LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Some points to consider before purchasing chemical protective clothing for your department
Hazardous materials response on the part of fire departments has progressed beyond covering a spill with sand or dirt, or flushing the material to the nearest ditch or storm drain. The demands for personnel safety and environmental quality have dictated, for the most part, this evolutionary change.
The article in the February 1986 issue of FIRE ENGINEERING, “Chemical Protective Clothing—Do We Understand It?” just begins to scratch the surface of one of the most important issues facing the fire service today.
Initial and subsequent assessment of the hazardous materials in your district will assist in determining which of the various types of chemical protective clothing (CPC) is best for your department. The same assessments will provide insight into the types of incidents you might expect with respect to materials and container configurations.
Before making your CPC purchases, present a copy of your local hazards list to suit manufacturing representatives or a consultant. This will assist them in determining your needs. Follow this with basic requirements for gloves, boots, and/or faceshields which may be a part of the CPC item purchased. These items should offer at least the same level of chemical protection as the suit itself. Boots should have steel toes and steel shanks.
Prior to making your purchase, include three more conditions:
- That extra gloves are readily available (order extras with each suit);
- That a sample be presented for your inspection and personnel fitting. Attempt to limit your size needs to one size, but insure that personnel will be able to function in that size;
- That you be given a list of phone numbers of people who can be contacted during an incident should compatability questions arise.
Your order should be fora minimum of four of each type suit. 1 realize that can amount to $10,000 for encapsulated suits, but you need two suits for your entry team and two for your backup/rescue team should something go wrong.
Also, while you are determining your CPC needs, you must also give attention to having a supply of extra gloves. These are gloves that will be worn independent of those supplied with a suit. The gloves receive the most and longest exposure, and are most susceptible to abrasion, rips, and snags. Double gloving is imperative when handling materials or packages.
One of the best reference sources I have found for glove compatability is BEST’S SAFETY DIRECTORY available from A.M. Best Company Inc., Ambest Road, Oldwick, NJ 08858.
Because gloves are discarded after use, a ready supply of additional gloves must be on hand. Talcum powder or corn starch should also be on hand, as this aids in the overgloving process.
Disposable CPC has added another dimension to hazardous materials response. Not only can they be used as primary CPC, but they can be worn in many cases where regular turnout gear would be sufficient. Disposability negates the need for decontamination or disposal of gear due to contact with diesel fuels, oils, gasoline, or heating fuels.
Wearing disposables under encapsulated suits, in my mind, only serves to lessen laundry expenses from sweat drenched uniforms. Uncoated disposable fabrics offer essentially no protection from liquids or gases. Instead, an increasing number of departments are using Saranex or polyethylene coated Tyvek Cocoon or hazardous material suits over encapsulating suits. This offers several advantages: first, it gives an extra layer of outer protection; second, there is a lesser chance of your expensive encapsulated suit being exposed to the material; and third, because they are disposable, decontamination requirements are greatly reduced.
Again, check the compatability of the fabrics with the chemicals you expect to encounter before use.
To this point, you can have easily invested over $15,000 solely for personnel protection. You still may have outlays for a vehicle, the fabrication or purchase of response tools and kits, and references. Also, there must be an on-going training program focusing just on hazardous materials.
Is your department willing to devote the time and energy necessary to develop such a program? Budgets don’t allow for every member to attend schools. Can you develop an adequate local program or contract firms to provide local training?
Personnel must become familiar with the visual and physical limitations of CPC. They must also have experience in the use of kits and tools while in CPC. This cannot be hit or miss. It must be on-going. You might learn that an individual who can function in a self-contained breathing apparatus becomes claustrophobic when placed inside an encapsulated suit. An incident is no time to discover this.
Developing a means of communications for use in CPC is also an essential part of training. Hand signals, chalkboards, and radios each have limitations.
Another area to be perfected during training is decontamination. Personnel must become adapt at establishing decontamination stations and the various procedures to be followed. Your CPC representative may also assist in this regard. He can often give you names and numbers of technical people who can provide information on the proper decontamination of re-usable CPC. Washing with soap and water may not be sufficient. Some materials may require neutralization to eliminate latent affects of suit destruction or permeation.
CPC acceptance and periodic testing must be standard practice. Keep CPC logs on each suit as to exposure time, the chemicals that the suit has been exposed to, and any repairs made to the suit.
You should also be aware that you will need to alert CHEMTREC and manufacturers to your CPC capabilities and limitations when you contact them. This will alleviate presumptions on the part of everyone.
Hazardous materials reponse is a program unto itself. While it may at times require fire suppression activities, more often it will focus on containment, plugging, patching, and the like. It is a specialty. It demands the dedication and expertise we have come to expect from fire suppression. It has to begin before CPC are purchased and continue through energetic training and successful incident mitigation. I would hope that FIRE ENGINEERING intends to pursue timely and in-depth articles on the various aspects of developing and maintaining hazardous material response programs as they have in the past.
Karl W. Zuege
Firefighter
Norfolk Naval Shipyard Fire Division
Portsmouth, VA
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