Do you need to use a meter to check for the effectiveness of your decontamination? We take a short topic and make it long. This seems to be a common thing now.

Thank you to our sponsor: 908 Devices, First Line Technology, Argon Electronics and First Call Environmental

Register and enroll at THMG e-University here. Courses being added weekly! Our hazardous materials training manual is finally available on Amazon! Click here to get your copy.

Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe. Thanks!

Thanks for listening and watching!

Don’t just get on the job, get into the job!

Testing for the Effectiveness of Decontamination

Decontamination methods vary in their effectiveness for removing different substances. The effectiveness of any decontamination method should be assessed at the beginning of a program and periodically throughout the lifetime of the program. If contaminated materials are not being removed or are penetrating protective clothing, the decontamination program must be revised. The following methods may be useful in assessing the effectiveness of decontamination.

Visual Observation

There is no reliable test to immediately determine how effective decontamination is. In some cases, effectiveness can be estimated by visual observation.

Natural light. Discolorations, stains, corrosive effects, visible dirt, or alterations in clothing fabric may indicate that contaminants have not been removed. However, not all contaminants leave visible traces; many contaminants can permeate clothing and are not easily observed.Ultraviolet light. Certain contaminants, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are common in many refined oils and solvent wastes, fluoresce and can be visually detected when exposed to ultraviolet light. Ultraviolet light can be used to observe contamination of skin, clothing, and equipment; however, certain areas of the skin may fluoresce naturally, thereby introducing an uncertainty into the test. In addition, use of ultraviolet light can increase the risk of skin cancer and eye damage; therefore, a qualified health professional should assess the benefits and risks associated with ultraviolet light prior to its use at a waste site.

Wipe Sampling

Wipe testing provides after-the-fact information on the effectiveness of decontamination. In this procedure, a dry or wet cloth, glass fiber filter paper, or swab is wiped over the surface of the potentially contaminated object and then analyzed in a laboratory. Both the inner and outer surfaces of protective clothing should be tested. Skin may also be tested using wipe samples.

Cleaning Solution Analysis

Another way to test the effectiveness of decontamination procedures is to analyze for contaminants left in the cleaning solutions. Elevated levels of contaminants in the final rinse solution may suggest that additional cleaning and rinsing are needed.

Testing for Permeation

Testing for the presence of permeated chemical contaminants requires that pieces of the protective garments be sent to a laboratory for analysis.

A few recent discussions pushed us into this topic on what meters you can use for what. Do you need to buy every meter under the sun? Or can you get by with the minimum?

Thank you to our sponsor: 908 Devices, First Line Technology, Argon Electronics and First Call Environmental

Register and enroll at THMG e-University here. Courses being added weekly! Our hazardous materials training manual is finally available on Amazon! Click here to get your copy.

Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe. Thanks!

Thanks for listening and watching!

Don’t just get on the job, get into the job!

We scraped together a little info in a half written show that was just cluttering the drive. Take a listen so we can show you how to make your first reactor in your garage!

Thank you to our sponsor: 908 Devices, First Line Technology, Argon Electronics and First Call Environmental

Register and enroll at THMG e-University here. Courses being added weekly! Our hazardous materials training manual is finally available on Amazon! Click here to get your copy.

Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe. Thanks!

Thanks for listening and watching!

Don’t just get on the job, get into the job!

I think one of the first things that has to be understood before we talk about radioactive decay is what can decay. Basically anything with more than 84 protons is unstable and will tend to decay. You can have isotopes with fewer protons decay, but its uncommon. The property that dictates how radioactive something is is the ratio neutron / proton ratio. If the isotope is found to be neutron rich, then its unstable. On the other hand if its neutron “light?” then it can also be unstable. 

We can have decay in a few manners that we may or may not be familiar with. We can have Alpha particles poppin off, or maybe some beta emission, or even gamma radiation. Further we could have a few types that are way less common like positron emission or electron capture. 

In the case of an alpha particle discharge, we shoot off 2 protons and 2 neutrons. That s a 4 mass swing! 

If we have a beta emission we shoot an electron from the nucleus. “WAIT A SECOND BOB, ELECTRONS AREN’T IN THE NEUCLUS!?” Hold your horses. 

We’ve done a deep dive on this topic, but in order to keep all of this in the same show, I’ll go over it quickly. Lets says we had a I-131 atom and it gives off a beta particle (an electron). So our I-131 remains with a mass of 131. The atomic number is 54 (which is 53 – (-1)) If we look at this purely at the atomic number of 54 it “identifies as Xenon. But the mass number doesn’t change going from I-131 to Xe-131, but the atomic number went down one. In the iodine neucleus a neutron was converted into an electron and shot out, what was left is a proton. Whew…ok, back to the regularly scheduled content.

If you could sit and watch a single atom of radioactive isotopes let's say uranium 238. The problem would be that you couldn't predict when that particular atom would decay. It might happen now later next week next Millennium there's really no way to understand.

So now let's say we have a big sample something big enough that we would be in where mathematicians call a statistically significant sample size, at this point we may be able to point out a pattern. Now we all understand that it takes time for atoms to decay and go away. So then you can also say that the same amount of time for half of the amount of atoms to decay which means that we also have half the amount still there can be calculated. So we call this time that it takes 1/2 of them to go away the half life of an isotope, or the t1/2if we had to calculate out the half life decay of a radioactive isotope the problem would be it's not a simple math equation. Meaning it's not linear. So for example you couldn't find the remaining amount of isotope if let's say it's 4.7 half lives by looking between 4 and 5 half lives. So if we wanted to find the amount or the times with a simple multiplication of a half life we would use this equation.

T1/2 = 0.6963/k

Then

Ln (Nt/No) = -kt

Now, maybe you're not a math nerd, then you’re gonna note that there's a little something different here this is what they would call an natural logarithm. There's also another one called AB's ilaug and that is not the base 10 log but it's on your calculator so don't worry about it. In here the end to the oh is the amount of radioactive isotope that we start with in terms of grams or maybe even a percentage. The end to the T is the amount of radioactive isotope that's left at so...

We were lucky enough to get a chance to participate in 908 devices webinar on aerosols and chat with our dear friend Dr. Mark Norman on the topic. We learned a lot.

Thank you to our sponsor: 908 Devices, First Line Technology, Argon Electronics and First Call Environmental

Register and enroll at THMG e-University here. Courses being added weekly! Our hazardous materials training manual is finally available on Amazon! Click here to get your copy.

Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe. Thanks!

Thanks for listening and watching!

Don’t just get on the job, get into the job!

How do we measure aerosols?There are several measures of aerosol concentration. Environmental science and environmental health often use the mass concentration (M), defined as the mass of particulate matter per unit volume, in units such as μg/m3. Also commonly used is the number concentration (N), the number of particles per unit volume, in units such as number per m3 or number per cm3.Aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS)Uses mass spectrometry to analyze the ingredients of what is suspended in the air.Detects liquids and solids suspended in the airOften it will range from 3nm to 100 micrometers.This type of technology is often used in measuring pollution Able to distinguish thousands of compounds in a single particleThere are real-time or online mass spectrometry that will perform and analyze, as the name would suggest in real-timeThe other is offline mass spectrometry which one must first collect the particles the analyze.Differential mobility analyzer (DMA)We also know this as IMS or ion mobility spectrometry a common tech used in chem war far detectionsElectrical aerosol spectrometer (EAS) is a technique for measurement of the number size distribution of aerosol using a combination of electrical charging and multiple solid-state electrometer detectors. The technique combines both diffusion and field charging regimes to cover the diameter range 10 nm to 10 μmAerodynamic aerosol classifier (AAC)  and Aerodynamic particle sizer (APS)is a measurement technique for classifying aerosol particles according to their aerodynamic diameters.The technique allows online size classification of particles without requiring them to be electrically charged, and advantageously allows selection of particles within a narrow range of aerodynamic diameters.Condensation particle counter (CPC) is a particle counter that detects and counts aerosol particles by first enlarging them by using the particles as nucleation centers to create droplets in a supersaturated gas. [2]Aerosol particle mass-analyzer (APis a measurement technique for classifying aerosol particles according to their mass-to-charge ratio.Techniques exist for classifying (selecting) aerosol particles in the sub 1,000 nm range according to electrical mobility using devices such as differential mobility analyzer. How do we protect ourselves from aerosolSo where do first responders typical see thisFiresPepper spray, hair spray, spray paintExplosivesConfined spaceAn industry that generates dustAgriculture application of chemicalsSpray for pest

We were lucky enough to get a chance to participate in 908 devices webinar on aerosols and chat with our dear friend Dr. Mark Norman on the topic. We learned a lot.

Thank you to our sponsor: 908 Devices, First Line Technology, Argon Electronics and First Call Environmental

Register and enroll at THMG e-University here. Courses being added weekly! Our hazardous materials training manual is finally available on Amazon! Click here to get your copy.

Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe. Thanks!

Thanks for listening and watching!

Don’t just get on the job, get into the job!

What is an aerosolWe going to take a definition right from WikipediaOk before we go forward a word about Wikipedia. I was personally corrected for saying that Wikipedia is a shitty resource for science based research. And then i was doing a class with a friend of mine in California Jim Davis. We have had him on the show before. He has a white paper that details how incredible accurate the science info on Wikipedia is. And honestly i was shocked. It seem that although anyone can go in a change stuff. Trolls don't really give a rats ass about science. So with that said……An aerosol (abbreviation of "aero-solution") is a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in air or another gas.[1] Aerosols can be natural or anthropogenic. Examples of natural aerosols are fog or mist, dust, forest exudates and geyser steam. Examples of anthropogenic aerosols are particulate air pollutants and smoke.[1] The liquid or solid particles have diameters typically less than 1 μm; larger particles with a significant settling speed make the mixture a suspension, but the distinction is not clear-cut. An aerosol includes both the particles and the suspending gas, which is usually air.[1] Frederick G. Donnan presumably first used the term aerosol during World War I to describe an aero-solution, clouds of microscopic particles in air. This term developed analogously to the term hydrosol, a colloid system with water as the dispersed medium.[4] Primary aerosols contain particles introduced directly into the gas; secondary aerosols form through gas-to-particle conversion.Various types of aerosol, classified according to physical form and how they were generated, include dust, fume, mist, smoke and fog.Danger to first respondersPrimary chemical hazardParticles in the lungsParticles that are of concern for us us are between .005 to 15 micrometersWe said lungs but its actual the entire respiratory track from the nose and mouth, tongue, pharynx esophagus, trachea, Bronchus, Bronchiole, and alveoli.How particulates are deposited into the lungs.Interceptions.A particle is intercepted or deposited when it travels so close to a surface of the airway passages that an edge of the particle touches the surface. This method is most important for fibers such as asbestos. The fiber length determines where in will be intercepted - like if they were 1 micrometer long and 200 µm wide, then they would be more likely to deposit themselves on surfaces near 20-micron widths than 5-microns.ImpactionAn object in motion will stay in motion. One of sir Isaac newtons first observations on mater and energy. So if you think of a particulate as an object flying in the air it want to go in a straight line. When the air in our body makes turns to get into the throat, or lungs it natural wants to stay in a straight line. Depending on the size of the particle and its momentum these particles can be deposited in various spots where a change of direction is occurring in the body. Particles greater than 10 micro meters usually stay in the nose and throat and will not go into the lower tissues of the respiratory tract.SedimentationThis is similar  to interception but instead of touching the side wall of the body while its moving it does so as it settles between breaths. This type of deposit is found mostly in the bronchi and the bronchioles. It tends to be between .