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Influence of Personal Protective Equipment on Wildland Firefighters’ Physiological Response and Performance during the Pack Test
- Source :
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Volume 18, Issue 10, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol 18, Iss 5050, p 5050 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2021.
-
Abstract
- The Pack Test (PT) is a widely used test to establish readiness for work in wildland firefighting. It is common to perform this test dressed in regular exercise clothing. However, wildland firefighters (WFF) have to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) during their deployments, which increases the physiological strain and reduces their work capacity. This study aimed to analyse the impact of full PPE on PT performance. Nine male professional WFF performed in random order a PT walking at the fastest possible self-pace wearing two different clothing configurations: (i) traditional short sports gear (SG) and (ii) the PPE currently used by Spanish WFF. Heart rate (HR), rating of perceived exertion and lap time were recorded during the PT. In addition, oxygen uptake (VO2) was estimated through the individual VO2–HR relationship previously obtained during a graded exercise test. There was a significant decrease in the PT performance (i.e., completion time) (~12%, p &lt<br />0.05) in PPE. The physiological demands with this configuration were significantly higher (~10%, p &lt<br />0.05). WFF spent ~13 min above the anaerobic threshold in PPE vs. ~4 min in SG. A multiple stepwise regression analysis revealed that PT performance variation might be explained by the maximal aerobic velocity (84.5%) in PPE and the VO2max (75.9%) in SG. In conclusion, wearing complete PPE increases WFF’s physiological strain, which translates into a significant PT performance reduction. Performing the test walking at the fastest possible self-pace wearing the PPE would better reflect the high-intensity effort periods reported in real scenarios.
- Subjects :
- Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Article
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Protective Clothing
Heart Rate
Regular exercise
Heart rate
physical employment standards
medicine
Humans
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
Exercise
Personal protective equipment
050107 human factors
Rating of perceived exertion
business.industry
readiness for work
05 social sciences
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
030229 sport sciences
Oxygen uptake
Test (assessment)
wildland firefighting
Firefighters
personal protective equipment
Exercise Test
Physical therapy
Medicine
work capacity
Completion time
business
Anaerobic exercise
human activities
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 16604601
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....24261d932a47dc02c52c342e23b9c077
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18105050