After hazardous material incidents, it is important to perform emergency decontamination procedures to remove contamination from the body. As these emergency decontamination procedures are developed, it is important to understand the efficacy of a given protocol. This study discusses a method that was developed to evaluate the efficacy of decontamination procedures by using an ultraviolet fluorescent aerosol and an image analysis protocol. This method involves imaging a mannequin while both unclothed and clothed prior to exposure to the fluorescent aerosol. After exposure, it was imaged again, disrobed, and decontaminated following an unconscious patient wet decontamination method. This work describes in detail the materials and methods used to develop the final methodology. Two clothing types (black cotton and Tyvek) were used to simulate civilian and first responder casualties. Image analysis was used to measure the extent of contamination on the mannequin at each stage of the procedure. These measurements were then compared to determine decontamination efficacy for each step (disrobing, wet decontamination, and total removal). The exposure protocol was shown to provide repeatable deposition of aerosol onto the mannequin. Decontamination was also shown to be repeatable, with no trends toward efficacy changing over time.

Contaminated or infected patients present a risk of cross-contamination for emergency responders, attending medical personnel and medical facilities as they enter a treatment facility. The controlled conditions of an aerosol test chamber are required to examine factors of contamination, decontamination, and cross-contamination. This study presents the design, construction, and a method for characterizing an aerosol test chamber for a full-sized manikin on a standard North Atlantic Treaty Organization litter. The methodology combined air velocity measurements, aerosol particle counts and size distributions, and computational fluid dynamics modeling to describe the chamber's performance in three dimensions. This detailed characterization facilitates future experimental design by predicting chamber performance for a variety of patient-focused research.