Component contribution of personal protective equipment to the alleviation of physiological strain in firefighters during work and recovery

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the components contributions of personal protective equipment on physiological strain in firefighters during exercise and recovery. Eight firefighters participated in trials in which various combinations of personal protective equipment components weighing from 1.3 to 15.1 kg were worn. The results showed that rectal temperature, changes in rectal temperature, mean skin temperature, heart rate, oxygen consumption and blood lactate concentration were smaller in conditions without boots (no-boots) than in other conditions with no helmet, gloves or self-contained breathing apparatus (P < 0.05). Increases in rectal temperature per unit mass of personal protective equipment were approximately twice as small in no-boots condition as the other conditions. These results suggest that the reduction of the boots' mass might be more efficient to alleviate heat strain of firefighters wearing personal protective equipment, rather than the reduction of the mass of self-contained breathing apparatus, helmet or gloves.

Abstract

Practitioner Summary: As firefighters' protective boots induce greater physiological burden when compared with a helmet, gloves or self-contained breathing apparatus, personal protective equipment designers need to consider the improvement of boots in terms of mass reduction, improvement of thermal comfort and ease of doffing during recovery to alleviate physiological strain on firefighters.

Keywords::

• personal protective equipment
• heat strain
• protective boots
• clothing mass
• firefighter

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our appreciation to the study participants who volunteered to be our subjects. We also wish to acknowledge the expertise and service provided by Ms Kyung-Mi Lee in conducting performance tests and Braden Shenk. This study was supported by 2012 Research Settlement Fund for the new faculty of Seoul National University (SNU) and by the National Emergency Management Agency in Korea (2013-NEMA15-009-01010000-2013).