NC170: Personal Protective Technologies for Current and Emerging Occupational and Environmental Hazards
Statement of Issues and Justification
As first responders, health professionals, military personnel, and industrial workers perform their job tasks in hazardous environments, the systems they wear for protection offer both functional benefits and challenges. Personal protective equipment makes serving in hazardous environments possible, yet can interfere with the ability of the worker to perform tasks. Research and development of materials and product designs for PPE generally are critical to our nation's welfare, security, and ability to compete in a global economy. Providing effective PPE for firefighters, first responders, pesticide handlers and professionals such as doctors and medical technicians are necessary both to protect citizens in these roles and to increase their effectiveness. The U.S. industry that manufactures protective materials, clothing, and equipment currently leads the world in innovation and production, and needs effective research and development to maintain this position.Shortcomings of one category of protective clothing can be seen in firefighting: of the 1.15million firefighters that protected the US in 2009, 78,150 were injured on the job. Between 2003 and 2006, 20% of total injuries were to the arm and hand, and 20% to the foot or leg. 36% of burns happened to the head, and another 29% to the arm or hand. 64% of wound, cut, or bleeding injuries happened to the hand or arm. Although fireground injuries are by far the most common injuries for firefighters, their job duties have transformed significantly over the last three decades: medical or EMS calls are now more than three times as frequent as they were in 1980, and make up 65% of all fire department calls (Source: NFPA). As job duties and work environments change, protective equipment must similarly adapt to meet new needs. We find increasing overlap in functional needs between hazardous occupations, as well as commonality in sources of issues in PPE. Evaluation of PPE in one use context can provide insight, background, and expertise that transfers to other domains. The development and dissemination of effective PPE requires analysis and research in a wide variety of component areas, including textile and materials science, materials testing and evaluation, anthropometrics and ergonomics, garment design and testing, and outreach and policy-making. Development, evaluation, and dissemination of PPE has been the focus of the NC-170 research group since 1982, and we have become nationally recognized for our leadership and advancement of the state of the art in this area. To date our focus has been on textiles and clothing systems, and we aim to continue to innovate broadly in these areas, with a new focus on problems related to protecting the hands, feet, and head. These areas we find to have particular potential for research and development (as evidenced by the firefighter injury statistics cited above.) Our approach will implement the systems perspective that has produced effective innovation in previous projects to take into account the materials, human factors, design, and dissemination components identified above. Applying our approaches of anthropometric and ergonomic analysis, implementation of new technologies, and community-centric research and outreach we believe will result in significant advances in garment-based PPE as well as PPE for the feet, hands, and head.
Even as occupational conditions grow increasingly diverse and hazardous, new technologies offer the opportunity to impart increased functionality, wearability, and usability to PPE systems. In materials science, the development of new textiles and fiber technologies can better meet the workers functional and comfort needs. In anthropometrics and ergonomic analysis, body scanning and motion capture technology can bring increased speed, accuracy, and insight into the development of design parameters, the design of new systems, and the evaluation of garments and accessories. In garment design, smart materials and electronic components can impart novel functionality to PPE systems and allow the wearers status and needs to be monitored continuously to inform system functions or oversight.
Our group is uniquely positioned to approach problems associated with PPE. We are comprised of members with a wide variety of areas of expertise and of research backgrounds. We have an established track record of successful collaboration, both internally and with community/user groups and external research partners. We have accumulated an impressive array of cutting-edge research equipment and facilities, and have developed expertise in the implementation of these technologies to further the state of the art in PPE. The approach we have described leverages all of these factors to address the design, development, and dissemination of PPE technologies in a process that looks 1) at barriers to acceptance and use of PPE, 2) at design, development and testing of PPE materials and technologies, 3) at development of performance guidelines for PPE components and systems, and 4) at development of novel textiles, materials, and functionality for PPE. Through this approach, we will identify areas of opportunity for research and development in PPE for firefighters, first responders, military personnel, agricultural workers, and medical environments through analysis of current equipment and use and through foundation research in anthropometrics of under-investigated body areas. We will address these identified areas of opportunity to assess and improve protection and human factor performance of PPE and protective clothing through research and product development. We will communicate and standardize these findings through the development of research-based performance guidelines for protective equipment.
Back to Top