PPE HEAT STRESS CALCULATOR

The Problem

Individuals wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) must be concerned not only with the hazardous agents they may face but also with such issues as heat stress. Both military and civilian users have an urgent need for a quick way to determine acceptable stay time while wearing PPE, to avoid excessive heat stress that can threaten their ability to function as well as their health and safety. Current approaches to determining safe stay time tend to be conservative (i.e., to "err on the safe side"). Such conservative estimates may require a responder to prematurely cease work efforts and remove the PPE. At the same time, care must be taken to avoid an overly aggressive approach that overestimates stay time and could threaten the responder's health or safety. An optimal approach would be in the form of a user-friendly product that provides an accurate, risk-balanced estimate of stay time.

The Solution

HeatCommander™ is an application that runs on a personal digital assistant (PDA) device under the Pocket PC operating system. Developed by GEOMET under sponsorship of the Technical Support Working Group (www.tswg.gov), CBRNC Subgroup, the product includes:

• Robust yet straightforward algorithms for predicting heat stress for specific combinations of (1) individual characteristics, (2) PPE worn, (3) work levels and durations, and (4) ambient environments, to determine risk levels for various stay times and the maximal stay time to avoid excessive heat stress; and
  
• A user-friendly interface with simple input screens and built-in help to guide choices.
  
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