Chemical protective clothing is designed to protect the worker by providing a barrier between the individual and the contaminated environment. Unfortunately, the same equipment that is designed to help can often cause heat stress, reduced task efficiency, and reduced range-of-motion for the worker. Teams as well as individuals suffer from these effects resulting in difficulty communicating, increased task completion time, and reduced productivity. Studies investigating the effects of protective clothing generally focus on individuals; however, the military has produced research related to the effects of Mission Oriented Protective Posture (MOPP) on team performance outcomes in an attempt to understand how protective clothing might affect military teams and squads. Previous research has indicated a degradation of team performance as shown by increased task completion time; however, a comprehensive team performance measurement system studies not only the performance outcomes, but also the processes behind the outcomes. In order to provide a more complete understanding of the performance effects of protective clothing and equipment, this investigation focused on the effects of MOPP on the behavioral processes underlying team performance to include adaptability, communication, and coordination. It also attempted to validate previous studies on performance outcomes. Ten subjects formed five, two-member teams. Subjects were certified EMT's from local rescue squads and were required to perform CPR and spinal injury management (SIM). They performed each task twice-once in their duty uniform and once in MOPP level 4. Team performance was measured using the TARGETS methodology, and event-based team process performance measurement technique. A team performance index score (TPI) was calculated for each team for all four tasks and then used as the dependent measure for the analyses to compare team performance in a duty uniform versus performance in MOPP 4. Three hypotheses were tested in this study. They were as follows: team process performance will be degraded by MOPP, task completion time will increase as a result of wearing MOPP, and errors will increase as a result of wearing MOPP. Results of six primary analyses indicated that team process performance was not degraded and the number of errors did not increase when teams were wearing MOPP 4. Results did show, however, that task completion time was significantly longer when teams were wearing MOPP 4. The implications of these results are discussed in the thesis and design changes are put forth. / Master of Science

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Social and economical development of human society, in this case on the example of Czech republic, logicaly leads to improvement and invention of new individual protection instruments. Maximum protection in proportion to the lowest mobility limitation is the purpose. Diploma thesis explains, firstly, the basic concepts to make clear, what the issue concerns and getting better understanding for people.. It also deals with clothing comfort for firefighters. Clothing comfort can be divided into four groups and as the complex of essential for proper performance and convenience of trespassing firefighter. It is a condition where the optimal physiological functions of the body and neither clothing nor the environment does not create discomfort. Next section of diploma thesis describes the personal protective equipment to protect life and health trespassing firefighter and thereby increase its work in various special occurrences. Each unit of firefighters should be equipped with personal protection equipments, and instructed on how their use it, maintenance and periodic inspection. Another section of the theoretical part is devoted to the means of individual protection, which also protects the body of firefighter and his respiratory system. There are the types of breathing apparatus and a description of the knowledge that a firefighter must have to use the breathing apparatus to be optimized in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions and do not endanger the life of the user. Term minute ventilation is there also explained. Each person has a unique minute ventilation, which is very individual and depends on the work performed. Next point is the kinds of chemical protection suits, which are used during interventions, where the environment is contaminated with hazardous substances. The work of firefighters affects also negative effects. This issue is discussed in the next chapter, which describes the negative effects caused by the occurrence itself and the negative effects caused by climatic conditions at the location. The particular hierarchy of the fire brigade described in the next section, that deals with the General Directorate of Fire Rescue, the Fire Corps Rescue of country and fire protection units and their categories. The types of hazardous substances under the Chemicals Act and in accordance with the Order of chemical services are the last point of the theoretical part. The experiment is described and evaluated in practical part of diploma thesis which was attended by seven firefighters from the firefighter station Petřiny. Firefighters had to gradually undergo a prescribed route, they passed each time using a different suit. In order to avoid skewing the results, the firefighters between attempts to allow sufficient time for stale and soothe the body. They were obtained evaluation parameters in this way that were in the part of result processed and evaluated for total and average air consumption. The values, that were obtained, were subsequently processed into tables and graphs and the results were solved by using comparison and statistical methods. Conclusion of the work is devoted to the evaluation of the optimal protection of the firefighters, proposing measures for improvement and verification of the hypothesis that the performance of member of Prague rescue service is limited by individual protective means in extreme climatic conditions and load performance.