23 December 2011

Scenario 2: Decontamination

This post is dedicated to the protocol to be undertaken during decontamination of areas affected by radioactive materials during laboratory usage.

Personnel Decontamination
  • Decontamination of personnel is essential to prevent intakes by consumption, inhalation or absorption through skin. This is to decrease the external exposure from radioactive materials that resides on the skin or clothing. 
  • It is important to measure and record decontamination to direct response and assess exposure. After each phase, monitoring or decontamination should be repeated in order to evaluate the effectiveness of measures. 
  • Initial decontamination should be swift and comprehensive, but using only soap and water, or through flushing with clean water. 
  • To avoid the spread of contamination to floors and other surfaces decontamination should be carefully performed. Contaminated waste should be appropriately disposed of. 

Decontamination of Skin
  • Apply soap on moist skin. 
  • Work up a good lather. 
  • By rubbing gently for two or three minutes, work lather into contaminated skin. Apply water regularly. 
  • Rinse area with lukewarm water. 
  • Repeat procedure several times if required by using a soft brush to softly scrub the affected area. Before skin becomes abraded or sensitive, discontinue procedure. Hand cream can be applied if skin becomes chapped. 
  • Pay particular attention to monitoring between fingers and under nails if hands are contaminated. 
  • To remove fixed contamination, nails should be clipped if mandatory. 
  • Only after numerous attempts with soap and water should harsher decontamination methods and cleaning agents are introduced. These methods should be under the observation of radiation safety and/or medical personnel. 
  • The benefits of decontamination should be assessed against the potential injury triggered by harsher methods of decontamination. 

Intensive Decontamination (for large quantities of radioactivity)
  • Shift the individual from the contaminated area. 
  • The emergency shower should be used to rapidly wash off or dilute the contaminant. Contaminated clothing is to be removed and isolated for future evaluation. 
  • Flush eyes, ears, nose and mouth where necessary. 
  • Cotton swabs can be used to clean ear and nasal passages. 
  • To avoid fainting (due to the shock of the cold water and the pressure of the situation), provide a blanket or dry clothing to the individual. 
  • If ingestion of contamination is suspected, contemplate the need to perform timely bioassays (for confirmatory purposes). 


References: Elmer, P. (2011). Guide to the Safe Handling of Radioactive Materials in Research. Retrieved from http://shop.perkinelmer.com/content/manuals/gde_safehandlingradioactivematerials.pdf


Furr, A. K. (2000) CRC Handbook of Laboratory Safety. (5th ed.). FL: CRC Press.


Nave, C., R. (2011). Radioactivity. Retrieved from http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/nuclear/radact.html


Princeton University. (2007). Radiation Safety Guide. Retrieved from http://web.princeton.edu/sites/ehs/radsafeguide/rsg_sec_17.htm


Tangen, L. (Ed.). (2006) Handling radioactive waste. Retrieved from Norwegian University of Science and Technology website: http://www.ntnu.no/hms/retningslinjer/HMSR35E.pdf


United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2011). Radiation Protection: Health Effects. Retrieved from http://epa.gov/radiation/understand/health_effects.html

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posted by Michelle, Bernadette, Shanna, Karen, Su Wei, Shi Ting @ 16:55

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