Effectiveness of rest pauses and cooling in alleviation of heat stress during simulated fire-fighting activity

摘要

This study examined whether cooling a fire-fighter with a high velocity fan, during 10 min rest pauses between, and following, 10 min work periods, decreases heat stress during repetitive fire-fighting activity. Twelve professional fire-fighters (mean age 31.8±6.7 years) completed two, 40 min work/recovery trials in an environmental chamber at 40 deg. C and 70/100 relative humidity (RH). One trial was termed an enhanced recovery (ER) trial and the other was termed a normal recovery (NR) trial.