Physiological Evaluation of Chemical Protective Clothing
Abstract
Physiologists evaluated chemical warfare (CW) protective clothing ensembles worn by 8 volunteers working (M=170 W/sq m) for 3 hours in up to 5 different environments, consisting of a control (22.2 C/50% r.h.), and a warm humid (29.4 C/45% r.h.), a hot humid (35 C/60% r.h.) with and without a 4.5 m/ sec wind, and a hot dry (48.9 C/20% r.h.) climate. The evaluated uniforms were the British Mark III, two-piece, permeable CW outfit and the Norwegian Helly- Hansen, one-piece, semi-permeable garment. The Mark III was evaluated alone, with the wet-weather (WW) gear over it to make the CW garment impermeable, and finally with a wettable cover (WC) over the WW to alleviate some of the thermal stress. All CW clothing ensembles consisted of the standard Navy utility uniform (chambray shirt and denim trousers), CW uniform, standard U.S. Army butyl boots and gloves, and Navy Mark V mask. This study revealed the following: (1) the least stressful CW ensemble was the Mark III with no overgarment; (2) the Norwegian and Mark III + WW uniforms were the most stressful and created almost identical thermal stress, except for lower skin temperatures and higher evaporation rates with the Norwegian uniforms; and (3) heat stress can be somewhat alleviated, and tolerance time thereby increased, with the use of an outer wettable cover over impermeable CW garments.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1983
- Accession Number
- ADA137709
Entities
People
- B. A. Avellini