Evaluation of Solid Material Mass Casualty Decontamination

School Name

Center for Advanced Technical Studies

Grade Level

12th Grade

Presentation Topic

Physiology and Health

Presentation Type

Non-Mentored

Oral Presentation Award

1st Place

Written Paper Award

4th Place

Abstract

Mass casualty decontamination is the process by which a hazardous agent is removed from victims thus reducing secondary exposure. The frequency and complexity of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosive (CBRNE) incidents is increasing. Due to the difficulty of prevention and the scale of these attacks, a mass casualty decontamination process is necessary to remove the agent, protect responders, and prevent further exposure. Researchers suggest that disrobing reduces 80 to 90 percent of the contaminate; however, there is no evidence-based data to quantify the effectiveness of decontamination. Efficiency of mass decontamination can be quantified by the percent change in body surface area contaminated. If a victim merely disrobes, then 80 to 90 percent of the contaminant will be removed while emergency and shelter decontamination scenarios will have an increased percentage of contaminant removal. In preliminary testing, the mock contaminant, GloGerm powder, was dispersed onto test subjects using a pressurized PVC pipe system. Anterior and posterior photographs were taken of each test subject before and after decontamination. After analyzing the images in Photoshop a matched paired t-test was conducted. There was statistically significant evidence in order to reject the null hypothesis in favor of the alternative hypothesis stating that the mean difference in percentage of body contaminated between contaminated and decontaminated photographs is greater than zero. This conclusion suggests efficiency and reproducibility of disrobing decontamination. This method will be further evaluated during the finial large scale experiment in April.

Location

Wall 321

Start Date

3-25-2017 12:00 PM

Presentation Format

Oral and Written

Group Project

No

COinS
 
Mar 25th, 12:00 PM

Evaluation of Solid Material Mass Casualty Decontamination

Wall 321

Mass casualty decontamination is the process by which a hazardous agent is removed from victims thus reducing secondary exposure. The frequency and complexity of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high-yield explosive (CBRNE) incidents is increasing. Due to the difficulty of prevention and the scale of these attacks, a mass casualty decontamination process is necessary to remove the agent, protect responders, and prevent further exposure. Researchers suggest that disrobing reduces 80 to 90 percent of the contaminate; however, there is no evidence-based data to quantify the effectiveness of decontamination. Efficiency of mass decontamination can be quantified by the percent change in body surface area contaminated. If a victim merely disrobes, then 80 to 90 percent of the contaminant will be removed while emergency and shelter decontamination scenarios will have an increased percentage of contaminant removal. In preliminary testing, the mock contaminant, GloGerm powder, was dispersed onto test subjects using a pressurized PVC pipe system. Anterior and posterior photographs were taken of each test subject before and after decontamination. After analyzing the images in Photoshop a matched paired t-test was conducted. There was statistically significant evidence in order to reject the null hypothesis in favor of the alternative hypothesis stating that the mean difference in percentage of body contaminated between contaminated and decontaminated photographs is greater than zero. This conclusion suggests efficiency and reproducibility of disrobing decontamination. This method will be further evaluated during the finial large scale experiment in April.