An instrumented mannequin has been constructed for testing the thermal protective qualities of garments when subjected to short duration flash fires. To measure the rate of heat transfer to the mannequin surface 110 skin simulant sensors are used. The flash fires are produced with propane diffusion flames. A computer controlled data acquisition system is used to run the experiment, record and store the data, calculate the extent and nature of skin damage and display the results. The sampling rate of the system is 800 Hz. The heat fluxes used in the study were varied from 67 kW/m2 to 84 kW/m2 (1.6 cal/cm2· s to 2 cal/cm2· s), while burn durations were limited to 3 and 4 seconds. Six different fibre/fire retardant/fabric weight combinations were tested. The results show that increasing the fabric weight for a particular fibre reduces the extent of skin burning. However some materials are more effective than others so that a general correlation of this form does not hold. Increasing the heat flux level and duration increased the predicted amount of skin burning with all the garments tested. There was a good correlation with TPP results at the low heat fluxes and durations, but not at the high values for each.

This paper demonstrates the usefulness of anthropometries in analyzing sizing problems found in commercially available chemical protective gloves for agricultural workers and makes recommendations for the design of better fitting gloves. The Engineering Anthropometric Clothing Design Model served as the framework for this research. Because no data on the hand dimensions of agricultural workers were available an anthropometric survey was conducted of 380 Alberta grain farmers who handle pesticides. Nineteen hand dimensions were measured for each subject. When compared to military populations, the hand circumference of agricultural workers was found to be significantly larger. A smaller sample of farmers who were representative of the agricultural population evaluated the static and dynamic fit of four glove types. Through this evaluation several major problems in the design of the gloves were identified. To improve the fit of chemical protective gloves for agricultural workers, the length of fingers need to be shortened and the thumb position relocated.

No abstract

The effectiveness of chlorine and oxygen bleach soak pre-treatments in removal of chlorpyrifos from cotton was examined. A 0.5 mL aliquot of chlorpyrifos (1.0% a.i., emulsifiable concentrate) was pipetted onto fabric specimens cut from 100% cotton. Laundering treatments included: no pre-treatment/one and two washes; Spray ‘n Wash® pre-treatment/one and two washes; oxygen bleach soak/1 wash; and chlorine bleach soak/one wash. Analysis of variance indicated significant differences (p < 0.001) in percent residue remaining among laundry treatments. The most effective laundry protocol included a 0.4% chlorine bleach 3-hour soak at 50°C (0.03% residue remaining), followed by the 2.5% oxygen bleach 12-hour soak at 50°C (3.3% residue remaining). The least effective was a single wash with no pre-treatment (44.7% residue remaining). Specimens subjected to 0, 5, 10 and 25 chlorine bleach soak/washes became progressively weaker, but users may accept workwear with lower durability in exchange for low residues of chlorpyrifos when the chlorine bleach pre-treatment is used.

No abstract