Personal protective equipment laboratory clothing

Field First Aid Remove victim(s) to an area of safety (away from the Hot Zone). Remember patients may contaminate you and/or other emergency responders if you fail to don proper personal protective equipment. Provide victims with emergency medical care as soon as possible. Unless otherwise recommended, remove victim(s) clothing, shoes, and personnel belongings for later return. If the victim was obviously in contact with infectious substance(s), flush skin and eyes for fifteen to twenty minutes. Route victim(s) to hospital for a physician s professional opinion. Ensure that hospital staff is fully aware of the medical situation and the poison or infectious substance that may be involved. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test (ELISA) is now approved for anthrax use in hospital laboratories. 

The Control of Exposure. This should be achieved primarily by engineering means and extraction, i.e. containment (see Figures 3, 4 and 5 use of three types of local exhaust ventilation systems). The use of protective clothing and personal protective equipment (see Figures 2 and 3 use of gloves, eye and ear protection, respirators and laboratory coats) is very much a secondary option, which, however, often becomes the preferred course of action in the workplace. 

Large quantities of each item should not be needed in a typical spill kit. One or two persons actually working on the clean up, with one person bringing supplies and taking waste away is probably about optimum for an individual laboratory, unless the spiU is rmusually large. Aisle widths in the typical laboratory would preclude easy access of more than a few persons to the spill at a time, so that even if relatively complete protective clothing and equipment were needed, no more than about three sets would be needed at a time. 

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