Baths – closets – sinks – and spittoons – Shower
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-08
2002-09-10
Eloshway, Charles R. (Department: 3751)
Baths, closets, sinks, and spittoons
Shower
C004S597000, C004S602000, C004S625000, C004S900000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06446277
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to improvements intended to provide a high-capacity chemical and/or radiological decontamination system, i.e. a system capable of processing at least a hundred people, possibly even several hundred people per hour.
A known approach to decontaminating persons exposed to chemicals or radiation is vigorous showering with a view to driving out contaminants present in the skin.
If a very large number of persons are contaminated simultaneously (military attack, terrorist attack, accident) special decontamination units are used to treat the people contaminated one after the other.
However, these known decontamination units, all of which are based on standard military models, have serious shortcomings which significantly limit their effectiveness.
The main drawback resides in the fact that water or soapy water is used for the decontaminating shower, dispensed from a shower head or in some cases by atomisers or misters. Water is capable of producing a low level of decontamination only and a large quantity of water needs to flow over the body of a contaminated person to completely remove the contaminating substances; if a first shower is not enough to eliminate the contamination completely, the person has to take a second shower, which delays the treatment of other persons waiting.
In practice, in order to treat a person effectively, a 5 minute shower under water is necessary, which is an extremely long time when several hundred people need to be treated as quickly as possible.
Furthermore, in certain situations, supplying the large quantity of water needed to treat several hundred or even several thousand people may be problematic.
Another crucial problem is that of storage and possibly disposing of and treating the contaminated water after showering.
In addition to the problems inherent in choosing which product to use for decontamination purposes, there are also procedural problems to contend with. Before being sent into the shower, the contaminated persons have to be undressed (any clothing and other objects being removed by another route) and then re-clothed after showering. The time taken to undress will vary considerably depending on the condition of the person: on average, it will take a conscious, fully able person some 30 seconds but can require up to 6 minutes in the case of an elderly person or someone who is incapacitated or injured. Moreover, a prolonged wait before getting to the showers can generate waves of panic and/or give rise to secondary effects which will aggravate the condition of the people involved (for example, in the case of an attack outside in sunny weather).
Finally, in order to use these known decontamination units, it is necessary to determine the agent of aggression (chemical contamination or not, radio-nuclear contamination or not, . . . ), which further delays the start of the decontamination operation or runs the risk of errors.
The currently known decontamination units have the practical capacity to treat a total of 12 to 20 persons per hour, which is meaningless when groups of several hundred or even several thousand people have been contaminated simultaneously and need to be decontaminated as quickly as possible (the efficiency of the treatment depends to a large extent on the speed with which action can be taken).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is against the background of these circumstances that the invention proposes an improved method and system which is intended to overcome the shortcomings of currently known systems and which will enable decontamination on a large scale, i.e. will be capable of treating at least a hundred people, possibly even several hundred people per hour.
To this end, a first aspect proposed by the invention is a high-capacity process of chemical and/or radiological decontamination characterised in that it incorporates the following steps which consist in:
showering the contaminated persons individually with a regeneratable active product for a predetermined period ranging between 5 and 20 seconds,
continuously collecting the used shower liquid and
regenerating the collected liquid to restore its active capacity with a view to recycling.
By preference, the shower product used is a regeneratable active product which is amphoteric and has a chelating effect such as the product sold under the name of DIPHOTERINE, or derivatives thereof.
The advantage of using a product of this type is that it produces a decontaminating action much more quickly than water since a shower lasting for a few seconds, in practice about ten seconds, has proved to be sufficiently effective. The individual treatment of the affected persons is therefore speeded up by a ratio of 1 to 30 which, intrinsically speaking, is sufficient to make the method proposed by the invention a high-capacity procedure compared with the solutions currently used.
In addition, because it is regenerative in nature, there is no need to keep a very large stock of the shower product used for the method proposed by the invention. The product merely needs to be available in a sufficient quantity to meet a usage requirement of several tens of litres per minute, for example from 10 to 100 l/min, preferably in the order of 20 l/min. Circulating the product in a closed circuit, collecting the contaminated liquid after showering and regenerating it with a view to recycling solves both the problem of supplying a showering liquid and the problem of recovering the contaminated liquid. Once installed, the decontamination unit will therefore be able to operate for an unlimited period of time and without any constraints as to the number of persons who can be treated. It might even be conceivable to operate showers continuously as there would be no wastage at all, given that the shower product can be recuperated, and operation of the showers would be simplified (eliminating an automated on and off system); this could also help to speed up the process of getting people under the shower.
Finally, the amphoteric nature of the shower product used by preference makes this product universally applicable which will ensure effective decontamination irrespective of the nature of the contamination. It also avoids the risk of any errors of the type which can occur with the currently used systems and at the same time will considerably speed up the process of getting the decontamination unit up and running.
Using a product with chelating properties for showering enables the contaminated product to be regenerated when placed in contact with the same product which is not contaminated. Not only can the product be used in a closed circuit, the quantity of product used in such a closed loop can be kept relatively low and will only need to be topped with a small quantity of fresh product at certain times when contamination has reached a high level. In a preferred approach to implementing the method:
the liquid for each shower is drawn off from a tank,
the spent shower liquid is collected and returned to said tank,
the liquid contained in the tank is continuously agitated,
the level of contamination of the liquid contained in the tank is continuously measured and
the fresh active product introduced into the tank is adjusted to said measurement so that the liquid contained therein is fully and continuously regenerated.
In addition, by virtue of another aspect, the invention proposes a high-capacity chemical and/or radiological decontamination system capable of operating the method described above and which, in order to do so, is characterised in that it comprises:
a shower unit designed for showering persons individually with a regeneratable active product for a predetermined period ranging between 5 and 20 seconds,
means for recovering the contaminated active product from each shower unit and
a unit for regenerating the contaminated active product so that it can be recycled.
In view of the advantages explained above, the regeneratable active product used in the system described above will preferably be amphoteric and have chelating properties. According
Eloshway Charles R.
Prevor International
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