The purpose of this review article is to evaluate ventilation, within protective clothing, for its benefit towards heat loss. Literature from ventilation studies in the sports apparel, outdoor clothing, military, chemical, and firefighter protection industries will be examined for future research opportunities. Challenges to ventilation such as garment placement, protection, wearability, and durability will be discussed in the context of turnout suits. Ventilation designs will be considered for further evaluation in structural firefighter turnout garments. This article serves as the first comprehensive review of ventilation literature for structural firefighter turnout ensembles. Researchers, technologists, and functional apparel designers may all benefit from such a review. The value of ventilation and its potential contribution to current firefighter turnout research will be discussed.

This paper describes research conducted to develop a better understanding of the effects of turnout materials on heat transmission and thermal energy storage in moisture preconditioned samples exposed to low level radiant heat. It utilized a newly developed laboratory apparatus and testing procedures to generate data on a range of materials used in the construction of firefighter turnouts.

Sweating skin models and instrumented thermal manikins are commonly used to assess the heat stress potential of materials used in protective clothing. This research describes the relationship observed between heat loss through firefighter turnout ensembles measured using a sweating thermal manikin and that measured with a guarded sweating hot plate. Materials and garment level instrument measures are compared on the basis of their ability to predict human physiological responses related to heat stress in firefighter turnout systems. Sweating hot plate and manikin test results for selected firefighter turnout ensembles are compared to human wear studies in which firefighter turnout ensembles were worn in different environmental conditions. Sweating manikin tests are used to explain differences in the human physiological response and how these measures are related to turn-out heat transfer properties measured using a sweating hot plate. This study confirms the utility of sweating manikins in characterizing the effects of clothing design, fit, and layers on heat and moisture transfer. Thermal manikins are shown to be valuable tools for evaluating the distribution of heat loss through different areas of protective gear.

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This research identifies laboratory test methods designed to advance assessment of the effects of structural firefighter gloves on a firefighter's ability to perform tasks with their hands. Two new hand dexterity test methods are discussed: a modified tool test for measuring glove effects on gross or whole hand motor control, and a novel cylinder lift method for evaluating glove effects on fine or fingertip hand dexterity. Data generated by testing a representative group of structural firefighter and other responder gloves are used to show that these new test methods provide less variable data and a more useful and informative assessment of the effects of glove construction on hand dexterity than that provided by standard small pin pegboard tests. Based on these comparisons, a combination of the newly developed tool and cylinder lift test methods are recommended for evaluating the effects of structural firefighter gloves on hand dexterity in standards used as the basis of certifying the performance of structural firefighter clothing.