Mobile decontamination and containment unit

There is provided a mobile decontamination unit which includes a shower compartment. The shower compartment has a shower head and a drain located therein. There is a means for providing water to the shower head. There is a storage tank connected to the drain to store contaminated water from the shower compartment. There is a waiting compartment, that is preferably maintained under positive pressure, connected to the shower compartment. There is a means for maintaining the shower compartment at a negative air pressure. In another aspect of the invention, there is provided a mobile decontamination unit which includes a shower compartment. The shower compartment has a shower head and a drain located therein. There are means for providing water to the shower heads and means for heating the water before it reaches the shower heads. A storage tank is connected to the drains for storing contaminated water.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to methods of decontaminating persons using 
decontamination units and in particular a mobile decontamination unit 
which can be readily transported to an emergency site which involves 
hazardous materials. 
With the wide spread use of hazardous chemicals, it is increasingly 
important to provide a mobile unit that can be readily transported to an 
emergency situation and can be easily used. Further, it may be necessary 
in the future to have a decontamination unit for any fire since many 
building materials contain toxic substances and accordingly it may be 
important for the fire and rescue personnel to go through a 
decontamination process before returning to their respective stations. It 
will be appreciated that the decontamination unit might also be used by 
police departments, ambulance services, hydro companies, gas companies, 
work departments, environmental agencies or transportation agencies since 
their personnel may also become exposed in emergency or even routine 
situations. 
Some prior art references have recognized the need of decontaminating 
personnel. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,311 issued Jan. 10, 1989 to 
Shankman shows an intake facility for use in conjunction with a hospital 
emergency room. The facility is to provide a system to decontaminate 
individuals prior to an individual mixing with the existing emergency room 
facilities. This intake facility includes a room for bagging the patient's 
clothing, a first shower room where the patient is sprayed with a mixture 
of water and detergent, a second shower room where the patient is sprayed 
with-Water, a drying room and a triage room. 
Another device for decontaminating equipment and personnel is shown in U.S. 
Pat. No. 4,858,256 issued Aug. 22, 1989 to Shankman. This patent shows a 
mobile decontamination unit having a compartment for decontaminating 
personnel and a separate compartment for decontaminating equipment. The 
compartment for decontaminating personnel includes an area for the 
personnel to strip off their clothes and store them in bins, a shower area 
and a drying off area. 
Taken alone or in combination none of these prior art patents show a 
decontamination unit which is mobile and which includes a plurality of 
compartments including first and second shower compartments having means 
for maintaining the shower compartments at a negative pressure so that the 
flow of contaminated air out of the shower compartments is reduced. 
Further, taken alone or in combination none of these prior art units show 
a decontamination unit which is mobile and which includes a plurality of 
shower compartments with changing portions and having means for heating 
the water so as to enhance the usability of the unit in the colder 
climates. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The subject invention provides a mobile decontamination unit having at 
least one shower compartment, a waiting compartment, and means for 
maintaining the one or more shower compartments at a negative air 
pressure. 
In one aspect of the invention, there is provided a mobile decontamination 
unit which includes a shower compartment. The shower compartment has means 
for spraying water onto a user and a drain located therein. There are 
means for providing water to spraying means and a storage tank connected 
to the drain to store contaminated water from the shower compartment. 
There is a waiting compartment connected by a passageway to the shower 
compartment so as to permit the user to move from the shower compartment 
to the waiting room without leaving the unit. There are means for 
maintaining the shower compartment at a negative air pressure for reducing 
the amount of contaminated air that leaves the shower compartment. 
According to another aspect of the invention, a mobile decontamination unit 
includes a plurality of interconnected shower compartments each having 
means for spraying water onto a user and a drain located therein, means 
for providing water to said spraying means, a storage tank connected to 
the drains, and means for maintaining the shower compartments at a 
negative air pressure for reducing the amount of contaminated air that 
leaves the shower compartments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
A preferred embodiment of the mobile decontamination unit of the subject 
invention will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 through 3. 
Mobile decontamination unit 10 is divided into 4 areas namely, the shower 
area 12, a drying compartment 14, a waiting compartment 16 and a 
facilities compartment 18. 
Shower area 12 includes three or more shower compartments 20, 22, 24. 
Shower compartment 20 has an entrance 28 at one end thereof and 
accordingly it is the first shower compartment that a contaminated 
individual would enter. The shower compartment is divided into a shower 
portion 30 and a changing portion 32 by doorway 34. The shower portion 
contains means for spraying water onto a user which can take the form of 
shower heads 26 of known construction or a number of spray nozzles. In a 
preferred version, the spraying devices provide overlapping sprays so as 
to provide thorough spraying resulting in maximum decontamination. Shower 
portion 30 has a floor which slopes downwardly towards a pair of drains 
36. Changing portion 32 has a floor which slopes downwardly towards a 
drain 37. The doorway 34 has a raised lower portion 38, as can best be 
seen in FIG. 2, to prevent contaminated water from entering the changing 
portion 32. The doorway 34 may also have a dropped top 33 like a submarine 
bulkhead, if desired. The changing portion is provided with bins 40 and/or 
bags for storing contaminated outer clothing. 
Shower compartment 22 is adjacent and interconnected to shower compartment 
20 and is arranged in a similar fashion. It is divided into a shower 
portion 42 and a changing portion 44. One way of separating these portions 
is by a pair of doorways 46. Shower portion 42 may be divided into two 
sections by an optional wall 48. Shower portion 42 is provided with a pair 
of drains 50 and the floor slopes downwardly thereto. Changing portion 44 
has a floor which slopes downwardly towards drain 51. Each doorway 46 has 
a raised lower portion 52 and a dropped or lowered top 53 (See FIG. 2). 
The changing portion 44 is provided with bins 54. If desired, a 
bulkhead-type doorway (not shown) can be provided between the changing 
portion 32 and the second changing portion 44. 
Similarly, shower compartment 24 is adjacent and interconnected to shower 
compartment 22 and is arranged in a similar fashion. It is divided into a 
shower portion 54 and a changing portion 56 by a pair of doorways 58. 
Shower portion 54 may be divided into two sections by an optional wall 60. 
Shower portion 54 is provided with a pair of drains 62 and the floor 
slopes downwardly thereto. Changing portion 56 has a floor which slopes 
downwardly towards drain 63. Each doorway 58 has a raised lower portion 64 
and a dropped or lowered top 65. The changing portion 56 is provided with 
a bin 66. In a preferred version, the showering nozzles in each of 
compartments 20, 22, and 24 provide overlapping sprays to obtain a maximum 
decontamination of the user of the facility. Again, if desired, a 
bulkhead-type doorway (not shown) can be provided between the changing 
portion 56 and the changing portion 44. 
Drying off compartment 14 is adjacent and interconnected to shower 
compartment 24. It is provided with bins 67, a bin 69 for towels, and a 
seat 68. The floor of compartment 14 slopes downwardly towards drain 70 
provided therein. An optional bulkhead-type door can be provided between 
the changing portion 56 and the drying off compartment 14. 
Waiting compartment 16 is adjacent to drying off compartment 14. It is 
provided with lockers 72 and preferably shelves and seating. An exit 73 is 
provided in waiting compartment 16. The waiting room is preferably 
maintained at a positive pressure to help reduce the possibility of 
contamination in this room. The positive air pressure is maintained in the 
waiting compartment 16 by means of the air circulation fan of known 
construction that is part of a forced air heating system 76. It will be 
understood that the furnace or heater of the system 76 is only on when 
heating is required but the fan is on normally at all times to maintain 
the desired positive air pressure. Suitable known instrumentation to 
measure air pressure is provided in the unit to ensure that the desired 
air pressures are maintained. An optional ante room (not shown) can be 
provided between the drying off compartment 14 and the waiting room 16 and 
this ante room can also be maintained under positive pressure, again to 
help reduce the possibility of contamination in this area. 
Facilities compartment 18 includes a diesel fired hot water heater 74, the 
aforementioned forced air heating system 76, a water storage tank 78, a 
diesel generating system 80, a circulating pump and pressure control 82 
and diesel fuel tank 84. There are also means in the unit for tempering 
the water before it reaches the shower head. These would comprise a 
standard adjustment valve (also called a tempering valve) of known 
construction to adjust the mix of hot and cold water for each shower 
stall. In this way it is possible to provide a different water temperature 
in each shower. Inlet 86 is attached to storage tank 78 so that water can 
be pumped into the storage tank. Similarly an inlet 88 is attached to a 
diesel fuel tank 84 so that this may be filled. In one preferred 
embodiment, an air conditioning or air circulating system (not shown) is 
provided to cool this room 18 which otherwise might become quite warm 
because of the equipment therein. This system may comprise a ventilation 
system with a HEPA filter mounted in the intake. 
The ventilation system and air circulation system is shown schematically in 
FIG. 3. Forced air heating system 76 is connected to each area 12, 14 and 
16 respectively and each area has an air supply register 90. An exhaust 
fan 92 is attached to exhaust air registers 94 in shower compartments 20, 
22 and 24 and dry-off compartment 14. Exhaust air is passed through an air 
washer or scrubber and a HEPA filter to clean the contaminated air before 
being released from the unit 10. Exhaust fan 92 and exhaust air registers 
are a means for maintaining shower areas 20, 22 and 24 and dry off 
compartment 14 at a negative pressure. It will be understood that the air 
is removed by this system at a faster rate than the air is supplied by the 
forced air furnace fan in order to achieve this negative pressure. Again, 
known pressure reading instrumentation can be provided to ensure the 
required negative pressures in these areas. By maintaining these 
compartments at a negative pressure, the contaminated air in these 
compartments will not mix freely with adjacent compartments. 
Shower heads 26 are attached to the circulating pump and pressure control 
82 and hot water heater 74 through conventional piping. Drains 36, 50, 62 
are attached to storage tank 96. Storage tank 96 is provided with an 
inspection manhole 98. Instead of a single storage tank 96, there can be 
several such tanks, i.e. one for each shower compartment. The use of 
several tanks will reduce the amount of contamination present in the 
second, third or subsequent tanks. 
In operation, the decontamination unit 10 would be brought to an emergency 
site. As fire and other emergency personnel become contaminated they would 
enter the decontamination unit 10 through entrance 28 and go through the 
showers in compartment 20 with their emergency gear on. They would strip 
their emergency gear and put that gear into bins 40 and then proceed into 
compartment 22. They would go through the showers in compartment 22 with 
their street clothes on and then remove their street clothes, put them 
into bins 54 and then proceed into compartment 24. They would then shower 
naked in compartment 24 and proceed into dry off compartment 14 where they 
would be provided with towels in bins 67. They would then proceed into 
waiting area 16 where they could dress in clothes stored in lockers 72 and 
then leave the decontamination unit through exit 73. 
It will be appreciated by someone skilled in the art that a number of 
modifications could be made without departing from the spirit of the 
invention. For instance, for certain applications the number of shower 
stalls could be varied. In warm climates it may not be necessary to 
include the hot water heater. Further, the features of this unit could be 
on a trailer or installed in a truck. Further, other features may be added 
to the mobile decontamination unit such as a remotely activated shower 
valve to limit the time of each shower, or the provision of air under 
pressure for use by the personnel who are waiting to use the unit. Further 
compartments can be added to the decontamination unit if desired. For 
instance, the first shower compartment 20 can be expanded to provide an 
additional room or area for the removal of chemical suits. This additional 
room (not shown) can be a wet or dry area but it would be drained.