COLD TOWELS VALUABLE REHAB TOOLS

摘要

Stress/overexertion caused the greatest number of deaths of American firefighters in the line of duty in 2007; the most common nature of death was heart attack, and the majority of heart attacks occurred on the fireground.1 This pattern of death has persisted for many years. We are now awakening to the risk of core temperature rise from heat stress during firefighting and training operations. Until recently, fire service protection in uniforms, training, and equipment has focused almost entirely on thermal burns. When worn completely on a hot day, the protective uniform ensemble can defeat virtually every thermal regulating mechanism of the human body. Unable to cool itself, the body's core temperature can rise to a dangerous level in an astonishingly short time. The irony is that as we've decreased the risk of injury from thermal burns, we've also increased a risk factor for the leading killer of firefighters.