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How to determine if your PPE is contaminated, and this includes Leather Helmets...
GROSS DECON / TFT NOZZLE SAFETY NOTE: It is imperative for your firefighters to ensure that the TFT nozzles are free from any debris or rocks. Any interruption of the fog pattern results will not create a fine mist but instead heavier droplets which can cause severe tissue damage to chemical exposure victims. This is specially true when using elevated master stream appliances.
Remember that chemicals burn the skin and deep. “Do no more harm” is an important factor here.
You've rescued someone, got them through a gross decon. safely transferred them to someone for secondary (more thorough) decontamination. So there you are, you did a good job, lives were saved but your still contaminated? Well, if you went through gross decon, chances are pretty good that you have removed the majority of contamination.
THE SOLUTION TO POLLUTION IS USUALLY DILUTION...
Rules for Removing Contamination: Remember that by simply removing clothing, 85% of the chemical contamination and over 95% for radiological contamination can be removed.
Question: But there remains one problem... how do you know if your turnouts are fully decontaminated? When can the turnouts be returned to the firefighter?
Using Leather in Hazardous Atmospheres: Here’s why leather helmets may want to be reconsidered as the helmet of choice, especially when dealing with this type of scenario. Leather absorbs toxins... boots, gloves, belt, helmets, all easily absorb chemicals and from what I’ve read to date, cannot be decontaminated. So now what? Maybe your one of the lucky firefighters who’s family bought them one of those cool Cairns leather helmets when you promoted or maybe you just bought that brand new pair of boots. And the turnouts ensemble, I have not priced these lately but we are talking over a $1,000.00 for both the turnout jacket and pants. But I would not be writing this bad news doomsday scenario unless I had an escape route, and I do...
Determining Whether Your Stuff is Contaminated: There are two ways that I know of to determine whether or not your PPE has been contaminated. The first is very costly and requires special materials and shipping containers to ship the samples to a lab for testing. This testing process is called destructive testing and requires a swatch of material from the chest area and one from the bottom of your turnout pants. It’s not uncommon to have a set of turnouts decontaminated with sections of jacket or pants missing and replacement patches clearly visible. Special Teflon shipping containers are used to ensure that any off-gassing is captured but not absorbed by the shipping container. The PPE samples are placed into a gas chromatography device that burns the samples and prints out a signature strip that shows peaks for the various chemicals.
We all know that when something burns it actually decomposes. This decompositional process of materials results in off-gassing of product and normally contains, aldehydes, ketones, aromatic hydrocarbons, organic vapors and mists, and unburned radicals that reform in many different compounds, many carcinogens. The most dangerous time to be in a structure fire is during overhaul and mop-up. This is when the concrete is cooling and releasing this stuff into the atmosphere. This type of material is typically found in our turnouts from exposure to things that burn or decompose. The problem arises for those who don’t routinely wash their turnout gear. Oils that permeated the turnouts have the ability to also attract the products of decomposition.
Exposure over a long period of time for some or short periods of time for others can elicit a trigger in your system that causes cancer. I’ve been told that simply pumping gas, and being exposed to the benzene in gasoline in some individuals can elicit a chain reaction with cancer taking their live, from just one exposure. While this is certainly not the norm, what you have to remember is that exposures to hazardous chemicals is accumulative and cancers take decades in some cases to present any symptoms.
If you are a real firefighter then only you will truly understand my next statement. How long after a structure fire does it take to stop smelling smoke after washing your hair? One day, two days, more? Yup, typically it is several days until you no longer smell smoke, or more specifically, the products of decomposition. You’ve been dosed my friend... and how many times?
So now you are really wondering if it’s safe to put your PPE back on but you can’t really justify spending over a grand on having your PPE tested. It’s not that you don’t want to, it’s just that you need some sort of clue to let you know if it’s something that you need to do. I do have an answer and you can test your own
PPE for maybe under $50.00 per set of PPE. How is this done? And so inexpensively?
You need a 35-gallon clear polybag and a selection of draeger tubes Place the suspected turnouts, boots, helmet, everything into the bag and capture air in the bag. You need to spin the top of the bag, making a gooseneck. Tape the bottom of the gooseneck, keep it twisted and bring the “gooseneck” back onto itself to keep the air trapped inside the bag. Now set it in the sun or a heat lamp to cause the things in the bag to develop a condensate inside the bag. What ever is on the turnouts will be off-gassed and released inside the bags atmosphere. In fact, the bag will actually expand due to this release of moisture inside the bag.
Now take your assortment of draeger tubes and with piece of duct tape ready, simply puncture the bag and draw air through the draeger pump for each chemical that you test for. What draeger tubes should you use? If you know what the exact product is, then you are golden. If you don’t and something burned, then the chemicals exposure mantra comes into place, eg. Aldehydes, ketones, aromatic hydrocarbons and organic vapors and mists is a good start. Keep in mind that other things out there can off gas some pretty nasty stuff. Wool carpet for example emits cyanide gas... My hazmat scenario with the rat poison emited phosgene gas. It’s all bad but at least now you have a way to make an educated guess as to whether or not your turnouts or leather products are safe to continue wearing or where you may have to consider getting rid of stuff. Tough choice but if you have to, at least your doing so knowing that it was definitely contaminated.
I hope you find this information useful and practical toward mitigating dangerous conditions involving hazardous chemical exposures for firefighters.
Fraternally,
Mike Schlags, Fire Captain / Hazmat WMD Specialist Instructor
Santa Barbara, CA
mschlags@yahoo.com
Remember that chemicals burn the skin and deep. “Do no more harm” is an important factor here.
You've rescued someone, got them through a gross decon. safely transferred them to someone for secondary (more thorough) decontamination. So there you are, you did a good job, lives were saved but your still contaminated? Well, if you went through gross decon, chances are pretty good that you have removed the majority of contamination.
THE SOLUTION TO POLLUTION IS USUALLY DILUTION...
Rules for Removing Contamination: Remember that by simply removing clothing, 85% of the chemical contamination and over 95% for radiological contamination can be removed.
Question: But there remains one problem... how do you know if your turnouts are fully decontaminated? When can the turnouts be returned to the firefighter?
Using Leather in Hazardous Atmospheres: Here’s why leather helmets may want to be reconsidered as the helmet of choice, especially when dealing with this type of scenario. Leather absorbs toxins... boots, gloves, belt, helmets, all easily absorb chemicals and from what I’ve read to date, cannot be decontaminated. So now what? Maybe your one of the lucky firefighters who’s family bought them one of those cool Cairns leather helmets when you promoted or maybe you just bought that brand new pair of boots. And the turnouts ensemble, I have not priced these lately but we are talking over a $1,000.00 for both the turnout jacket and pants. But I would not be writing this bad news doomsday scenario unless I had an escape route, and I do...
Determining Whether Your Stuff is Contaminated: There are two ways that I know of to determine whether or not your PPE has been contaminated. The first is very costly and requires special materials and shipping containers to ship the samples to a lab for testing. This testing process is called destructive testing and requires a swatch of material from the chest area and one from the bottom of your turnout pants. It’s not uncommon to have a set of turnouts decontaminated with sections of jacket or pants missing and replacement patches clearly visible. Special Teflon shipping containers are used to ensure that any off-gassing is captured but not absorbed by the shipping container. The PPE samples are placed into a gas chromatography device that burns the samples and prints out a signature strip that shows peaks for the various chemicals.
We all know that when something burns it actually decomposes. This decompositional process of materials results in off-gassing of product and normally contains, aldehydes, ketones, aromatic hydrocarbons, organic vapors and mists, and unburned radicals that reform in many different compounds, many carcinogens. The most dangerous time to be in a structure fire is during overhaul and mop-up. This is when the concrete is cooling and releasing this stuff into the atmosphere. This type of material is typically found in our turnouts from exposure to things that burn or decompose. The problem arises for those who don’t routinely wash their turnout gear. Oils that permeated the turnouts have the ability to also attract the products of decomposition.
Exposure over a long period of time for some or short periods of time for others can elicit a trigger in your system that causes cancer. I’ve been told that simply pumping gas, and being exposed to the benzene in gasoline in some individuals can elicit a chain reaction with cancer taking their live, from just one exposure. While this is certainly not the norm, what you have to remember is that exposures to hazardous chemicals is accumulative and cancers take decades in some cases to present any symptoms.
If you are a real firefighter then only you will truly understand my next statement. How long after a structure fire does it take to stop smelling smoke after washing your hair? One day, two days, more? Yup, typically it is several days until you no longer smell smoke, or more specifically, the products of decomposition. You’ve been dosed my friend... and how many times?
So now you are really wondering if it’s safe to put your PPE back on but you can’t really justify spending over a grand on having your PPE tested. It’s not that you don’t want to, it’s just that you need some sort of clue to let you know if it’s something that you need to do. I do have an answer and you can test your own
PPE for maybe under $50.00 per set of PPE. How is this done? And so inexpensively?
You need a 35-gallon clear polybag and a selection of draeger tubes Place the suspected turnouts, boots, helmet, everything into the bag and capture air in the bag. You need to spin the top of the bag, making a gooseneck. Tape the bottom of the gooseneck, keep it twisted and bring the “gooseneck” back onto itself to keep the air trapped inside the bag. Now set it in the sun or a heat lamp to cause the things in the bag to develop a condensate inside the bag. What ever is on the turnouts will be off-gassed and released inside the bags atmosphere. In fact, the bag will actually expand due to this release of moisture inside the bag.
Now take your assortment of draeger tubes and with piece of duct tape ready, simply puncture the bag and draw air through the draeger pump for each chemical that you test for. What draeger tubes should you use? If you know what the exact product is, then you are golden. If you don’t and something burned, then the chemicals exposure mantra comes into place, eg. Aldehydes, ketones, aromatic hydrocarbons and organic vapors and mists is a good start. Keep in mind that other things out there can off gas some pretty nasty stuff. Wool carpet for example emits cyanide gas... My hazmat scenario with the rat poison emited phosgene gas. It’s all bad but at least now you have a way to make an educated guess as to whether or not your turnouts or leather products are safe to continue wearing or where you may have to consider getting rid of stuff. Tough choice but if you have to, at least your doing so knowing that it was definitely contaminated.
I hope you find this information useful and practical toward mitigating dangerous conditions involving hazardous chemical exposures for firefighters.
Fraternally,
Mike Schlags, Fire Captain / Hazmat WMD Specialist Instructor
Santa Barbara, CA
mschlags@yahoo.com
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Joe Stoltz on
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Aw, I bet you tell that to everyone, Mike.
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Permalink Reply by Engineco913 on
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I agree with the photos of the tubes for evidence reasoning. As for taping the tubes to the bags, there shouldn't be any problem with that. Varying results of coloration changes would take quite a bit of time, and since this testing is in "real time"(as in your doing it) there shouldn't be any issue. Keeping the tubes there for the purpose of sending it out for decon and or calling an insurance adjuster to come and look is a smarter and safer bet
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To add also to this contribution by Mike, I want to add that the colormetric tubes are only a start also. Basic testing with Ph paper (dampened with clean saline and then touched to your PPE in random locations (multiple tests) and all suspect areas), the PID and also a MultiRae reading are more tests that can be used. The MultiRae is something that a lot of people may not believe. In a situation where your clothing is in an enclosed bag, the confined space will give the sensors a good representation of any off gassing which would in turn notify you that there is a potential issue with your things. 1 posative test is cause for alarm, but is also grounds for further testing. Multiple tests are used to ensure a fair representation of accurate facts is achieved
As with all Haz Mat responses, we don't test with 1 method and take the results as those set in stone. We use multiple tests, and after we get the results that concur with the testing we come up with a plan of action.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Schlags (Captain Busy) Retd on
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you know... the problem with posts sometimes is that you don't necessarily remember everything... Thanks J for bringing up the photo necessity and PID.
Editorial Note: For those out there reading this, I want to point something very important for you to note about how firefighters work, and how they think.
In this post and conversation, suggestions are made as to how to improve something or maybe point out something that was not mentioned. This is how we make decisions, and many times this decision process is exactly what occurs in the cab of our engine with dialog between the Captain, Engineer and Firefighter(s). Just thought I'd point this out. Regardless whether you are career or volunteer, we all are dependent upon one another to make sure that we can go home the next morning...
Ok, so maybe I forget to mention that we use a digital 35mm camera with a date and time stamp imprinted on it for documentation as well as video all of the collected evidence to document a bigger picture. And the PID, if you have one, they are not cheap... and they require a higher level of understanding toward both the monitor as well as sampling techniques. In addition to using the PID, multi detectors (which are really simple to use) can also be used to detect PPM / LEL hydrocarbon detection, and dependent upon the type of multi-gas monitor that you have, you can have a variety of specific chemical sensors that can monitor:
Standard Confined Space Gases
Hydrocarbons 0 - 100% LEL 0 - 50,000 ppm
Oxygen (O2 ) 0 - 40% Vol.
Carbon Monoxide (CO) 0 - 500 ppm
Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) 0 - 100 ppm
Super Toxics and Other Gases
Ammonia (NH3 )
Arsine (AsH3 )
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Chlorine (Cl2 )
Chlorine Dioxide (ClO2 )
Fluorine (F2 )
Hydrogen Fluoride (HF)
Hydrogen Chloride (HCl)
Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN)
Methane (CH4 )
Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2)
Ozone (O3)
Phosphine (PH3 )
Silane (SiH4 )
Sulfur Dioxide (SO2 )
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Cyanide is something that also can be metered using a Multi-Rae so long as you have the bulb for it. (replaces every 6 months) Just 1 more to always think of.
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I know that burning wool off-gases cyanide, can you remember anything else?
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" Overwhelming evidence exists that cyanide is present in fire smoke more commonly
and in greater quantities than previously believed due to modern materials such as
plastics, rubber, asphalt, and polyacrylonitriles."
Providence Fire Department Cyanide poisoning report
http://www.local799.com/docs/pfdcyanidereport.pdf
Plastics are always a big one. With the amount of composite material in homes and commercial properties, cyanide is just one major factor we need to think about. I worry that having wet gear due to firefighting activities and then exposure to the cyanide in the air could cause the articles of PPE to self saturate. When the PPE is drying, the off gas process is returned causing a risk.
Of course, I don't have a college education, nor have I studied this one subject for a great length of time. To me, this seems to make sense. Without getting your PPE dirty in a building fire, your PPE smells of smoke for days. In my eyes, that means the fibers are saturated and the smell you are getting is "off gassing." With the quantity and levels of protection we wear in a fire, when we remove this protection, we are wide open.
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Permalink Reply by Ben Waller on
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Mike,
I'm a little late joining this one due to being tied up administering a promotional test and then away at a conference, but here's my $0.02.
It may be possible to determine if leather fire helmets or boots have been contaminated by doing the offgassing-in-a-bag test, but it is essentially impossible to absolutely determine whether or not leather is NOT contaminated.
The first rule for this is that it is scientifically impossible to prove a negative - i.e. the lack of contamination. If your leather gear has been exposed to a chemical, then it likely is contaminated and you won't be able to prove that it is clean.
A PID can be fooled, because the PID lamp doesn't "see" every chemical. For example, if you have a MultiRAE Plus with the standard 10.6 eV lamp, any chemical that with a higher eV value will be invisible to the lamp. That doesn't mean that it's not offgassing something dangerous, just that your meter can't detect it. Ditto for very heavy or viscous materials. Atmospheric monitors primarily detect respiratory hazards - vapors or gases in ambient air. Very heavy or viscous liquids that don't readily vaporize won't put detectable levels of molecules into the air.
Why is that important? It's because an air monitor can't detect permeation or skin absorption hazards for chemicals that may have soaked into the leather and that don't readily off-gas.
Wiping a leather surface with pH paper, oxidizer paper, M8 or M9 paper, or toilet paper may help you pick up contaminents, or it may not. You have no way to prove that the leather is clean, especially if you have an unpainted leather helmet.
The best way to rule out leather contamination from hazardous materials is to wear something else to hazmat incidents. I thought long and hard about purchasing leather fire boots, and chose not to, based on the hazmat issues and my membership in a Hazmat Team and a COBRA (WMD) team. If I contaminate my boot-fit Rangers, I can either decon them or leave them in an overpack drum and have the Logistics guy issue me another pair.
I have a leather fire helmet, but it is for firefighting only. I wear a USAR helmet for rescue - including extrication - and I have my issue composite turtle helmet for hazmat and COBRA work.
The bottom line is that all turnout gear items are potentially expendable if you wear them around hazardous materials in high concentrations.
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Ben, That was one of the most succinct straight forward description of how a PID works that I have ever read. You summed up a week long class into one paragraph. Not bad...
I'd like to hear more about your boot-fit Rangers. Do they provide support, protection, comfort and the ability to have zippers on the side? My station boots have just gotten to the point where I need to replace them. Vendor? Cost?
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Mike,
The boot-fit Rangers are just a new-style rubber fire boot, kept with turnout pants around the ankles in my gear bag.
http://www.galls.com/yaid/style.html?assort=general_catalog&sty...
I wear Bates Enforcer station boots for station wear - the waterproof ANSI version. I also have a pair of USAR boots that are too heavy for everyday, but hold up a lot better around the broken concrete.
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=121772&kwtid=20...
http://www.forestry-suppliers.com/product_pages/View_Catalog_Page.a...
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Permalink Reply by Moose on
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Chief,
You have to remember too, there are TONS of Haz-Mat located anywhere in a structure fire. Look at the chemicals kept in the bathroom, kitchen, garages, basements, workshops. You can be exposed to these at any fire and should be taken into consideration when addressing the leather equipment exposure. This has been a great discussion so far, thanks for sharing all of your knowledge and experience with us all chief, and Mike.
Ben, did you take the COBRA training in Aniston Alabama? I might be going there this December with someone else from my team, Captain Schlags has gone too, but I was just wondering if you went as well.
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Moose,
I took the 2nd pilot class at Anniston in 2000, if my memory serves.
Our state is looking at doing these classes in-state, due to the backfill issues to staff slots for people being gone to Anniston, Soccoro, etc. for several days at a time. The only thing we'd miss is the live agent entry, which is the least important part of the training. The live agent entries are done in PPE that most Hazmat and COBRA teams don't have, and use decon methods that are much more complex than anything generally available in the field. Live agent is a good confidence builder, but what the site operators don't tell you is that they carefully monitor the agent release and the atmospheric conditions inside and outside the structure, calculate how much of each agent to use in each room, and have chemical alarms that activate if 80% of IDLH is reached. In other words, unless it gets unusually hot in a hurry, you could probably survive the environment without chemical protective clothing as long as you recieved quick decon and treatment. Once I found that out, the live agent training lost a little of its luster.
The techniques I learned at Anniston, and especially the core knowledge were priceless.
As for household hazmat, you're right, but that hazmat is in small quantities. It is unusual to wade in puddles of pure hazmat at a kitchen or garage fire, unlike a tanker leaking Tri-Nitro Killytwice.
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