• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.65-71
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• 2010

The aim of the study intends to investigate wearing practice of personal protective equipment for firefighter in gyeongnam province and to provide the base data for the safety and health of firefighter. The results of the study are as follows. The overall reliability of fire personal protection equipment has been investigated by 3.19 and an overall improvement in the personal protective equipment is needed. Firefighter showed such a low satisfaction leather fire boots(2.68), glove(2.67) and rubber fire boots(2.59) in personal protective equipment and rubber fire boots(2.75), glove(2.77) and leather fire boots(2.97) has been investigated by the state of the poor. For personal protective equipment, firefighters have been experiencing many difficulties on the fit and weight. To overcome this problem, it is necessary to be designed ergonomically and to develop high-performance, lightweight materials.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.950-965
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• 2017

This present study proposed a newly developed test method to evaluate the dexterity and mobility of a firefighter's protective gloves. The first step evaluated the mobility and dexterity of the current type of fire protective gloves and three new types of protective gloves using Don-doff test, ASTM dexterity, Minnesota dexterity, Bennett hand tool test, and ASTM torque test. Three firefighters ($47.3{\pm}5.0yr$ in age, $178.6{\pm}2.9cm$ in height) participated in a series of experiments. The second step was to design and suggest an integrated test method based on the results of the first experiment. As a result of the first experiment, we concluded that 1) the mobility and dexterity tests for firefighting gloves should include both wet and dry tests, 2) The three kinds of dexterity tests could be integrated into one test, and 3) The don-doff test and the torque test should be independent from the newly developed integrated test. In summary, we suggested a simplified test method that combined ASTM dexterity, Minnesota dexterity, and Bennett hand tool test. The integrated system can reduce total time spent on dexterity tests and improve the validity of the test in terms of firefighters' manual work.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.921-935
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• 2016

This research analyzed the manual performance of firefighting protective gloves on global markets in order to suggest an evaluation method for firefighting protective gloves wearing comfort. We collected 13 types of firefighting gloves from domestic and international markets (7 types from Korea, 3 types form Europe, 2 types from the U.S and 1 type from Japan). We set the Don-Doff test as a basal requirement for moving toward to further manual performance tests that consist of: ASTM dexterity test, Minnesota dexterity test, Bennett hand tool test and ASTM torque test. All gloves were evaluated in dry and wet conditions, we included eight current male firefighters ($43.4{\pm}7.0yr$ in age, $173.1{\pm}4.4cm$ in height, $79.9{\pm}9.2kg$ in body mass) for the tests. Four gloves (1 Korea, 1 U.S, 1 Germany, and 1 Japan) out of thirteen firefighting gloves passed the Don-Doff test and had great subject preferences. There was no significant difference between dry and wet conditions on the ASTM dexterity test, Minnesota dexterity test, Bennett hand tool test and ASTM torque test. However, Japanese gloves had the greatest score and showed 3-4 times faster completion time on the ASTM dexterity test (p<.05), 1.2-1.5 times faster on the Minnesota dexterity test (p<.05), as fast as the bare hand on Bennett hand tool test (p<.05), and greater performance on the ASTM torque test compared to bare hand. In conclusion, Don-Doff test in wet conditions should be the first step for a mobility evaluation of domestic firefighting protective gloves; subsequently, a comprehensive test assorting ASTM, Minnesota, and Bennett test should be developed as a second step. The current ASTM torque test can be adopted as a third step. This three-step-method for evaluating firefighting protective glove mobility can be expected to expand into surveys of other safety gloves in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Living Environment System
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.95-106
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to evaluate comfort functions while wearing firefighters' protective gloves in dry and wet conditions at $70^{\circ}C$ air temperature with radiant heat. Four types of firefighting gloves from Korea, Germany, United States, and Japan were evaluated in both dry and wet conditions by eight male firefighters. Firefighters put their hands and forearms wearing gloves into a hands-radiant chamber that maintained at an air temperature of $70{\pm}2^{\circ}C$ ($T_a$) and globe temperature $106^{\circ}C$ ($T_g$). During the exposure, subjects followed a fixed protocol of manual movements and stopped the exposure when they felt being intolerable. Results showed that completion time was extended by 6 min on average when gloves got wet and 15 min for the Japanese gloves was extended when compared to its dry condition (p<.001); microclimate humidity on the palm at the last stage was greater for wet conditions than dry conditions in the all gloves; and skin temperatures on mid-fingertip, palm, and hand were significantly lower for wet conditions than dry conditions especially for Japanese gloves (p<.001). These results indicate that the exposure time without thermal pain to radiant heat could be extended by wetting gloves during the low radiant heat exposure.