Plans for mass decontamination of survivors and their pets prior to their transport and/or entry into medical facilities are extremely important in a chemical incident, as emergency decontamination may be an essential part of life-saving first aid. Plans should include protocols and procedures for the decontamination of patients before hospital admittance, an important step in preventing the contamination of health care workers and facilities. To protect environmental health and to control chemical spread, chemical incident emergency management protocols must also include procedures for choosing appropriate chemical containment and environmental remediation methods. First responders, their vehicles, and their equipment will also need to be decontaminated. Advance planning for the decision-making process can help ensure that decontamination, containment, and remediation decisions are based on the best available data and have the overall goal of protecting human and environmental health while minimizing the overall time and cost of response and recovery (and waste generated, see below).
EPA can provide access to resources detailing remediation, decontamination, and containment techniques, procedures, and equipment that may be needed. Further, EPA’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Consequence Management Advisory Division (CMAD) can provide expertise during decontamination/remediation planning as well as during the establishing of clearance goals (see below). In some instances, environmental/natural resource damage can be assessed, but not remediated. Specialized personnel, supplies and equipment will be needed for decontamination, containment and remediation; sourcing for these requirements is discussed in Section 5.1. Decontamination and remediation strategies are discussed further in KPF 4, Control the Spread of Contamination, and in Appendix H.