ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1648763
This article is part of the Research TopicHeat Stress and Public Health Issues: Impacts, Adaptation, and MitigationView all 4 articles
Effects of emergency rescue clothing on wearers' physiological and perceptual responses in hot-humid environments
Provisionally accepted
- 1Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
- 2Tsinghua University Hefei Institute for Public Safety Research, Hefei, China
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To improve the work efficiency and reduce heat-related illness of emergency rescue personnel, the effects of emergency rescue clothing on physiological and perceptual responses were investigated. Thirteen participants were recruited to perform human trials in a climate chamber wherein the ambient temperature and relative humidity was controlled at 35 ℃ and 75%, and 25 ℃ and 65%, respectively. Moreover, participants wearing emergency rescue clothing (ERC group) and T-shirts and shorts (CON group) walked at 4 km/h and 6 km/h on a treadmill. During the trials, physiological responses and subjective responses were obtained, and then physiological strain index (PSI) and perceptual strain index (PeSI) were calculated. The results showed significant differences between the ERC and the CON in parameters such as core temperature, mean skin temperature, heart rate, PSI, although some data differences were slightly. There was a positive correlation between PeSI and PSI, as well as between mean skin temperature and thermal sensation vote, with R values of 0.93 and 0.94 (ERC), respectively. Correlation analysis shows that PeSI had a potential to predict PSI. This study can replace complex and cumbersome physiological indicators by calculating the perception indicators of emergency response personnel working on site, promoting the development of the safety industry engaged in certain intensity physical labor in humid and hot environments.
Keywords: Emergency rescue clothing, physiological response, thermoregulation, physiological responses, hot-humid environments
Received: 24 Jun 2025; Accepted: 29 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Qian, Yuan, Yan, Li, Wang and WU. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: HAO WU, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China
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