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10 Decontamination Practices and Principles
Pages 137-156

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From page 137...
... Answering those questions is likely to require extensive samplmg of the contaminated area, Proper planning—the second phase—is crucial to the success of decontamination, and time spent there will be amply rewarded later. Several important decisions must be made and major tasks accomplished before decontammation can begin: The decontamination method must be selected.
From page 138...
... Results can be compared with those obtained before the procedure and against the standard specified as being "clean enough" to warrant a halt to further decontamination. A detailed sampling plan should be in place beforehand, including specific locations to be sampled, so that results will be useful and significant once they are known, A second strategy for validation is the use of surrogate organisms, or spore strips with defined numbers of spores on each strip.
From page 139...
... anthracis attack clearly show nonuniformity in the distribution of spores. Therefore, using a simple -bright line" of six log kill efficiency may not be applicable in all situations Illustration of a Six-log Kill Initial contamination, 1 0 9 of dned Bacillus anthracis spores: 1,000,000,000,000 Spores 90% reduction of this challenge leaves 100,000,000,000 spores A six log kill, 99 9999% efficiency leaves: 1,000,000 spores With an estimate of 10,000 spores per lethal dose, that leaves 100 lethal doses.
From page 140...
... Although HEPA filtration also could work in some circumstances, it is not likely to be completely effective in a large public building, such as an airport, because of the large open indoor spaces. The next two sections discuss two types of the various decontamination methods: vapor phase and reactive solution treatments.
From page 141...
... Additional operational issues could become obvious from the experience the Hart Senate Office Building and at the Curseen
From page 142...
... Significant permitting and emissions requirements will affect its implementation. A long lead time will be needed before this techmology can be implemented to decontaminate office buildings.
From page 143...
... EPA could allow emergency use as a fumigant on a case-by-case basis, but inventory of the gas could then become problematic. If a facility were to be decontaminated with MeBr, the building would not be able to reopen until it could be demonstrated that the biological agent and all residual MeBr gas were completely removed.
From page 144...
... Studies on the sponcidal action of ozone mdicate that spores of Bacillus spp. are more susceptible to ozone than to hydrogen peroxide, and at 10,000-fold lower concentration (Weis et al., 2002)
From page 145...
... Paraformaldehyde is used throughout the world in hospitals, biomedical facilities, veterinary settings, pharmaceutical manufacture, research organizahons, and universities. For sterilization, formaldehyde gas exposure for 16 h at a concentration of 1.0 mg L-l at 75% + 5% relative humidity, and ambient temperature of 75 + 5 OF is recommended.
From page 146...
... The effect of paraformaldehyde on humans should be further assessed due to the historical efficacy of this chemical in hilling bacterial spores. Vapor Phase Hydrogen Peroxide Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)
From page 147...
... The researchers hoped to find a universal decontarninant for neutralizing both chemical and biological agents. The formulation, whose main active ingredient is hydrogen peroxide, can be used as foams, liquid sprays, or fogs (Modec, 2002)
From page 148...
... anthracis spores after a 15-mmute contact time. Hypoohlorite Solutions Hypochlonte is the reactive component of chlorine bleach and is an effective decontammahon solution (Barrett et al., 2002)
From page 149...
... Screening sampling was followed by thorough "characterizahon sampling," which was intended to identify all areas that would require decontamination and to help identify the best decontamination method to use. That process identified CIO2 as the best option, followed by formaldehyde gas.
From page 150...
... anthracis spores outside of a laboratory and for decontamination on this scale Chlonne dioxide gas was selected for fumigation of the Daschle suite and a section of the HVAC system in the HSOB after careful consideration of several gaseous or vaporized alternative chemicals, including parafommaldehyde (heated into fommaldehyde gas) , ozone, ethylene oxide, and hydrogen peroxide vapor.
From page 151...
... This report provides a scientific analysis of the results of all of the tests that were conducted or sponsored by USEPA to determine the most effective conditions for using chlorine dioxide gas to inactivate a anthracis spores Finally, the authors wish to note that the historic, successful remediation of the HSOB is a tribute to the professionalism, dedication and hard efforts of all of the members of the remediation team led by the Capitol Police Board (CPB) , the USEPA, Department of Defense, other federal agencies, and the incident Commander, along with many local government fire and rescue teams.
From page 152...
... anthracis spores 10 Use of spore stops and Sten-charts to measure the effectiveness of the use of chlonne gas to fumigate the Daschle suite and to fumigate a portion of the HVAC system indicated that those fumigations were not completely successful in reaching the target level of kill efficiency (10 reduction in spores) in all spore strips.
From page 153...
... in Boca Raton, Flonda, was fumigated on July 11th, 2004 with chlonne dioxide gas in order to destroy the remaining Bacillus anthracis spores. The building was under operational control of BioOne Corporation for the entire remediation process Extensive surface sampling with microbial culture indicated that the building had extensive contamination with some bacterial colony counts following analysis reported as 'too numerous to count." Dunng fumigation operations temperature, relative humidity (RH)
From page 154...
... anthracis growth at the New Jersey State Laboratory. Following completion of focused air sampling: building-wide stratified aggressive air sampling was conducted utilizing Dry Filter Units positioned such that the intakes were located within the ceiling plenums directly in front of the air handler retu m ducts that serviced each building zone.
From page 155...
... Recommendation 10-3 EPA and the CDC should establish standards for remediation and validation of contanninated buildings and for the framing of remediation teams. Finding 10-4 The federal sterilization standard of a 6-log All—the reduction of the amount of live contammant by six orders of magnitude was applied in the Hart Senate Office Building remediation.
From page 156...
... U.S. Postal Service Emergency Pepamdness Plm for Protecting Employees md Postal Customers fmm Exposme to Biohazardous Materials and for Ensuting Mail Security Against Biotetror Attacks.


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