Hur Pilwon, Park Kiwon, Rosengren Karl S, Horn Gavin P, Hsiao-Wecksler Elizabeth T
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Trine University, Angola, IN, USA.
Appl Ergon. 2015 May;48:49-55. doi: 10.1016/j.apergo.2014.11.003. Epub 2014 Dec 4.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of firefighter's self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) air bottle design and vision on postural control of firefighters. Twenty-four firefighters were tested using four 30-minute SCBA bottle designs that varied by mass and size. Postural sway measures were collected using a forceplate under two visual conditions (eyes open and closed) and two stance conditions (quiet and perturbed stances). For perturbed stance, a mild backward impulsive pull at the waist was applied. In addition to examining center of pressure postural sway measures for both stance conditions, a robustness measure was assessed for the perturbation condition. The results suggest that wearing heavy bottles significantly increased excursion and randomness of postural sway only in medial-lateral direction but not in anterior-posterior direction. This result may be due to stiffening of plantar-flexor muscles. A significant interaction was obtained between SCBA bottle design and vision in anterior-posterior postural sway, suggesting that wearing heavy and large SCBA air bottles can significantly threaten postural stability in AP direction in the absence of vision. SCBA bottle should be redesigned with reduced weight, smaller height, and COM closer to the body of the firefighters. Firefighters should also widen their stance width when wearing heavy PPE with SCBA.
本研究的目的是调查消防员自给式呼吸器（SCBA）气瓶设计和视觉对消防员姿势控制的影响。使用四种30分钟的SCBA气瓶设计对24名消防员进行测试，这些设计在质量和尺寸上有所不同。在两种视觉条件（睁眼和闭眼）和两种站立条件（安静站立和受干扰站立）下，使用测力板收集姿势摆动测量数据。对于受干扰站立，在腰部施加轻微的向后脉冲拉力。除了检查两种站立条件下的压力中心姿势摆动测量数据外，还评估了受干扰条件下的稳健性测量数据。结果表明，佩戴重型气瓶仅在内外方向上显著增加了姿势摆动的偏移和随机性，而在前后方向上没有增加。这一结果可能是由于跖屈肌的僵硬。在前后姿势摆动中，SCBA气瓶设计和视觉之间存在显著交互作用，表明在没有视觉的情况下，佩戴重型和大型SCBA气瓶会显著威胁前后方向的姿势稳定性。SCBA气瓶应重新设计，减轻重量，减小高度，并使重心更靠近消防员身体。消防员在佩戴带有SCBA的重型个人防护装备时，也应加宽站立宽度。
