Stress and Strain of Mine Rescue Teams during a Standard Training Procedure

Abstract

Abstract Rescue teams in the Ruhrkohle mining district perform training in training galleries at regular intervals. The strain during the training should be comparable to the strain during typical missions. The Central Mine Rescue Establishment in Heme has developed a standard training procedure of 120 minutes' duration that has to be performed by participants wearing a self-contained breathing apparatus. Physiological strain (heart rate, body core temperature, and sweat loss) was recorded for 52 members of the complete rescue team of one mine. At the end of the training, heart rates show mean values of 153 ± 17 min-1 (mean ± standard deviation), body temperatures increase to values of 38.8° ± 0.4°C, and sweat losses during the complete standard training equal 2.2 ± 0.6 kg; relative sweat loss is 2.6 ± 0.7 percent of body mass. Since 40 of the 52 participants in the training exceed a heart rate of 200 — age—the limit to which heart rate is increased during the ergometry at the medical examination—the phys...