Abstract
The US fire service has become acutely aware of the need to clean PPE after fires. However, there is concern that damage from repeated cleaning may impact critical protection from fireground risk. Using a protocol that included repeated simulated fireground exposures (between 0 cycles and 40 cycles) and/or repeated cleaning with techniques common in the fire service, we found that several important protective properties of NFPA 1971 compliant turnout gear are significantly changed. Outer shell and thermal liner tear strength showed a statistically significant reduction when laundered as compared to wet or dry decontamination. Larger changes in outer shell tear strength resulted when the coat closure incorporated hook & dee clasps as compared with garments using zippered closures. Total Heat Loss was reduced for all samples that underwent any form of cleaning while Thermal Protective Performance was only increased in the gear that was laundered. These results suggest that some important protective properties of bunker gear can be decreased after repeated exposure/cleaning cycles relative to their levels when tested in a new condition. For the specific materials tested, outer shell trap tear strength in the fill direction and seam strength dropped below NFPA 1971 requirements after 40 laundering cycles. The findings for this study may have utility for setting preconditions for the measurement of certain performance properties in future editions of NFPA 1971.
Highlights
The personal protective equipment (PPE) firefighters wear is a highly engineered ensemble designed to balance protection from heat, smoke, water, and abrasions with the ergonomic and human factors concerns of the firefighter working inside the gear
A shaded region indicating plus and minus one standard deviation around the mean of the baseline (no exposure/no cleaning (NN)) treatment data is superimposed over each data set to allow visual comparison with this referent value
A red line is included on each plot to indicate the minimum requirement for the respective material or composite as established in NFPA 1971, which is intended to apply to new samples
Summary
The personal protective equipment (PPE) firefighters wear is a highly engineered ensemble designed to balance protection from heat, smoke, water, and abrasions with the ergonomic and human factors concerns of the firefighter working inside the gear. Most firefighting PPE in the United states is certified to the NFPA 1971 Standard on protective ensembles for structural firefighting and proximity firefighting [1] to ensure a minimum level of performance characteristics to protect the firefighter from response related hazards. Some test methods within NFPA 1971, include laundering and heat exposure preconditions prior to the evaluation of the specific performance property. As fire departments in the US have become increasingly aware of the health risks associated with soiled and/or contaminated gear after fireground use, there has been an anecdotal increase in the frequency of cleaning PPE, both through traditional laundering methods and on-scene decontamination processes ( known as preliminary exposure reduction). The 2020 edition of NFPA 1851 describes preliminary exposure reduction as a process that is primarily intended to reduce levels of surface contamination to mitigate the potential for contamination transfer prior to advanced cleaning of structural firefighting protective clothing. Firefighters are cleaning their gear more often, though with limited understanding on how this might affect the protective properties of its original design
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