IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i6p3079-d518761.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mass Casualty Decontamination for Chemical Incidents: Research Outcomes and Future Priorities

Author

Listed:
  • Samuel Collins

    (Chemicals and Environmental Effects Department, Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Public Health England, Didcot OX11 0RQ, UK)

  • Thomas James

    (Chemicals and Environmental Effects Department, Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Public Health England, Didcot OX11 0RQ, UK)

  • Holly Carter

    (COVID-19 Behavioural Science and Insights Unit, Public Health England, Public Health England, London SE1 8UG, UK)

  • Charles Symons

    (COVID-19 Behavioural Science and Insights Unit, Public Health England, Public Health England, London SE1 8UG, UK)

  • Felicity Southworth

    (Behavioural Science, Emergency Response Department Science & Technology, Health Protection Directorate, Public Health England, Porton SP4 0JG, UK)

  • Kerry Foxall

    (Toxicology Department, Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Public Health England, Didcot OX11 0RQ, UK)

  • Tim Marczylo

    (Toxicology Department, Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Public Health England, Didcot OX11 0RQ, UK)

  • Richard Amlôt

    (COVID-19 Behavioural Science and Insights Unit, Public Health England, Public Health England, London SE1 8UG, UK
    Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College, London SE1 1UL, UK)

Abstract

Planning for major incidents involving the release of hazardous chemicals has been informed by a multi-disciplinary research agenda which has sought to inform all aspects of emergency response, but with a focus in recent years on mass casualty decontamination. In vitro and human volunteer studies have established the relative effectiveness of different decontamination protocols for a range of chemical agents. In parallel, a programme of research has focused on communicating with and managing large numbers of contaminated casualties at the scene of an incident. We present an accessible overview of the evidence underpinning current casualty decontamination strategies. We highlight where research outcomes can directly inform response planning, including the critical importance of beginning the decontamination process as soon as possible, the benefits of early removal of contaminated clothing, the evidence under-pinning dry and wet decontamination and how effective communication is essential to any decontamination response. We identify a range of priority areas for future research including establishing the significance of the ‘wash-in’ effect and developing effective strategies for the decontamination of hair. We also highlight several areas of future methodological development, such as the need for novel chemical simulants. Whilst considerable progress has been made towards incorporating research outcomes into operational policy and practice, we outline how this developing evidence-base might be used to inform future iterations of mass casualty decontamination guidance.

Suggested Citation

  • Samuel Collins & Thomas James & Holly Carter & Charles Symons & Felicity Southworth & Kerry Foxall & Tim Marczylo & Richard Amlôt, 2021. "Mass Casualty Decontamination for Chemical Incidents: Research Outcomes and Future Priorities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-19, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3079-:d:518761
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3079/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/6/3079/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joseph R. Egan & Richard Amlôt, 2012. "Modelling Mass Casualty Decontamination Systems Informed by Field Exercise Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-26, October.
    2. B. Zhao, 2016. "Facts and lessons related to the explosion accident in Tianjin Port, China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 84(1), pages 707-713, October.
    3. H.E. Stubbé & M.L. van Emmerik & J.H. Kerstholt, 2017. "Helping behavior in a virtual crisis situation: effects of safety awareness and crisis communication," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(4), pages 433-444, April.
    4. Declan Butler, 2014. "UK rolls out terror-attack plan," Nature, Nature, vol. 506(7487), pages 139-140, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Thomas James & Samuel Collins & Tim Marczylo, 2021. "Identification of Novel Simulants for Toxic Industrial Chemicals and Chemical Warfare Agents for Human Decontamination Studies: A Systematic Review and Categorisation of Physicochemical Characteristic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-22, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kersten, Wolfgang & Blecker, Thorsten & Ringle, Christian M. (ed.), 2017. "Digitalization in Supply Chain Management and Logistics: Smart and Digital Solutions for an Industry 4.0 Environment," Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL), Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute of Business Logistics and General Management, volume 23, number 23.
    2. Chiara Mio & Marco Fasan & Carlo Marcon & Silvia Panfilo, 2022. "Exploring Corporate Crisis Communication after COVID-19: The Role of Enterprise Risk Management in (Re)Building Trust," Working Papers 05, Venice School of Management - Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    3. Alan Kirschenbaum, 2021. "Reducing patient surge: community based social networks as first responders," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 108(1), pages 163-175, August.
    4. Zuritah A. Kadir & Roslina Mohammad & Norazli Othman & Astuty Amrin & Mohd Nabil Muhtazaruddin & Siti Hawa Abu-Bakar & Firdaus Muhammad-Sukki, 2020. "Risk Management Framework for Handling and Storage of Cargo at Major Ports in Malaysia towards Port Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-20, January.
    5. Michael Quinlan, 2020. "Five challenges to humanity: Learning from pattern/repeat failures in past disasters?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 31(3), pages 444-466, September.
    6. Ze-Nian Wang & Jun Chen & Wen-Chieh Cheng & Arul Arulrajah & Suksun Horpibulsuk, 2018. "Investigation into the tempo-spatial distribution of recent fire hazards in China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 92(3), pages 1889-1907, July.
    7. Li, Xin & Chen, Chao & Hong, Yi-du & Yang, Fu-qiang, 2023. "Exploring hazardous chemical explosion accidents with association rules and Bayesian networks," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 233(C).
    8. Nagi, Ayman & Indorf, Marius & Kersten, Wolfgang, 2017. "Bibliometric analysis of risk management in seaports," Chapters from the Proceedings of the Hamburg International Conference of Logistics (HICL), in: Kersten, Wolfgang & Blecker, Thorsten & Ringle, Christian M. (ed.), Digitalization in Supply Chain Management and Logistics: Smart and Digital Solutions for an Industry 4.0 Environment. Proceedings of the Hamburg Inter, volume 23, pages 491-521, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Institute of Business Logistics and General Management.
    9. Jieyin Lyu & Shouqin Zhou & Jingang Liu & Bingchun Jiang, 2023. "Intelligent-Technology-Empowered Active Emergency Command Strategy for Urban Hazardous Chemical Disaster Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-28, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:6:p:3079-:d:518761. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.