Assessment of the effect of individual protection equipment on thermal fire stress

Background: One of the most important complications of heat stress in firefighters is the error of operating in safety that causes irreparable occurrence. Therefore, this study was carried out to evaluate the effect of personal protective equipment (PPE) on the heat stress of the firefighters in 2018. Method: This cross-sectional descriptive-analytic study was done on 30 operational firefighters in Larestan, Fars province. The study was conducted in a standard environmental chamber with the same firefighting equipment and an evaluation the effect of temperature and metabolism derived from personal protective equipment on average indices and predicted percentage of dissatisfaction (PPD). Findings: The findings showed that the weight of personal protective equipment affects the heart rate and metabolism indirectly and leads to changes in the predicted average score and the predicted percentage of dissatisfaction. The impact assessment of the weight of personal protective equipment and coefficient of clothing resistance (Clo coefficient) on the predicted ratings and predicted percentage of dissatisfaction showed that the fire resistance coefficient of firefighting clothing has a greater effect on these indices. (p˂001) Conclusion: The results indicated that the use of personal protective equipment as well as the fire resistance coefficient of fire was effective in the predicted ratings and predicted percentage of dissatisfaction. Therefore, cooling vests can be used for firefighters in order to prevent heat stress and to reduce the thermal stresses caused by temperature, metabolism, and the weight of personal protective equipment. It also cools the bodychr('39')s internal temperature to a reasonable level of predicted rating and a predicted percentage of dissatisfaction.

کلیدواژه ها:

: firefighters ، thermal stress ، personal protective equipment ، predicted average ، predicted percent of dissatisfaction ، آتش‌نشان ، استرس حرارتی ، تجهیزات حفاظت فردی ، میانگین رأی پیش‌بینی‌شده ، درصد پیش‌بینی‌شده نارضایتی