NOTE
If a new protective overgarment is not available, after treatment, the ambulatory patient must be placed in a PPW for protection during MEDEVAC to the next level of care MTF. Thus, he becomes a litter patient for evacuation.
[APPENDIX H]
FIELD EXPEDIENT PROTECTIVE SYSTEMS AGAINST NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL, AND CHEMICAL ATTACK
H-1. General
Medical units must have protection from NBC attack and contamination to survive and function effectively. The extent of protection provided is only limited by the resources available and efforts of unit personnel. Protection as simple as an individually dug foxhole or as elaborate as the subbasement of a concrete building may be used. Expedient protection from the effects of biological and chemical agents are usually much less labor intensive.
H-2. Protection Against Radiation
The level of protection from radiation is expressed in terms of shielding. Material is available on the battlefield to construct/prepare expedient fallout shelters that offer substantial shielding against gamma radiation (see [Table H-1]). Generally, the denser or heavier the material, the better shielding it offers. The degree of protection afforded by a fallout shelter is expressed as a "protection factor," or a "transmission factor." The protection factor is simply the fraction of the available radiation dose that penetrates the shelter and reaches those inside compared to the radiation received by an unprotected person. Thus, a protection factor of 2 indicates that an individual in the shelter receives one-half of the radiation dose he would receive if unprotected. A protection factor of 100 (associated with about six half-value thicknesses) indicates that only 1/100 or 1 percent of the radiation dose reaches the inside. Transmission factors are expressed in percentages, or in decimals. Either refers to that fraction of the ambient unshielded dose that is received by personnel within the shelter. Fallout gamma transmission factors for some common shelters are shown in [Table H-2].
Table H-1. Shielding Potential of Common Materials—Fallout Gamma Protection