Human Decontamination

Human Decontamination

Decontamination is the process of cleansing the human body to remove contamination by hazardous materials including chemicals, radioactive substances, and infectious material. Decontamination is sometimes abbreviated as "decon", "dcon" or "decontam".

Persons suspected of being contaminated are usually separated by sex, and led into a decon tent, a decon trailer, or a decon pod, where they shed their potentially contaminated clothes in a strip-down room. Then they enter a wash-down room where they are showered. Finally they enter a drying and re-robing room to be issued clean clothing, or a white Tyvek jumpsuit, or the like. Some more structured facilities include six rooms (strip-down, wash-down and examination rooms, for each of men's and women's side). Some facilities, such as Modecs, and many others, are remotely operable, and function like "human car washes". The ACI World Aviation Security Standing Committee describes a decontamination process thus, specifically referring to plans for Los Angeles authorities:

The disinfection/decontamination process is akin to putting humans through a car wash after first destroying their garments. Los Angeles World Airports have put in place a contingency plan to disinfect up to 10,000 persons who might have been exposed to biological or chemical substances.