Citation

Hemmatjo R, Motamedzade M, Aliabadi M, Kalatpour O, Farhadian M. Int. J. Occup. Safety Ergonomics 2018; 24(3): 358-365.

Affiliation

e Assistant professor, Department of Biostatistics , School of Public Health, Hamadan University of Medical Science , Hamadan , Iran . E-mail: maryam_farhadian80@yahoo.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Centralny Instytut Ochrony Pracy - Państwowy Instytut Badawczy, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10803548.2017.1299995

PMID

28278005

Abstract

This study investigated the combined effect of firefighting operations and exposure to smoke on physiological responses, cognitive and physical performance among firefighters. Each firefighter was engaged in two experimental conditions: (1) without artificial smoke; control (NS) and (2) with artificial smoke (WS). The results of data analysis revealed that heart rate (HR) and body temperature (BT) increased significantly after the firefighting activities in the two conditions relative to baseline. In addition, reaction time (RT) and correct response (CR) decreased after the activity relative to baseline and there was a significant difference in RT and CR between the NS and WS conditions. There was also a significant difference in performance time (PT) between the NS and WS conditions. These findings demonstrated that a smoke compound has an insignificant effect on the physiological responses during firefighting activity. On the contrary, the smoke compound has a detrimental influence on cognitive and physical performance.

Language: en

Keywords

artificial smoke compound; cognitive function; firefighter; performance time; physiological responses; smoke-diving room