■ EXPOSURE FACTORS
Here is a brief description of the five main exposure factors:
Contact area The more surface area that is contaminated, the more prob
ability the person wearing the clothing will be subject to
exposure. Preventing contamination will reduce risk of
exposure.
Contact time The length of time a garment is in contact with a chemical,
the higher the potential of permeation. When contamination
occurs, reducing contact time is one of the most meaningful
goals of a decontamination program.
Concentration Chemicals migrate from environments of high concentration
to those of low concentration. Just as heat can travel through
metal, chemicals can travel through protective clothing, in a
process called permeation. In addition to concentration, the
strength of the chemical and the temperature have effects on
the rate of travel.
Temperature A rise in temperature almost always increases the perme
ation rate of chemicals.
Physical state of Generally, gases, vapors, and low-viscosity liquids incline to
chemicals permeate subsequently faster than high-viscosity liquids and
solids.
4 ■ Chapter 1
■ MEASURES OF TOXICITY
The method of toxicity measurement has been developed by scientists and is most
often derived from research of cells or animals. In some circumstances, human expo
sures are available, either from long-term studies of laborers working with a mate
rial or from an acute exposure during a disaster like in Bhopal, India, where in 1984
thirty to forty tons of methyl isocyanate escaped from an insecticide plant, killing
2,500 people and injuring 200,000 in the community.
The most frequently used toxicity measurement is deduced from animal research
and is referred to as lethal dose for 50% (LD50) of the animals being tested under
specific conditions. Most of the time the LD50 has been derived from a study of
white mice, fish, birds, or other laboratory animals.
A commonly referenced standard—though not technically a measurement—is
IDLH, which is an acronym for Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health. This
designation refers to an atmospheric concentration of any toxic, corrosive, or
asphyxiate substance that poses an immediate threat to life or that would interfere
with an individual's ability to escape from a dangerous atmosphere. IDLH is given
in a measurement of parts per million (ppm).
If the emergency responder is familiar with these commonly available measure
ments, he or she can use them to assist in the determinating which personal protec
tive clothing should be worn by the responder conducting decontamination. When
selecting this clothing, compatibility with chemicals must be considered. In addition,
knowledge of chemical and physical properties can assist the person in developing
a decontamination system. Understanding many chemical properties relevant to
decontamination is also highly important—physical states of matter, specific grav
ity, vapor density, vapor pressure, water solubility, boiling point, flammable limits,
and flash point.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 473, Competencies
for EMS Personnel Responding to Hazardous Materials Incidents, requires the
responder to have a working knowledge of the following toxicological terms:
Threshold Limit Value (TLV-TWA)
Lethal concentration and Doses (LD50/]00)
Parts per million/billion (ppm/ppb)
Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health (IDLH)
Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL)
TLV — Short-Term Exposure Limit (TLV-STEL)
TLV-Ceiling level (TLV-C)
You will find all of these terms in the glossary of this booklet.
For more detailed information in a plain-language approach to toxicology, con
sider reading The Dose Makes The Poison Second Edition, by M. Alice Ottoboni,
published by Van Nostrand Reinhold, ©1991.
■ ^ ■
^^^B 9HHBI
EMERGENCY
DECONTAMINATION
This chapter addresses unexpected contamination and how to plan for those emer
gencies. If a decontamination plan is not in place or if the emergency responders are
not well-trained in the process, they may contribute to the secondary contamination
and thus become part of the problem, instead of the solution.
This chapter also covers decontamination procedures for civilians and emer
gency responders who accidentally become contaminated while not wearing per
sonal protective clothing versus those who are wearing structural fire-fighting
clothing. It also discusses how to protect the person conducting the decontamina
tion procedure.
■ METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF DECONTAMINATION
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Standard 472 defines decontami
nation (contamination reduction) as "the physical or chemical process of reducing
and preventing the spread of contaminants from persons and equipment used at a
hazardous materials incident."*
Head-to-toe decontamination is required anytime someone has been contami
nated. The fact that you can actually see the contamination on clothing or skin does
not limit the decontamination process to those specific areas, although increased
attention to those areas of contamination is appropriate.
Planned decontamination methods involve either (1) physically removing protec
tive clothing from personnel, contaminants from the victim's skin, or personal protec
tive clothing worn by emergency response personnel, or (2) deactivating contaminants
by chemical neutralization or disinfection. A combination of methods may be appro
priate in some cases. The NFPA does not have a specific decontamination procedure
for victims, personnel, personal protective equipment, tools, equipment, and apparatus
at hazardous materials incidents. The development of such procedures is left up to the
authority having jurisdiction in each geographic area. Not many reference materials
actually describe a specific step-by-step decontamination sequence.
* Reprinted with permission from NFPA 472, Professional Competence of Responders to Hazardous
Materials Incidents, Copyright ©1997, National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA 02269. This
reprinted material is not the complete and official position of the National Fire Protection Association,
on the referenced subject which is represented only by the standard in its entirety.