ABSTRACT
Dispersion of toxic gas clouds can be originated by diverse events, including accidental releases in the industry or during transportation of hazardous materials, and biological or chemical warfare agent’s attacks. One protection way against this phenomenon is to shelter in a building and wait until de toxic plume has passed. Since most people spend the majority of their daily time inside buildings they could stay indoors, where the concentration of the toxic substance is supposed to be lower than outside and thus, the toxic load (TL) to which people are exposed is lower. Even though, there is not a unified or totally reliable method to determine the effectiveness of this protection method, and thus, there are several methodologies used by authorities and local emergency commissions which underestimate or overestimate the evacuation radius, leading to unexpected deaths, health affections or unnecessary efforts, respectively.
