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New Practice for Evaluating the Transfer of Exterior Contaminants from Protective Clothing and Equipment During Doffing
1. Scope
This practice provides procedures for determining if contamination on the exterior of protective clothing is transferred to the wearer during doffing. This practice is intended to permit the evaluation of different types of full body protective clothing or protective ensembles, that includes suits, coveralls, gowns, and other garments that are worn with gloves, footwear, face and eyewear, and respirators. This practice uses a surrogate contaminant that has fluorescent properties that can be visualized under UV light as an indication of its location on the protective clothing and the individual wearer following the doffing process. This practice provides variants of the procedures for simulating different types of hazardous substance exposures and is intended to address chemical, biological, and particulate contamination. This practice has utility in designing protective clothing for minimizing contaminant transfer, establishing effective procedure for reducing the risk of contaminant transfer during doffing, and to be an aid in training individuals for lowering their risk for contaminant transfer during doffing.
Keywords
Contaminated doffing; contamination transfer;
Rationale
While protective clothing and ensembles of different clothing and equipment items are designed to limit exposure to the individual wearer, the wearer still may be exposed to contaminants on the outside of the clothing if the clothing is not be removed safely. Standardized practices are needed to provide a design tool for improved protective clothing doffing, for developing effective procedures for safe removal of clothing, and as a training aid to ensure that workers depending on protective clothing do not become contaminated when clothing is removed. It has been shown that healthcare workers have transferred infectious microorganisms from the exterior of their clothing while removing blood or body fluid contaminated clothing. Similar reports in the literature exist for removal of clothing that is contaminated with harmful substances such as pesticides.
