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"PROTECTIVE CLOTHING"
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Investigation of the air permeability of fabric weaves to increase the wearing comfort of firefighter clothing and improve stab and cut protection
Firefighter protective clothing is composed of multiple layers, each serving distinct functions. The outer layer shields the user from fire, chemicals, cuts, body fluids, and water, while also permitting water vapour to escape. The middle membrane layer acts as a thermal and moisture barrier, preventing heat and liquid penetration but allowing vapour diffusion. The inner layer enhances thermal protection and wearer comfort. A nationwide German survey and risk analysis with different fire brigades identified a need for enhanced comfort, reduced physiological heat load, and improved protection against stabs and cuts. Enhanced tear resistance is one proposed method for increased stab and cut protection. Wearer comfort parameters include water vapour permeability, breathability, air permeability, efficient cooling and increased breathability of the protective clothing are crucial for comfort. Sweat is diffused through the jacket due to differing water vapour partial pressures inside and outside the jacket. Enhancing air permeability of the outer layer and reducing the water vapour transmission resistance across the entire layer structure improve cooling by lowering the external water vapour partial pressure, thus facilitating better sweat transport and heat dissipation. To increase breathability and stab- and cut protection, different fabric weaves for the outer layer of a firefighter´s jacket are produced and compared with each other. The Honeycomb and the Huck-a-back fabric achieve better properties than Twill 2/2 fabric used as standard.
Journal Article
Protective armor engineering design
\"This new book, Protective Armor Engineering Design, provides an in-depth survey of the state of the art of research and practical techniques in the area of protected fabrics, especially stab-resistant and bulletproof fabrics. There is increasing interest in the area of protective vests, either for protection against bullets or protection from the most realistic threats within domestic frontline operations: edged weapon, knives, and medical needles, and this volume addresses that interest. The book discusses The history of the protective armor: The book discusses the art of the protective armor manufacturing, which has a long history that started in ancient Egypt and China civilizations. Materials used for body armor: The book looks at the design and materials used for soft armor to increase its perforation-resistance utilizing high-performance fibers. The different fabric structures and fiber type properties are thoroughly outlined. Anti-stab and anti-bullet armor design: The different design parameters required for the design of flexible armor in order to stop high-velocity projectiles are discussed. The comfort of the body armor design: Protection and comfort are significant aspects for body armor. These take into consideration the flexibility, thermal resistivity, and evaporative moisture resistivity through the fabric. Method of testing the flexible body armors: Methods of testing the components of the flexible body armor are considered, according to the level of the protection required, such as NIJ Standards, HOSDB Body Armour Standards for UK Police, German SK1 Standard, among others. Written by an expert in textile composite material engineering, this volume fills an important gap the area of the protective fabric against stabbing or bullets and provides practical knowledge for body armor design. Protective Armor Engineering Design will be highly valuable for designers of protective armor, professionals in the body armor industries, materials science researchers and students, textile technologists, and others\"-- Provided by publisher.
BOOK
Personal Safety during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Realities and Perspectives of Healthcare Workers in Latin America
Healthcare workers exposed to coronavirus (COVID-19) may not have adequate access to personal protective equipment (PPE), safety procedures, and diagnostic protocols. Our objective was to evaluate the reality and perceptions about personal safety among healthcare workers in Latin America. This is a cross-sectional, online survey-based study administered to 936 healthcare professionals in Latin America from 31 March 2020 to 4 April 2020. A 12-item structured questionnaire was developed. A total of 936 healthcare workers completed the online survey. Of them, 899 (95.1%) were physicians, 28 (2.9%) were nurses, and 18 (1.9%) were allied health professionals. Access to protective equipment was as follows: gel hand sanitizer (n = 889; 95%), disposable gloves (n = 853; 91.1%), disposable gowns (n = 630; 67.3%), disposable surgical masks (785; 83.9%), N95 masks (n = 516; 56.1%), and facial protective shields (n = 305; 32.6%). The vast majority (n = 707; 75.5%) had access to personal safety policies and procedures, and 699 (74.7%) participants had access to diagnostic algorithms. On a 1-to-10 Likert scale, the participants expressed limited human resources support (4.92 ± 0.2; mean ± SD), physical integrity protection in the workplace (5.5 ± 0.1; mean ± SD), and support from public health authorities (5.01 ± 0.12; mean ± SD). Healthcare workers in Latin America had limited access to essential PPE and support from healthcare authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Journal Article
Seamless Suits: Reducing Personnel Contamination Through Improved Personal Protective Equipment Design
To the Editor—Healthcare personnel frequently use incorrect technique when putting on and removing isolation gowns and gloves.1–3 Such lapses in technique increase the risk for contamination of the skin and clothing of personnel during personal protective equipment (PPE) removal.1,3 Contamination of the hands and wrists may be particularly common due to exposed skin at the wrist or incorrect technique during glove removal.1,3,4 In surgical settings, the gown–glove interface has also been described as the weakest point in the gown and glove barrier system.5,6 In studies simulating removal of contaminated gloves, education to improve technique reduced but did not eliminate hand and wrist contamination.1,4 Thus, improvements in PPE design to reduce the risk for contamination are needed. [...]it is not known whether the modified PPE would provide a benefit in reducing contamination for personnel who have received training. [...]the prototype design is more difficult to don than standard PPE because the gloves are attached to the gown.
Journal Article
The Antimicrobial Scrub Contamination and Transmission (ASCOT) Trial: A Three-Arm, Blinded, Randomized Controlled Trial With Crossover Design to Determine the Efficacy of Antimicrobial-Impregnated Scrubs in Preventing Healthcare Provider Contamination
OBJECTIVE To determine whether antimicrobial-impregnated textiles decrease the acquisition of pathogens by healthcare provider (HCP) clothing. DESIGN We completed a 3-arm randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of 2 types of antimicrobial-impregnated clothing compared to standard HCP clothing. Cultures were obtained from each nurse participant, the healthcare environment, and patients during each shift. The primary outcome was the change in total contamination on nurse scrubs, measured as the sum of colony-forming units (CFU) of bacteria. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING Nurses working in medical and surgical ICUs in a 936-bed tertiary-care hospital. INTERVENTION Nurse subjects wore standard cotton-polyester surgical scrubs (control), scrubs that contained a complex element compound with a silver-alloy embedded in its fibers (Scrub 1), or scrubs impregnated with an organosilane-based quaternary ammonium and a hydrophobic fluoroacrylate copolymer emulsion (Scrub 2). Nurse participants were blinded to scrub type and randomly participated in all 3 arms during 3 consecutive 12-hour shifts in the intensive care unit. RESULTS In total, 40 nurses were enrolled and completed 3 shifts. Analyses of 2,919 cultures from the environment and 2,185 from HCP clothing showed that scrub type was not associated with a change in HCP clothing contamination (P=.70). Mean difference estimates were 0.118 for the Scrub 1 arm (95% confidence interval [CI], -0.206 to 0.441; P=.48) and 0.009 for the Scrub 2 rm (95% CI, -0.323 to 0.342; P=.96) compared to the control. HCP became newly contaminated with important pathogens during 19 of the 120 shifts (16%). CONCLUSIONS Antimicrobial-impregnated scrubs were not effective at reducing HCP contamination. However, the environment is an important source of HCP clothing contamination. TRIAL REGISTRATION Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT 02645214 Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2017;38:1147-1154.
Journal Article
Impact of Universal Gowning and Gloving on Health Care Worker Clothing Contamination
To determine whether gowning and gloving for all patient care reduces contamination of healthcare worker (HCW) clothing, compared to usual practice.
Cross-sectional surveys.
Five study sites were recruited from intensive care units (ICUs) randomized to the intervention arm of the Benefits of Universal Gown and Glove (BUGG) study.
All HCWs performing direct patient care in the study ICUs were eligible to participate.
Surveys were performed first during the BUGG intervention study period (July-September 2012) with universal gowning/gloving and again after BUGG study conclusion (October-December 2012), with resumption of usual care. During each phase, HCW clothing was sampled at the beginning and near the end of each shift. Cultures were performed using broth enrichment followed by selective media. Acquisition was defined as having a negative clothing culture for samples taken at the beginning of a shift and positive clothing culture at for samples taken at the end of the shift.
A total of 348 HCWs participated (21-92 per site), including 179 (51%) during the universal gowning/gloving phase. Overall, 51 (15%) HCWs acquired commonly pathogenic bacteria on their clothing: 13 (7.1%) HCWs acquired bacteria during universal gowning/gloving, and 38 (23%) HCWs acquired bacteria during usual care (odds ratio [OR], 0.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.2-0.6). Pathogens identified included S. aureus (25 species, including 7 methicillin-resistant S. aureus [MRSA]), Enterococcus spp. (25, including 1 vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus [VRE]), Pseudomonas spp. (4), Acinetobacter spp. (4), and Klebsiella (2).
Nearly 25% of HCWs practicing usual care (gowning and gloving only for patients with known resistant bacteria) contaminate their clothing during their shift. This contamination was reduced by 70% by gowning and gloving for all patient interactions.
Journal Article
Blast Overpressure in Rats: Recreating a Battlefield Injury in the Laboratory
Blast injury to the brain is the predominant cause of neurotrauma in current military conflicts, and its etiology is largely undefined. Using a compression-driven shock tube to simulate blast effects, we assessed the physiological, neuropathological, and neurobehavioral consequences of airblast exposure, and also evaluated the effect of a Kevlar® protective vest on acute mortality in rats and on the occurrence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in those that survived. This approach provides survivable blast conditions under which TBI can be studied. Striking neuropathological changes were caused by both 126- and 147-kPa airblast exposures. The Kevlar vest, which encased the thorax and part of the abdomen, greatly reduced airblast mortality, and also ameliorated the widespread fiber degeneration that was prominent in brains of rats not protected by a vest during exposure to a 126-kPa airblast. This finding points to a significant contribution of the systemic effects of airblast to its brain injury pathophysiology. Airblast of this intensity also disrupted neurologic and neurobehavioral performance (e.g., beam walking and spatial navigation acquisition in the Morris water maze). When immediately followed by hemorrhagic hypotension, with MAP maintained at 30 mm Hg, airblast disrupted cardiocompensatory resilience, as reflected by reduced peak shed blood volume, time to peak shed blood volume, and time to death. These findings demonstrate that shock tube–generated airblast can cause TBI in rats, in part through systemic mediation, and that the resulting brain injury significantly impacts acute cardiovascular homeostatic mechanisms as well as neurobehavioral function.
Journal Article
A fractionation of the physiological burden of the personal protective equipment worn by firefighters
Load carriage increases physiological strain, reduces work capacity and elevates the risk of work-related injury. In this project, the separate and combined physiological consequences of wearing the personal protective equipment used by firefighters were evaluated. The overall impact upon performance was first measured in 20 subjects during a maximal, job-related obstacle course trial and an incremental treadmill test to exhaustion (with and without protective equipment). The fractional contributions of the thermal protective clothing, helmet, breathing apparatus and boots were then separately determined during steady-state walking (4.8 km h
−1
, 0% gradient) and bench stepping (20 cm at 40 steps min
−1
). The protective equipment reduced exercise tolerance by 56% on a treadmill, with the ambulatory oxygen consumption reserve (peak minus steady-state walking) being 31% lower. For the obstacle course, performance declined by 27%. Under steady-state conditions, the footwear exerted the greatest relative metabolic impact during walking and bench stepping, being 8.7 and 6.4 times greater per unit mass than the breathing apparatus. Indeed, the relative influence of the clothing on oxygen cost was at least three times that of the breathing apparatus. Therefore, the most efficient way to reduce the physiological burden of firefighters’ protective equipment, and thereby increase safety, would be to reduce the mass of the boots and thermal protective clothing.
Journal Article