Decontamination Strategy

Deeontamination protoeols should be designed to remove hazardous substanees from workers, PPE, and other equipment exiting eontami-nated areas. A protoeol eould be as simple as doffing PPE and plaeing it into appropriate eontainers for disposal or deeontamination. 

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Effective planning is again the key. We need to keep in mind that proper decontamination can be costly, but improper decontamination can be even more costly. One large but variable cost is the time it takes workers to decontaminate. The time that decontamination will take should be estimated and incorporated into the budget. In addition, contamination control and decontamination strategies and procedures should be outlined in the safety plan, communicated to workers, and implemented before any worker enters any area where there is a potential to become contaminated. 

Efficient chemical decontamination strategies for patulin-contaminated foods like apple juice and apple juice concentrate do not exist. In the presence of sulfhydryl groups or sulfite, patulin is degraded rapidly (Aytac... 

Resilient materials development is an important capability that can be advanced in parallel with other decontamination strategies. The CBDP should leverage outside sources that are already working on this problem. Rigorous testing of the effectiveness of any material can and should be done with real agents in a DoD governmental laboratory or facility. 

Kaneka Corp., a Japanese chemical company has established an efficient radioactive decontamination strategy by using their biosurfactant, called Kaneka Surfactin, which is composed of surfactin. They successfully carried out decontamination of areas affected by the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant disaster. Efficient surface and detergent activity of surfactin make it eliminates radioactive cesium and other contaminants from the polluted area. Strategy adopted by Kaneka Corp. for radioactive decontamination of roads using surfactin solution is shown in Figure 14.8. 

If accomplished early, skin decontamination can be an effective means of reducing injury from SM exposure (Sidell et al., 1997). Most SM decontamination strategies focus on its removal with solvents or adsorption of SM to inert substances. Even simple techniques such as washing with soap and water are surprisingly effective... 

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