Personal Protective Equipment Immediately Alters the Core-Skin Temperature Gradient in Recruit Firefighters.

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Environmental Physiology
• Human Factors Engineering

Background:

• Firefighters face extreme heat stress during operations.
• Understanding the physiological impact of personal protective equipment (PPE) is crucial for firefighter safety.
• Existing research often focuses on prolonged exposure rather than immediate effects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantify the immediate impact of personal protective equipment (PPE) on the core-skin temperature gradient in recruit firefighters.
• To analyze how donning and doffing PPE affects thermal regulation during fire academy training.
• To investigate the relationship between PPE use and core and skin temperature changes.

Main Methods:

• Nine recruit firefighters were monitored during fire academy training.
• Core and skin temperatures were continuously measured using ingestible pills and chest monitors.
• Repeated-measures ANOVAs analyzed temperature gradients under PPE ON and PPE OFF conditions.

Main Results:

• A significant reduction in the core-skin temperature gradient was observed when firefighters wore PPE (p < 0.001).
• Skin temperature was significantly higher when PPE was worn compared to when it was off.
• No significant interaction or main effect of PPE status was found for core temperature.

Conclusions:

• Donning personal protective equipment (PPE) significantly decreases the core-skin temperature gradient in recruit firefighters.
• Increased skin temperature is the primary factor contributing to the reduced gradient during PPE use.
• These findings highlight the immediate thermoregulatory challenges firefighters face when wearing PPE.