A Simple, Rapid, Comparative Evaluation ofMultiple Products for Decontamination of Actinide-contaminated Rat Skin Ex Vivo

Decontamination of skin is an important medical countermeasure in order to limit potential internal contamination by radionuclides such as actinides. Minimizing skin surface contamination will ultimately prevent internal contamination and subsequent committed effective dose as well as contamination spreading. The decontamination agents tested on a rat skin ex vivo model ranged from water to hydrogel wound dressings. A surfactant-containing cleansing gel and calixarene nanoemulsion with chelation properties demonstrated marked decontamination efficacies as compared with water or the chelator DTPA. Based on efficacy to remove different actinide physicochemical forms fromskin, the results demonstrate that all products can remove themore soluble forms, but a further component of emulsifying or tensioactive action is required for less soluble forms. This indicates that for practical purposes, successful decontaminationwill depend on identification of the actinide element, the physicochemical form, and possibly the solvent. This study offers a simple, quick, cheap, reproducible screening method for efficacy evaluation of multiple products for removal of a variety of contaminants.