Systematic approach in protection and ergonomics testing personal protective equipment

Abstract

In the area of personal protection against chemical and biological (CB) agents there is a strong focus on testing the materials against the relevant threats. The testing programs in this area are elaborate and are aimed to guarantee that the material protects according to specifications. This ensures that the protective clothing and respiratory protection that is out on the market consist of the best material for that purpose. However, protective clothing and respiratory protective devices in practice are worn as a system that is a 3D structure that is subject to different environmental conditions, movement and mechanical tear and wear. In the last few years test methods at system level (Whole System Tests [WST] or Battlefield Protection factor), have been developed to address these issues and provide information on the protective performance of clothing and gasmasks, in addition to the protection of the materials. These tests provide crucial insight in the design of protective equipment and its effect on overall protection to the wearer. Ergonomics testing of CB protective equipment has always been performed separately from the protection tests. Most recent developments are aimed at integrating ergonomics type tests in to WST protection to be able to evaluate the protective performance of CB protective equipment and respiratory protection in operational environments. In this development the WSTs should reflect relevant practical working conditions and possibly should extend to actual measurement of protection at the working place. In this presentation the developments and challenges on these types of tests will be addressed. Furthermore, developments in other areas of protection, as they relate to testing in operational environments, will be discussed. These developments indidcate the trend that test methods should reflect operational environments and provide insight in protection under those circumstances. Similar trends can be observed in protection against CBRN, heat and flame, impact and detection. For personnel from military and First Responders organizations the combinations of all the protection types are also relevant. A systemic approach in developing sepcifications and corresponding test methods should allow to optimize their personal protective systems