The effect of personal protective equipment on thermal stress: An experimental study on firefighters.

BACKGROUND: Various parameters can affect the performance of firefighters. Thermal stress in firefighters is one of the most important harmful factors, which causes impaired performance and subsequent occupational accidents. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of personal protective equipment (PPE) on thermal stress in firefighters. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study was performed on 30 firefighters. Heart rate, metabolism and temperature parameters were measured with and without using PPE in a simulated standard chamber. Then, the two indices of predicted mean vote (PMV) and predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) were calculated. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 22.0. RESULTS: The results showed that PPE-induced weight directly increased heart rate and indirectly led to an increase in metabolism and temperature as well as significant changes in PMV and PPD indices (p < 0.001). In addition, our results showed that the effect of thermal resistance of clothing (Clo) on PMV and PPD indices was very high (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The findings of the study indicated that heat stress in firefighters is influenced by PPE weight and thermal resistance of clothing. Therefore, cooling vests can be used to reduce the thermal stress induced by temperature rise resulted from metabolism, PPE weight and thermal resistance of clothing. Reduced thermal stress will lead to the cooling of body temperature to acceptable levels of PMV and PPD.

Occupational Exposure and Risk Assessment of Formaldehyde in the Pathology Departments of Hospitals.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Exposure to formaldehyde has adverse effects on health both acutely and over the long term (e.g., carcinogenicity). The substance is widely used in pathology and histology departments.  This study focused on cancer risk of formaldehyde in pathology department of five hospitals in Rasht. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sampling and determination of formaldehyde in pathology department were carried out based on the NIOSH method of 3500. The working condition and working environment were investigated and a semi quantitative risk assessment were used to health risk assessment of formaldehyde and The individual lifetime cancer probability, which is defined as the increase in the probability of developing cancer during continuous exposure to an air pollutant were used to assess health risks with formaldehyde. RESULTS: The results showed that the exposure level of all subjects were higher than the Occupational Exposure Limit for 8 hours exposure time of formaldehyde. However, in the five occupational groups, the highest weekly exposure index was observed for the Lab Technicians (0.664 ppm) at Hospital no. 5, which could have been due to more daily working hours at this sampling site and a lack of adequate ventilation. The formaldehyde concentration was in the 0.0192 to 0.326 ppm ranges for five hospital pathology departments. The cancer risk ranged from 9.52×10-5 to 1.53×10-3, and it was greater than the WHO acceptable cancer risk level. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the risk assessments can be used for managing the chemical exposure of allocated resources for defining control actions. This process plays an important role in reducing the level of exposure to formaldehyde in pathology departments.
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