Decontaminating pesticide protective clothing

Abstract

The review of recent work on the mechanisms of soil removal from textiles assists in understanding decontamination of pesticide protective clothing. The current work provides explanatory conclusions about residue retention as a basis of making recommendations for the most effective decontamination procedures. A caution about generalizations: Some pesticides produce very idiosyncratic responses to decontamination. An example is the paraquat/salt response. Other pesticides exhibit noticeable and unique responses to a highly alkaline medium (carbaryl), or to bleach (chlorpyrifos), or are quickly volatilized (methyl parathion). Responses such as these do not apply to other pesticides undergoing decontamination. Given this caution, there are soil, substrate, and solvent responses that do maximize residue removal. Residue removal is less complete as the concentration of pesticide increases. The concentration of pesticide in fabric builds with successive exposures, and the more concentrated the pesticide, the more difficult the removal. Use a prewash product and/or presoak. The surfactant and/or solvent in a prewash product is a booster in residue removal. Residues transfer from contaminated clothing to other clothing during the washing cycle. Use a full washer of water for a limited number of garments to increase residue removal. The hotter the washing temperature, the better. Generally, this means a water temperature of at least 49 degrees C, and preferably 60 degrees C. Select the detergent shown to be more effective for the formulation: heavy-duty liquid detergents for emulsifiable concentrate formulations and powdered phosphate detergents for wettable powder formulations. If the fabric has a soil-repellent finish, use 1.25 times the amount recommended on the detergent label. For water hardness above 300 ppm, an additional amount of powdered phosphate detergent is needed to obtain the same level of residue removal as obtained with the heavy-duty liquid detergent when laundering fabrics with the soil-repellent finish. The mechanical action of agitation increases dislodgement of particulate material. Too many items in the washing apparatus or too low water volume, or both, decrease agitation and soil removal. Bleach can be used if desired. Fabric softener does not affect pesticide absorption or residue removal in laundering. Dry cleaning is not recommended because the solvents used in dry cleaning may be recycled through dilution, filtration, activated charcoal adsorption, or distillation. Pesticides still may be present in recycled solvents and can be transferred from one item to another, or from one load to subsequent loads of dry cleaning.