The History and Evolution of Personal Protective Gear

The Personal Protective Gear

The History and Evolution of Personal Protective Gear

Abstract

This tells the history and evolution of protective gear and it will present an overview of the main function of fire protective gear that is to assist in reducing the rate and /or severity of injury to the wearer . Protection from obvious hazards in the firefighters ' workplace such as heat and flame , little attempt has been made to link the significance of burn injuries or other forms of injury which result in firefighters being admitted to hospital to

developments in protective clothing

History and Evolution of Personal Protective Gear

History of Personal Protective Gear

In 18th century , the firefighters did not have the protective gear using today , they usually fought outside from the burning building Using the felt cap , doesn 't protect the firefighters to head injury Henry Gratacap develop the fire helmet in 1836 with a peak front use to break glass windows , This helmet is immediately recognizable today as little has changed in its general shape (Fire Department , City of New York

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Evolution of Personal Protective Gear

Over the past 20 years , several advances have been made in the protective clothing and equipment technology used for structural fire fighting . A number of these advances have been due to the development of standards for the fighter protective clothing . The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA ) first developed NFPA 1971 , Standard on Protective Clothing for Structural Fire Fighting , in 1975 . Since then there have been three editions of NFPA 1971 (developed approximately every five years ) with the latest edition to be released in early 1997 Each new successive edition of NFPA 1971 has provided new challenges for materials and clothing designs

Despite improvements in fighter protective clothing , some burn injuries still occur primarily because of the wide range of heat and flame conditions that fire fighters are exposed to and the difficulty in protecting against that broad range of these thermal environments . NFPA 1971 uses a variety of requirements for measuring flame and heat resistance of protective clothing materials . However , only Thermal Protective Performance (TPP ) testing provides a basis for measuring the thermal insulation performance of the clothing composite . This test procedure employs a technique for exposing clothing composite specimens to a combination of radiant and convective heat under conditions representing a flashover ' and measuring the time required for a second degree burn to occur . The uniqueness of this test was to establish an identifiable and point criterion (burn injury threshold ) to a specific fire ground condition (flashover

Based on the use of TPP testing as a tool for selecting material combinations , different design philosophies for developing fire fighter protective clothing have persisted . Originally , industry practices involved applying TPP testing for maximizing the TPP ratings for increased thermal protection . But with the recognition of heat stress as a serious hazard of fire fighting , current approaches entail a balance between clothing system weight and insulative performance (ASTM ,

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The capabilities of fire fighter personal protective...