Impact of fire protective equipment and the self-contained breathing apparatus on peak exercise in males and females

Abstract

With an increase in the number of females entering the fire service it is important to understand the potential impact of personal protective equipment (PPE) on females. This study compared selected physiological responses during two graded exercise tests (GXT) performed in a counterbalanced design: GXT_PT – wearing athletic clothing while breathing through a low-resistance valve; and GXT_PPE – wearing PPE and breathing from a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA). Sixteen males and 15 females acted as participants. $\dot{V}$O_2peak was significantly lower, by approximately 15%, during the GXT_PPE compared to the GXT_PT condition for both the males and females. Physiologically, the decreased oxygen consumption was strongly related to an attenuated ventilation (r = 0.75 and 0.71) and oxygen pulse (r = 0.94 and 0.93) for the males and females, respectively. The results of this investigation demonstrate that the SCBA and PPE impacts males and females to a similar relative extent and manner.

Practitioner summary: Little information exists regarding the impact of the SCBA and PPE on physiological parameters for females. This investigation determined that females have reduced exercise capacities to the same extent as males, which should be considered when evaluating the aerobic demands of fire suppression work and the fitness levels of firefighters.

Abbreviations: GXT: graded exercise test; SCBA: self-contained breathing apparatus; personal protective equipment; MMC: metabolic measurement cart; ANOVA: analysis of variance; RPE: rating of percieved exertion; PRD: perceptions of respiratory distress; PTD: percieved thermal distress; $\dot{V}$O₂: rate of oxygen consumption; $\dot{V}$O_2peak: rate of oxygen consumption at peak exercise; $\dot{V}$_Epeak: minute ventilation at peak exercise; $\dot{V}$_E/$\dot{V}$CO₂: ventilatory equivalent for carbon dioxide; FVC: forced vital capacity; FEV₁: forced expiratory volume in one second; FEF_25-75%: forced expiratory flow; PEF: peak expiratory flow rate; MVV: maximum voluntary ventilation.

Keywords:

• Firefighting
• self-contained breathing apparatus
• maximal oxygen consumption
• sex differences

Acknowledgments

The author would like to recognize the contributions of A. Clarke and K. Olson’s assistance in the data collection. The author gratefully acknowledges the efforts of the participants in this research project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Preliminary data analysis for this article was published as part of a conference abstract (Dreger and Petersen 2008).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.