"D/FW unveils units for decontamination"

Thursday, April 3, 2003

D/FW unveils units for decontamination 
Upgraded equipment would allow faster cleansing after attacks
By DAVE LEVINTHAL
The Dallas (TX) Morning News 


Newly purchased decontamination equipment at Dallas/Fort Worth International
Airport will increase by more than tenfold the airport's capacity to handle
victims of chemical and biological attacks, officials said Wednesday. 

"It's the difference between going into a fight with a knife or a cruise
missile," said Alan Black, the airport's fire chief. "We have the cruise
missile today." 

A decontamination unit and a high-tech mobile command center housed inside a
converted bus were unveiled at a news conference Wednesday at the airport. 

The equipment - covered within the airport's budget - cost about $2 million,
Chief Black said. 

Only two other airports nationwide - Los Angeles International Airport and
Ontario International Airport in California - employ similar equipment, said
Sgt. Larry Green, who helps coordinate the airport's anti-terrorism efforts.


Both units are portable. And although they are primarily intended for
airport use, officials could deploy them throughout Texas in case of an
emergency, Chief Black said. 

Such a situation occurred Feb. 1 when the space shuttle Columbia came apart
over Texas. Law enforcement personnel used the mobile command unit,
operational since last summer, as an extra police dispatch and information
center in Nacogdoches County in East Texas, where much of the shuttle debris
landed. 

The command unit includes facilities ranging from satellite phones and
real-time video receivers to a microwave oven and coffeemaker. 

"This is similar to a mobile command center the military is using in Iraq,"
Chief Black said. "A lot of military principles apply here to us, as we need
to be in constant communication in a crisis." 

The decontamination unit, which has never been used in an emergency at the
airport, resembles a car wash, but designed for people. It could
decontaminate in an hour as many as 300 people exposed to a chemical or
biological weapon agent, officials said. Using previous equipment, they
said, the airport was able to decontaminate only about 24 people an hour. 

A suspected chemical or biological attack victim enters a 12-foot-tall blue
tent, where he or she is ordered to disrobe and place personal items in
garbage or zipper bags. A "decontamination chamber" is the suspected
victim's next stop, where a security officer dressed in a bubble-like
anti-chemical suit sprays the person with a bleach-based foam. From there,
the person bathes in soapy water and a liquid rinse before security
personnel scan them with a hand-held device that recognizes more than 2,000
chemical agents. 

Airport officials would then send victims to nearby paramedics if they are
injured. 

But the new system isn't perfect, officials acknowledge. 

The decontamination unit takes at least 15 minutes to transport and set up
during an airport emergency. Bottlenecks may form if every person on a
packed Boeing 777, for example, needed treatment. 

"And it's not going to help if it's a biological attack where the problem is
internal, inside someone's body," airport Fire Capt. Brian McKinney said. 

But D/FW Airport will be able to handle chemical weapon emergencies better
than most airports nationally, Capt. McKinney added.


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