Life cycle assessment of high-protective clothing for complex emergency operations

Abstract

The sector of protective textiles was one of the European Lead Market Initiatives launched in 2012. As a result seven research and development projects were financed to support new and innovative products to enter to this market to increase safety at work. Also the legislation within Europe has a tendency towards this aim having higher impact on professional than on private clothing. If it is not possible to decrease the risks of a work place, the employer shall provide personal protective equipment (PPE), of which protective clothing is an essential part. In order to facilitate the choice, use and control of PPE, a large amount of EN standards and technical reports have been developed and published including requirements, classifications, test methods to be used, terminology and SUCAM. However, in the selection criteria, the environmental impact related with the production, use and disposal of different materials available in the market. In order to overcome this limitation within the SAFEPROTEX project, environmental impact of three different uniforms was evaluated using Life Cycle Analysis in comparison to reference garments.

Keywords:

• personal protective equipment
• technical textile
• rescue team workers
• extreme condition risk
• life cycle assessment

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thanks the European Commission for funding this study within the FP7 “SAFEPROTEX” (FP7-NMP-2008-SME-2 contract number 228439).