Contamination control by a greenhouse for emergency medical treatment of the contaminated patient

Abstract

In emergency medical treatment of patients contaminated with radioactivity, air contamination control is very important to prevent the secondary contamination of medical staff. In order to optimize design of a greenhouse, a numerical analysis was made by using the Flow Designer software. As a scenario of air contamination, the breathing air of the patient was assumed to be highly contaminated with radioactive gaseous or particulate matter. It was found that air contamination strongly depended on the characteristics of the contaminants. The contamination map of the coarse aerosols with low diffusivity was quite different from those of the fine aerosols and gas. If the setting conditions of air-flow rate of the ventilation and the exhausting position were optimized, secondary contamination of the medical staff standing by the patient is prevented securely by a greenhouse.