- Title:
-
New Cooling Garment to Assist Fire Fighters Combat Heat Stress and Aid Recovery
- Date:
- September 2009
- Organisations
- AFAC 2009 Conference
- Authors:
- Institute of Sport and Exercise Science, James Cook University, Smithfield, QLD, Australia
- School of Pharmacy and Molecular Sciences, James Cook University, Smithfield, QLD, Australia
- Location:
- Australia, Australia
Overview
The wearing of HAZMAT suits by fire fighters dramatically retards the body's ability to disperse heat, particularly in hot/humid environments, and can subsequently lead to heat stress related illnesses. Such heat accumulation can also delay the recoverability of fire fighters in other working situations. Whilst there are a number of external cooling systems on the market to reduce heat stress, many of these cooling systems are not practical for use by Australian fire fighters, particularly in locations with limited supporting infrastructure. Consequently, a new cooling garment has been developed by James Cook University (JCU) that can provide an immediate body cooling effect for use by fire fighters when attending incidents requiring the use of HAZMAT suits or recovering from any heat stress situation. With the assistance of the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service (Far Northern Region), a series of laboratory and field trials have been completed using the new cooling garment.In temperatures up to 35oC and 70% humidity fire fighters completed 20-30 minutes of exercise in HAZMAT suits followed by 30 minutes of recovery. Overall, the trials completed using the JCU cooling garment showed dramatic reductions in heat stress compared to the control trials (i.e. no cooling intervention): core body temperature up to 2oC cooler, heart rate up to 20% lower and fluid loss up to 1.5 litres less. In addition, only moderate levels of exertion and thermal discomfort were recorded compared to the maximal levels for the control trials. In all cases involving the wearing of the JCU cooling garment under the HAZMAT suits and during recovery, subjects had returned to near pre-exercise levels within 20-30 minutes.
The trials demonstrated that the JCU cooling garment is an effective cooling device for reducing heat stress during HAZMAT suit application as well as a recovery device for heat stress situations.
