Equipment Decontamination - A Process that's Ignored and Forgotten

“Equipment Decontamination” can be defined as, “ the cleaning of equipment after it has been contaminated or after it has been used in a situation, where contamination may have occurred.” These types of decontaminated equipment have to be designed in a way that they can easily be decontaminated, for instance, medical equipment. This process needs to be done after the clean equipment has been exposed to any form of biological, chemical or radiological contaminants.

Furthermore, decontamination equipment is made from materials and substances that can easily be wiped down and are not easily damaged when exposed to water, heat, soap, irradiation, ultraviolet radiation and so forth. Some examples of such equipment include equipment that's used in chemical companies or equipment that's used to manufacture electronic components.

Bear in mind that sometimes decontamination equipment may not be designed with contamination in mind. This in turn makes the process of decontamination more challenging. Nevertheless, the process of “equipment decontamination” begins when the contaminated equipment is kept in isolation. This is done in order to prevent the spread of the contaminant. Next, the equipment is cleaned in accordance with the toxicity of the contaminant. For example, an ambulance may need to be cleaned by hand after it is exposed to a patient who has been carrying a blood borne pathogen.