How Clean is Clean? The Validation of Fire Fighter PPE Cleaning

T06
How Clean is Clean? The Validation of Fire Fighter PPE Cleaning
Casey Grant, Fire Protection Research Foundation Jason Allen, Intertek Testing Laboratory Jeffrey Stull, International Personnel Protection, Inc.

Between fighting fires and responding to other emergencies, fire fighter personal protective equipment (PPE) is exposed to a wide range of toxins, chemicals, micro-chemicals and blood-borne pathogens. It's well recognized that these contaminant exposures can pose significant risks to fire fighters' immediate and long-term health, but it's yet to be determined what's needed to adequately remove them from PPE. This presentation provides an interim report on an ongoing major research study that seeks to improve fire fighter safety and health by reducing continuing exposure to harmful contaminants in unclean or inadequately cleaned PPE. The deliverables of this effort will ultimately provide clear guidance for appropriate PPE care and maintenance to fire service end-users, PPE providers/maintainers, and NFPA 1851, Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting.

Presented by:

Casey Grant, Fire Protection Research Foundation
Casey Grant is Research Director for the Fire Protection Research Foundation, an affiliate of the NFPA. He holds a BS from the University of Maryland and an MS from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, both in Fire Protection Engineering, and he is a Registered Professional Engineer in the states of California and Tennessee. Casey is a Fellow of SFPE and has one fire protection-related US patent.

Jason Allen, Intertek Testing Laboratory
Jason Allen is a Technical Advisor at Intertek Testing Laboratory, an independent global testing lab with over 35,000 employees in 1,000 laboratories. Jason is based in their Cortland, New York facility which has a 14,000+ ft2 lab that specializes in the evaluation of all PPE. He has BS in Mechanical Engineering and Physics and nearly 14 years of experience designing/validating tests specific to PPE. Additionally, Jason is currently active in over 10 technical committees within a broad range of groups, including NFPA (e.g., the technical committees addressing fire service PPE) and ASTM.

Jeffrey Stull, International Personnel Protection, Inc.
Jeffrey Stull is President of International Personal Protection, Inc., and has over 30 years of experience in protective clothing materials, testing, and management of development programs. He has an MS in Chemical Engineering, is a former Chair for ASTM Committee F23 on Protective Clothing, and is a long-term member of several NFPA technical committees on fire and emergency services PPE.