Decontamination of materials / issued by the Ministry of Home Security (Air Raid Precautions Department).

Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Decontamination of materials / issued by the Ministry of Home Security (Air Raid Precautions Department). Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/74 (page 7)
    “ INTRODUCTION. This handbook is intended to serve two purposes —to explain the general principles of governing the methods of counteracting contamination arising from war gases; and to form a text-book for the training of the members of the decontamination services, whether the public services to be provided by local authorities or the decontamination squads organised by public utility undertakings or in factories, etc. The general principles will be important to the higher officials of local authorities and to all who need to have an appreciation of the behaviour of war gases. Methods of decontamination do not in fact lend them- selves to precise definition. They cannot be applied by rule of thumb. The gas used, the exact position of the contaminated area, its nature and its importance, the weather, the degree of urgency, all are factors which must be taken into account if decontamination is to be achieved with success and without waste of effort. The choice of method depends on a knowledge of the principles involved as much as on following any set of rules. This handbook does not repeat the general descrip- tion of war gases, their characteristics and effects, which is contained in A.R.P. Handbook No. 1. That hand- book is therefore needed by every reader of this book, to give him the basic knowledge of war gases. The actual methods of decontamination described in the later part of this handbook must be learned by the personnel who would actually have to carry them out. The work itself would necessarily expose these men to danger from the gas, and it is essential that before they start to learn about decontamination they should first learn how to protect themselves from injury. A.R.P. Handbook No. 1—‘‘ Personal Protec- tion against Gas ’’ will give them the required informa- tion, which is not repeated in this handbook.