RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Fractional Contribution of Wildland Firefighters’ Personal Protective Equipment on Physiological Strain
A1 Carballo Leyenda, Ana Belén
A1 Villa, José G.
A1 López Satué, Jorge
A1 Collado, Pilar S.
A1 Rodriguez-Marroyo, Jose A.
A2 Educacion Fisica y Deportiva
K1 Educación Física
K1 Heat Stress
K1 Thermal Strain
K1 Thermophysiological Response
K1 Core Temperature
K1 Protective Clothing
AB [EN] Activities performed by wildland firefighters are carried out wearing a personal protectiveequipment (PPE). Although the PPE protects workers from a wide variety of hazards,it may increase their physiological response and limit their performance. The aim ofthis study was to analyze the effect of the protective clothing (PPC) and the rest ofthe PPE elements (i.e., helmet, neck shroud, gloves, goggles, and mid-calf leatherboots) on the wildland firefighters’ thermophysiological response during a moderate-intense exercise. Six male wildland firefighters performed, in a counterbalanced order,a 120 min graded exercise test wearing three different clothing configurations: (i) atraditional short sports gear (SG), (ii) a PPC, and (iii) a complete firefighters’ PPE.Trials were conducted on separate days at the same time of the day (12:00–15:00 h)and under climate-controlled conditions (∼30◦C and ∼30% relative humidity). Heartrate, respiratory gas exchange, gastrointestinal and skin temperature, blood lactateconcentration were recorded throughout the tests. Additionally, parameters of heatbalance were estimated. Exercise time was shorter (p < 0.001) wearing the PPE(62.4 ± 13.3 min) than with the PPC (115.5 ± 5.0 min) and SG (118.2 ± 20.7 min).The increment of gastrointestinal temperature with the PPE (1.8 ± 0.3◦C) was greater(p < 0.05) than the observed in PPC (1.2 ± 0.6◦C) and SG (1.0 ± 0.2◦C). The use ofPPC increased (p < 0.05) subjects’ metabolic demand and skin temperature versus SGduring the last 20 min of the test. The sweat retention in the PPE (1,045.7 ± 214.7 g)and PPC (978.3 ± 330.6 g) was significantly higher than that obtained in the SG(510.0 ± 210.0 g). Sweat efficiency decreased (p < 0.05) in the following order: PPE(45.6 ± 18.3%), PPC (64.3 ± 7.8%), and SG (79.3 ± 7.0%). These results highlight theimportance of the PPE elements in the subjects’ thermal strain. The reduction in thesweat evaporation produced by the PPE, together with the ensemble mass caused asubstantial increase in the subjects’ thermophysiological response. As a consequencethe performance was reduced by ∼50%.
PB Frontiers Media
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10612/20032
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10612/20032
NO Carballo-Leyenda B, Villa JG, López-Satué J, Collado PS and Rodríguez-Marroyo JA (2018) Fractional Contribution of Wildland Firefighters’ Personal Protective Equipment on Physiological Strain. Front. Physiol. 9:1139
DS BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León
RD 21-may-2024