DECON and CBRNE treatment of the masses: recovery actions, planning
By Tom Carey / tom@theklaxon.com / 04.07.2010
Updated on: 04.07.10 at 10:11 am
Lynette Hoke/DVIDS
[Editor's note: This is the final segment of a three-part series on Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives.]
Recovery Actions-Technical Decontamination
As the emergency decon process comes to a close for chemical attack/HAZMAT incident, technical decontamination of the affected area(s) should take place. Factors such as the classification of an agent (non-persistent/persistent), the purity and the type of agent will determine how a cleanup is conducted.
Since non-persistent agents dissipate, decon operations can take place quicker than that of persistent agents. As we saw in the Tokyo chemical sarin attack in 1995, the exceptionally powerful air exchange system in the subway stations assisted in reducing in the number of casualties.
This proves as a good lesson learned for the United States—both transportation nodes as well as office buildings should provide its tenants this service. Authorities and building owners responsible for operating these venues have a responsibility to protect the public from these types of dangers.
The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) provides technical guidance on this topic in their publication: “Guidance for Filtration and Air-Cleaning Systems to Protect Building Environments from Airborne Chemical, Biological, or Radiological Attacks.”
Persistent agents often linger, depending a number of factors such as temperature, purity and agent. Technical decon services can be contracted out to private firms as long as they are provided the proper information regarding the chemical threat and hold the proper certifications for the services that are to be conducted.
Planning Ahead
Any lead agency having these enormous responsibilities in preparing for and conducting a mass decon has to look at this task on a daily basis.
There is virtually no research being conducted on how to effectively organize and manage such a mass decontamination effort. Research is needed to determine the optimal responder/patient ratio, how large an area is needed to decon 50, 500 and 5,000 people, what level of medical training is required for the personnel performing decon and how much medical care should be given in the warm zone as opposed to the cold zone or at the hospital.
The military model primarily addresses how to handle young healthy soldiers already wearing protective clothing and respiratory protection, and is not directly applicable to a heterogeneous, unprotected and undisciplined population.
Although a State National Guard’s Civil Support Team (CST) and additional federal resources may be of assistance, how long will it take for those entities to arrive?
If you’re a manager within a municipality, you have to ask yourself what effective resourcing can I provide to the public within my jurisdiction, pending the arrival of the state and federal governments? Conducting joint training exercises with these agencies, as well as the private sector on a quarterly basis, can help alleviate some of these concerns.
Many first responder agencies conduct some form of CBRNE training with varying standards and a minimal amount of training. Usually specialized units (the few) receiving the most technical schooling to pass onto their counterparts. Your training should be tailored and standardized following guidelines set forth by the Center of Domestic Preparedness.
Here are just a few questions you should ask in evaluating your agency’s capabilities:
How many times a year does your agency conduct individual CBRNE/HAZMAT protective measures?
How is your communication practices with other agencies? How would you grade them?
When did you last perform a Joint Exercise with various layers of government, emergency management and support agencies?
Are all your personnel trained on NIMS and/or their local equivalent systems?
Are personnel familiar with their personal equipment and Doffing procedures?
How many times a year does your agency conduct decon procedures as a team/unit?
How do you measure what you have learned?
What types of PPE are used in your agency?
What levels of PPE are in your inventory to meet a given threat?
How many people can you decon at a given site?
Do you have support personnel (medical, sanitation, etc.)?
Who is the lead agency in your jurisdiction?
How long will it take for that agency to assist you?
What agency can provide relief operations for you?
Does your agency have a robust backup agency in a Mutual Aid Agreement?
Do your local hospitals have decon facilities?
Resources
There are many training resources and products out there to assist your agency in both identifying threats and dealing with them.
Terrorism Response videos can assist your agency’s instructors to make key points through the use of this visual aid to your personnel. This type of training is cost effective, beneficial and not time consuming. See more here. Hands-on training should also take place after the classroom portion is complete.
Obtaining timely intelligence always is critical in this business and so is identifying levels of radiation caused due to an unforeseen accident or that of a terrorist incident. The use of a K8 electronic alarming device provides its user with the instant feedback on the presence of gamma and X radiation (nuclear waste, RDDs/dirty bombs). Law enforcement and first responders actively can detect a large variety of radioactive hazards throughout their communities and can double as counter terrorism measure 24/7. More here.
Most fire departments have some sort of agreement with their counterpart the police department when it comes to handling bomb threat response. However, if FD gets on the scene first, they can provide mitigation actions by simply throwing a blanket over a potential RDD, pending the arrival of the bomb squad. See more here.
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