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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1408591
This article is part of the Research Topic Innovative Prevention Strategies for Occupational Health Hazards View all 10 articles

Effects of Cooling Vest and Personal Protective Equipment Removal on Thermoregulation in Wildland Firefighters during Progressive Thermal Loads

Provisionally accepted

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Wildland firefighters (WFFs) regularly face demanding physical and environmental conditions during their duties, such as high ambient temperatures, challenging terrains, heavy equipment and protective gear. These conditions can strain thermoregulatory responses, leading to increased fatigue and posing risks to their health and safety. This study examined the effectiveness of two cooling interventions during physical activity in hot environments. Eight active male WFFs participated, comparing the effects of wearing a cooling vest (VEST) and personal protective equipment removal (PASSIVE) against a control condition (PPE). Participants walked on a treadmill at a speed of 6 km⋅h -1 for approximately 75-min under hot conditions (30°C and 30% relative humidity). Incremental slope increases were introduced every 15 min after the initial 20 min of activity, with 5-min passive recovery between each increment. Physiological and perceptual parameters were monitored throughout the protocol. Significant main effects (p<0.05) were observed in skin temperature (36.3 ± 0.2, 36.2 ± 0.4 and 35.4 ± 0.6 ºC in PPE, PASSIVE and VEST, respectively), physiological strain index (5.2 ± 0.4, 5.6 ± 1.1 and 4.3 ± 1.4 in PPE, PASSIVE and VEST) and thermal sensation (6.6 ± 0.6, 6.4 ± 0.7 and 5.3 ± 0.7 in PPE, PASSIVE and VEST). However, no significant effects of the cooling strategies were observed on heart rate, gastrointestinal temperature or performance. Despite the observed effects on physiological responses, neither cooling strategy effectively mitigated thermal strain in WFFs under the experimental conditions tested.

    Keywords: Active cooling, Passive cooling, thermoregulation, heat strain mitigation, Personal protective equipment

    Received: 28 Mar 2024; Accepted: 30 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gutiérrez Arroyo, Rodriguez-Marroyo, García-Heras, Rodríguez-Medina, Collado, VICENTE and Carballo-Leyenda. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jose A. Rodriguez-Marroyo, University of León, León, 24004, Spain

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