2007, Piran, Slovenia

Environmental Ergonomics XII
Igor B. Mekjavic, Stelios N. Kounalakis & Nigel A.S. Taylor (Eds.), © BIOMED, Ljubljana 2007
ERGONOMIC COMPARISON OF A CHEM/BIO PROTOTYPE
FIREFIGHTER ENSEMBLE AND A STANDARD ENSEMBLE
A.Coca 1 , R. Roberge 1 , A. Shepherd 1 , J.B. Powell 2 , N. Shriver 2 , J.O. Stull 3 , E. Sinkule 1 ,
and W.J. Williams 1
1 NIOSH/NPPTL, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 2 EG&G, 3 International Personal Protection,
Inc.
Contact person: esq6@cdc.gov
INTRODUCTION
Firefighting is one of the most physically demanding occupations, requiring personnel
to perform numerous activities with minimal restriction of movement. Elevated
threats of bioterrorism have created a sense of urgency for improving the protection of
first responders, especially firefighters, against chemical and biological hazards
without increasing their occupational burden. Firefighter turnout gear and equipment
protect the wearer against external hazards, but may adversely affect the range of
motion, mobility and comfort. Numerous studies have demonstrated that wearer
mobility and comfort are affected by variations in garment design, sizing and fit
(Havenith, 2004, Huck, 1988). Comfort and mobility are important issues related to
user acceptance and safety, and must therefore be considered in the overall evaluation
of an ensemble.
The aim of this study was to describe the objective and subjective measures of
mobility and comfort while wearing a new prototype firefighter ensemble (PE) with
additional chemical/biological hazard protection compared to a standard ensemble
(SE) by evaluating passive and dynamic range of motion, ergonomic assessments of
job-related tasks and perception of comfort.
The standard firefighter ensemble served as the platform for the development of the
prototype. It was hypothesized there would be no significant differences between the
ergonomic characteristics of the prototype as compared to the standard ensemble.
METHODS
Six healthy adults (3 males, 3 females), aged 20-40 years, participated in this study.
After subjects read and signed informed consent forms approved by the human
subjects review board, each subject performed 5 tests in random order. They donned
either the SE or PE in either dry or wet conditions on separate days to perform the
following 5 tests: baseline (no ensemble), SE-dry, SE-wet, PE-dry, and PE-wet. Each
test followed a previously used ergonomics protocol (Johnson, 2005) that consisted of
measuring the active flexion, extension and abduction of the main body joints (elbow,
shoulder, neck, knee, ankle, wrist), as well as other anthropometric measures. Subjects
also performed the following objective timed tests: ensemble donning/doffing, seated
squats, step-ups, one-arm search, crawling over and under objects, mannequin drag,
and solid object lift. Subjective questionnaires on perceptions of comfort used on
firefighters previously (Stull, 2000) were completed prior to and after each test.
RESULTS
Most baseline (non-ensemble) tests were significantly different from the ensemble
tests. There was a significant reduction (p