dwhee87
GON Political Forum Scientific Studies Poster
While personal 'decontamination' practices may be second nature to me, from my many years in the Hazmat business, they aren't like for everyone else. So, I'd like to offer a few tips on minimizing any 'cross-contamination' (or spread of contamination) from potentially contaminated surfaces (or environments) to clean environments.
When workers are 'suited up' and working in a hazardous environment (we refer to that as the 'exclusion zone') and they come out of the 'zone' for a break, lunch, or end of the shift, we have a very defined process to remove all of our PPE (personal protective equipment) that might be contaminated, so we don't spread any of the contamination to the "support zone", where no PPE is required. The area between the exclusion zone and support zone is called the 'contamination reduction zone', or CRZ (catchy & original, huh?). Within the CRZ is where we take off our PPE, decontamination ourselves (boot washes, showers, whatever the contaminant merits).
In this pandemic, we should think of our homes as our 'support zones'. They are areas where we believe we've sanitized everything, and keep it clean, so that we don't have to wear our PPE there, and can move freely. Everywhere outside of our home (and yards) is the 'exclusion zone'. We should wear our PPE there, whether it be masks, nitrile or latex gloves, etc. We should each set up a contamination reduction zone between the two. A logical place to do this would be in our garages.
Because our vehicles travel out into the exclusion zone, we should just assume that they are contaminated, and short of decontaminating them each time we come home, we should treat them as part of the exclusion zone. This means wearing our PPE in our vehicles (masks and gloves). We can wipe down the steering wheel, etc., with clorox wipes, etc, but overall, treat the vehicle as contaminated.
My suggestion is that in your garage, set up a place to remove and dispose of any PPE like gloves (a dedicated 5-gallon bucket with a garbage bag liner), and a separate bucket and liner for your face masks (if you are using cloth, re-usable masks, like many are making). Take your gloves off first, and put them in the trash, then remove the mask (with hopefully mostly clean hands that were inside the gloves), and put it in the mask pail. Next, use a clorox wipe (or similar), or soap & water on a washcloth, to wipe your face and ears, where 1) you may have touched yourself to remove your mask, and 2) you may have been exposed to anything not caught in your mask. If disposable, put that in the 'PPE disposal' can, if washable, those go in with the masks. Once everyone's mask and washcloth is in the pail, then you can take the liner out and into the laundry room, and dump the contents into the washing machine directly, without handling the masks further. The liner can go back in the pail.
Then wash your hands thoroughly. This will help keep you and your 'support zone' contamination free.
When workers are 'suited up' and working in a hazardous environment (we refer to that as the 'exclusion zone') and they come out of the 'zone' for a break, lunch, or end of the shift, we have a very defined process to remove all of our PPE (personal protective equipment) that might be contaminated, so we don't spread any of the contamination to the "support zone", where no PPE is required. The area between the exclusion zone and support zone is called the 'contamination reduction zone', or CRZ (catchy & original, huh?). Within the CRZ is where we take off our PPE, decontamination ourselves (boot washes, showers, whatever the contaminant merits).
In this pandemic, we should think of our homes as our 'support zones'. They are areas where we believe we've sanitized everything, and keep it clean, so that we don't have to wear our PPE there, and can move freely. Everywhere outside of our home (and yards) is the 'exclusion zone'. We should wear our PPE there, whether it be masks, nitrile or latex gloves, etc. We should each set up a contamination reduction zone between the two. A logical place to do this would be in our garages.
Because our vehicles travel out into the exclusion zone, we should just assume that they are contaminated, and short of decontaminating them each time we come home, we should treat them as part of the exclusion zone. This means wearing our PPE in our vehicles (masks and gloves). We can wipe down the steering wheel, etc., with clorox wipes, etc, but overall, treat the vehicle as contaminated.
My suggestion is that in your garage, set up a place to remove and dispose of any PPE like gloves (a dedicated 5-gallon bucket with a garbage bag liner), and a separate bucket and liner for your face masks (if you are using cloth, re-usable masks, like many are making). Take your gloves off first, and put them in the trash, then remove the mask (with hopefully mostly clean hands that were inside the gloves), and put it in the mask pail. Next, use a clorox wipe (or similar), or soap & water on a washcloth, to wipe your face and ears, where 1) you may have touched yourself to remove your mask, and 2) you may have been exposed to anything not caught in your mask. If disposable, put that in the 'PPE disposal' can, if washable, those go in with the masks. Once everyone's mask and washcloth is in the pail, then you can take the liner out and into the laundry room, and dump the contents into the washing machine directly, without handling the masks further. The liner can go back in the pail.
Then wash your hands thoroughly. This will help keep you and your 'support zone' contamination free.
