Improving thermal comfort of individual wearing medical protective clothing: Two personal cooling strategies integrated with the polymer water-absorbing resin material

Abstract

To limit the spread of the epidemic, healthcare workers wore tightly closed protective suits. The microenvironment with high temperature and humidity inside medical protective clothing (MPC) may result in health risks to healthcare workers associated with heat stress, particularly when exposed to high-temperature environments over extended periods. To solve the problem of poor thermal and humidity comfort in MPC, two cooling strategies were designed by selecting a polymer water-absorbent resin: hygroscopic material clothing (HMC) and condensation dehumidification package (CDP). In this regard, we conducted experiments with ten participants to explore the effects of two strategies. Two ambient conditions (Neutral–warm condition, at about 27 °C; Hot condition, at about 31 °C) and four different wearing-mode conditions were chosen for this study. The results show that both strategies can improve the microenvironment in the MPC, significantly reduce the average skin temperature of the participants, improve the thermal sensation and comfort, and reduce the discomfort caused by hot and humid environments. Under hot conditions, the two cooling strategies can reduce the average skin temperature by more than 0.2 °C. Compared with the results of the control conditions, the average TSV was reduced by 0.47 and the average TCV was increased by 0.23 at most when using HMC; The average TSV was reduced by 1.00 and the average TCV was increased by 0.38 at most when using CDP. Moreover, the effects of the two strategies on improving thermal comfort were recognized by participants.