The performance of vests based on phase change nanofibers and packages to reduce thermal stress in a hot work environment-an experimental study

 The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of cooling vests based on nanofibers and packages of phase change materials (PCM) in reducing the thermal stress of medical personnel in hot work environments.

In this experimental study, 20 males were exposed to 10 combined scenarios of temperatures of 24 and 32 degrees Celsius and five samples of vests made with hot air temperature conditions in a room simulating atmospheric conditions. Physiological parameters including skin surface temperature, tympanic temperature and oral temperature were measured before and after exposure to air temperature conditions by simulating the activity metabolism of hospital workers. The normal distribution of the data was done with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and the analysis of the effect of the scenarios was done through the analysis of variance with repeated measurements.

The results confirmed that in the condition without a vest, the air temperature of 32 °C compared to the air temperature of 24 °C had a greater effect in increasing the tympanic body temperature (p<0.05). The significant effect of using Nano fiber vest along with the use of packages containing phase change materials (PCM) with effect size of 0.498, 0.568, 0.349 respectively in reducing skin temperature, tympanic temperature and oral temperature in conditions of warm temperature was observed(p<0.05). The size of the effect of increasing the air temperature was lower than the size of the effect of the type of cooling vests on the physiological responses and it indicated that the effectiveness of the designed vests increases with increasing temperature (p<0.05).

 The use of Nano fiber cooling vests and packages of phase change materials (PCM) is effective in maintaining the body temperature stability of medical personnel in hot environments due to acceptable weight and acceptable effect size.