I do NBC decontamination and detection for the local fire department. Nice work actually, though these porta-saunas we call chem suits are annoying at times.

Desert Rat: Surical mask? If some "sandhead" (or whatever type of terrorist you prefer <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />) actually manages to get a few pounds of Highly active nuclear waste, I think he's going to spend the extra three days to micron-mill the stuff. And no surgical mask stops stuff below 5 or 6 microns in size, because the mask (with its tiny transmissive surface area, comnpared to military "gas" masks) would be too restrictive, and because quite a lot of air will always leak around the edge. Result: Chuck the mask. Useless.

What I agree about is the shower. Do as such:

-5 minutes hich-pressure (4+ atmospheres) solid water jet shower.
-rinse shower area
-scrub down with "clean" sand for 10 minutes. Hard. You're not done until it HURTS.
-another 5 minutes' worth of shower.

This will not only rinse your skin, but actually remove the top layer, thus removing any particles that would normally stick. This can also be accomplished by applying sodium hypochlorite, although the resulting chlorine would kill in an enclosed space. Hypo is also good for B or C decon.

Plastic sheeting and wet sheets work... not well, but are better than nothing. Think about it: You envelope your body in one or multiple airtight sheets of material. You move. The configuration, and thus the volume of the whole thing changes. Air is exchanged with the outside through holes and mostly the seams of you jury-rigged suit. Really, not much, but it's something.