New guidelines will raise the standard of PPE cleaning and mantainance

摘要

Cleaning and maintaining PPE for fire and rescue personnel is a subject that has been receiving increasing amounts of attention over recent years. Fortunately, the days when firefighters viewed dirty garments and equipment as some sort of proof that they had been doing their job are now well behind us, and today's forward-thinking fire and rescue organisations do a great job in understanding and emphasising the need for PPE garments to be properly cleaned and maintained on a regular basis. Their concern is understandable, given the fact that the day-to-day work of fire and rescue personnel can bring them into contact with many different types of potentially harmful substances, including carcinogens. While modern fires can involve traditional combustible materials such as wood, many new types of plastics and other materials may also now be present, not to mention electronic devices which may give off harmful particles as they burn. These new contaminants all pose fresh types of risk to our firefighters. They can sometimes be absorbed by the firefighter, as the rise in temperature inside the PPE increases the permeability of the skin, and the design and construction of the PPE garments must provide reliable and effective protection against this. However, those contaminants also have the ability to remain on the PPE garments, and potentially pose a threat long after the firefighter has left an incident.