From: ILPI Support <info**At_Symbol_Here**ILPI.COM>
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] C&EN article on emergency decon
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2019 09:51:13 -0400
Reply-To: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU>
Message-ID: 53FD43AC-8E76-4857-8B06-2C25D6202F20**At_Symbol_Here**ilpi.com
In-Reply-To


I concur. The immediate priority is to get the stuff off you by the most efficient means possible.


Question: You spill sulfuric acid on shirt and jeans.  Which will work better? I hope this is painfully rhetorical:

1. Grab paper towels, wipe the acid off you, remove clothing, wipe some more, and then shower or

2. Stand under shower, pull handle, remove clothing.

So the take-home from the article is that if no shower is available, wiping stuff off is certainly better than not doing anything. Hmm, this is going right back to the Common Sense=E2=84=A2 thread...

Rob Toreki

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On Apr 17, 2019, at 9:15 AM, Margaret Rakas <mrakas**At_Symbol_Here**SMITH.EDU> wrote:

Ok, reading the article it appears 'dry decon' is the first step at least partially because 

1) "Responders may need 10-20 min to set up the water spray, called a pipe-and-ladder system. The warm shower system takes even longer to install and get operational.." and
2) 'Dry decontamination provides several other benefits besides speed and effectiveness. For one, it helps prevent hypothermia, " mentioning the water from a  fire hydrant may be 10C (50F).  

So I don't see either of these reasons impacting the current "get them under the safety shower first" protocols for those facilities which have access to safety showers plumbed with tempered water....

Anyone's thoughts?
Margaret

On Tue, Apr 16, 2019 at 4:25 PM Wilhelm, Monique <mwilhelm**At_Symbol_Here**umflint.edu> wrote:
Thank you, Ralph.  I also noticed that.  I was surprised that I hadn't heard this in any other venue.



Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone


-------- Original message --------
From: DCHAS Membership Chair <membership**At_Symbol_Here**DCHAS.ORG>
Date: 4/16/19 1:32 PM (GMT-05:00)
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] C&EN article on emergency decon

There's an interesting article in this week's copy of C&EN on updated protocols for decontamination of victims of chemical exposures. It can be found at
https://cen.acs.org/safety/New-step-better-chemical-decontamination/97/i15
and suggests that dry wiping of affected areas should proceed dousing with water.

I wonder if this will affect protocols for use of laboratory safety showers any time soon?

- Ralph

Ralph Stuart, CIH, CCHO
membership**At_Symbol_Here**dchas.org

Membership chair
American Chemical Society
Division of Chemical Health and Safety

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--
Margaret A. Rakas, Ph.D.
Manager, Inventory & Regulatory Affairs
Clark Science Center
413-585-3877 (p)

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