Effects of firefighters' self-contained breathing apparatus' weight and its harness design on the physiological and subjective responses

Abstract

To examine the effects of firefighters' self-contained breathing apparatus' (SCBA) weight and its harness design on the physiological and subjective responses, eight male students performed treadmill exercise under four conditions: the 8 kg firefighter protective clothing (PC) (Control), the PC + an 11 kg SCBA with an old harness (Test A), the PC + a 6.4 kg SCBA with an old harness (Test B) and the PC + a 6.4 kg SCBA with a new harness (Test C), at ambient temperatures (T _a) of 22°C and 32°C. Besides highlighting the fact that a heavy SCBA had a significant effect on the oxygen consumption and metabolic rate, this experiment also found that in a T _a of 32°C, in particular, the combined effect of 4.7 kg lighter SCBA and new harness design could reduce metabolic rate and improved subjective muscle fatigue and thermal discomfort.

Practitioner Summary: An effort to alleviate the physiological and subjective burden of firefighters by reducing the weight of SCBA and by using the new harness design has provided satisfactory results in reduced oxygen consumption and in improved subjective responses in a hot air environment.

Keywords:

• firefighter
• personal protective equipment (PPE)
• self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA)
• harness

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our thanks to Mutsuhiro Fujiwara and Shikua Umezaki for their technical support and administrative advice. This study was supported by the Promotion Program for Fire and Disaster Prevention Technologies, Japan.