Amber,
For your equipment, please be sureit conforms to the ANSI/ISEA 113 Standard. (American National Standard forFixed and Portable Decontamination Shower Units)
There willsoon be available an online Basic HAZMAT Life Support course(BHLS) offered through the same group that provides the Advanced HAZMAT Life Support course (AHLS);
http://www.ahls.org.
You can also get some very good information and assistance through your regional Poison Center, the North Texas Regional Poison Center located at Parkland Hospital in Dallas; just open any phone book and the 800 number there will automatically connect you to them (provided federal budget cuts haven't yet destroyed the national phone network).
Excellent training can be obtained from the FEMA/DHS Center for Domestic Preparedness in Anniston, Alabama. Go through your State DHS coordinator or get back to me for some other contacts. Also, TEEX in College Station, TX (Associated with Texas A&M University) has some really great training programs in just about everything disasters -- to my mind, the finest training center for all types of disasters I've yet seen. Google it andtalk to a guy named Gordon Lohmier if he's still running some of them.
As an Ol' Texas boy who used to practice and teach Emergency Medicine over to the John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth and was a USAFR Flight Surgeon at what used to be Carswell AFB when we exercised the entiremilitary-civilian mass casualty program and still does a bit of Forensic Toxicology teaching over at Weatherford College in Weatherford, I'd be happy to assist you.
Alan
Alan H. Hall, M.D.
ahalltoxic**At_Symbol_Here**msn.comPresident and Chief Medical Toxicologist
Toxicology Consulting and Medical TranslatingServices, Inc.
Laramie, WY
Clinical Assistant Professor
Colorado School of Public Health
University of Colorado-Denver
Senior Advisor
Forensic Science
Weatherford College
Weatherford, TX
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:43:06 -0400
From: amber_potts**At_Symbol_Here**HOTMAIL.COM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Our department just received a mobile mass decontamination trailer. I work at a city health department and we respond to any HAZMAT or WMD emergencies in North East Texas. Besides the users manual therereally are no set guidelines for how to mass decontaminate a crowd. Has anyone every used a mass decon trailer or been in a situation where a mass decon has taken place? We are going to set up a scenario in a few months to test it out but until then I would appreciate any ideas or helpful information on mass decontamination. Thanks!
Amber Potts
Health Department
Garland, Texas
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:21:11 +0000
From: rmizzo**At_Symbol_Here**PRINCETON.EDU
Subject: [DCHAS-L] USA Today Article on University Lab Safety
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU