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90 MDG trains to react to chemical threats

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Jason Wiese
  • 90th Missile Wing Public Affairs
F.E. WARREN AIR FORCE BASE, Wyo. --  Airmen of the 90th Medical Group's in-place patient decontamination team met for training outside the 90th MDG Medical Treatment Facility here Sept. 19.

Ninetieth MDG personnel take chemical threats very seriously and have strict guidelines on what to do in the event of a chemical attack or spill, said Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Naughton, 90th MDG commander support staff NCOIC and IPPD team lead.

Airmen on the IPPD team train to quickly don protective equipment, set up a decontamination shelter and begin the process of removing chemical agents from patients within 20 minutes of being notified of a chemical incident, he said.

The decontamination shelter is a large tent that includes showers for male and female patients who can walk to wash themselves, and a central area where IPPD Airmen can wash patients who are unable to wash themselves, he said.

Decontaminating patients requires several roles filled by IPPD Airmen including litter-carriers, cutters to remove contaminated clothes, washers, rinsers and crowd control personnel, said Senior Airman Romar Armamento, 90th Medical Operations Squadron pediatrics medical technician.

Taking off contaminated clothing removes the vast majority of contaminants from a person in most cases, Naughton said. Usually, people only expose small areas of bare skin to a chemical agent because of the clothes they wear.

Before patients are allowed inside the MTF, IPPD Airman check patients for lingering contaminants with chemical-sensitive testing papers, Armamento said.

Airmen wash the still-contaminated patients again until the paper test yields a negative result, then they dry the patients off, provide them blankets and footwear as necessary and assist the patients to the MTF, Naughton said.

After washing each patient, IPPD Airmen wash each other to ensure they are free of contaminants before washing the next patient, Armamento said.

If they did not wash each other between patients, they would run the risk of transferring chemical agents from a contaminated patient to an uncontaminated patient, Naughton said.

Once inside the MTF, the decontaminated patients can get the proper medical care they need, he said.