Physiological Evaluation of Cooling Devices in Conjunction With Personal Protective Ensembles Recommended for Use in West Africa

Abstract

Use of CDs can be advantageous in decreasing the negative physiological and subjective responses to the heat stress encountered by health care workers wearing PPE in hot and humid environments. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:573-579).

Cooling vests alleviate perceptual heat strain perceived by COVID-19 nurses

“…26 ) were substantially higher compared to the ambient temperature in our study, limiting the heat tolerance as dry heat loss is the primary avenue for heat exchange when individuals are capsuled in PPE 4 . Moreover, the lab based Ebola study used 60 minutes of continuous treadmill walking at 4km/h to mimic health care working activities 25 , whereas real life medical duties are typically intermittent, at a lower intensity but longer duration 20 22 . Taken together, it seems that the physiological heat strain is not the primary problem for nurses working at relatively low intermittent intensity in thermoneutral environments wearing PPE even if sub-PPE air temperatures increase up to 32.6±1.6°C.…”

Comparison of Thermal Manikin Modeling and Human Subjects’ Response During Use of Cooling Devices Under Personal Protective Ensembles in the Heat

“…Subjective measurement of HS was measured at the start and end of exercise; HS was measured on the same 4 to -4 scale as the thermal manikin 33 . For more specific information regarding the human subject data collection methods used in this study, please refer to the previously published study by Quinn, et al 13 …”

“…32 Subjective measurement of HS was measured at the start and end of exercise; HS was measured on the same 4 to -4 scale as the thermal manikin. 33 For more specific information regarding the human subject data collection methods used in this study, please refer to the previously published study by Quinn, et al 13 Statistical Analysis Core temperature and T sk were calculated for mean and standard deviation for three time periods: start of exercise, 30 minutes, and 60 minutes of exercise. Two time periods were used for HS: start and 60 minutes of exercise.…”

“…The use of personal cooling devices (PCDs) underneath impermeable PPE and during exercise has been previously shown to reduce thermoregulatory strain and subjective perceptions of effort, potentially increasing working time of the HCWs. 7,[10][11][12][13] In this text, a PCD refers to a vest that includes a cooling medium such as ice packs, phase change material (PCM) packs, or water circulation hoses designed to cool the user in heat stress situations. While the physiological evaluation of PCDs worn underneath impermeable PPE recommended for use during the Ebola outbreak has been previously described in human subjects, 13 it is important to be able to evaluate such devices on a sweating thermal manikin.…”

“…7,[10][11][12][13] In this text, a PCD refers to a vest that includes a cooling medium such as ice packs, phase change material (PCM) packs, or water circulation hoses designed to cool the user in heat stress situations. While the physiological evaluation of PCDs worn underneath impermeable PPE recommended for use during the Ebola outbreak has been previously described in human subjects, 13 it is important to be able to evaluate such devices on a sweating thermal manikin. The sweating thermal manikin models human physiological responses in order to control for variation introduced by heterogeneous human subject sampling, increasing the repeatability of data collected, and reducing subject burden to heat stress in potential future evaluations.…”