Decontamination in the Warm Zone

The importance of decontamination to reduce exposure and secondary transmission of a toxic hazard was discussed in Chap. 4. In any toxic release, the need for decontamination depends on the persistency of the released toxic agent. However, even if an agent is persistent, not all persons in or near a release zone will require decontamination. Persons held in the warm zone of the cordon where a persistent agent has been used may be classed as follows  

Injured and non-contaminated (from the effects of physical trauma) 

Both physical and toxic trauma with contamination 

The use of detection and monitoring equipment will determine the classes of patient and different flow lines out of the warm zone can be established. 

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The basic concept of operations envisages that contaminated casualties who are rescued or self-evacuate from the heavily contaminated hot zone should be rapidly undressed, triaged (Fisher et al, 1999), given basic life support treatment and decontaminated in the warm zone before being passed to the cold zone for fuller assessment, treatment and, if necessary, subsequent transfer to hospital. 

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