Investigation of the Effect of Laundering the Ground Crew Chemical DefenseOvergarment on Toxic-Free-Area Vapor Transfer during Shelter Entry by Initially Contaminated Personnel

摘要

A study by the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks AFB, Texas,has compared the shelter processing transfer of chemical warfare agent simulant vapor for subjects wearing unwashed and laundered ground-crew chemical defense overgarments. Twice laundered and four times laundered protective garments were included in the assessment. Test subjects, wearing the unwashed and laundered protective garments were initially sprayed with liquid simulant (methyl salicylate) to a target density of 5 g m-2. They were then sequentially processed into and through the USAFSAM Collective Protection Shelter (SCPS-2B) test facility. Immediately upon entry to the Toxic-Free Area, the subjects were confined in individual off gassing booths for 2 h while offgassed simulant vapor concentration in the booths was recorded. The resulting mean maximum vapor concentrations recorded in the booths for subjects who had worn unwashed and laundered overgarments prior to booth entry were not statistically different at the .05 significance level. However, the 4-times laundered garment subjects (3 out of 4 subjects) showed an average 40% increase in booth vapor concentration compared with subjects wearing unwashed garments.