Water-cooled suit for protection against hot environments

Our plain-English summary of Water-cooled suit for protection against hot environments, by J.W. Hill (Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1970).

The study

• Author: J.W. Hill
• Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine
• Published: 1970;63(10):1014-5
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This short contribution described a portable water-cooled suit for industrial work in extreme heat. It was not a health study of asbestos. The author, from Pilkington Bros Ltd in St Helens, Lancashire, described its use in radiant temperatures of 200°C black bulb, where the risk of accidental exposure to flame still required aluminized asbestos outer garments. The article did not discuss health effects of the asbestos clothing. The cooling unit was a water jacket around a container of 7 lb (3.15 kg) of dry ice, whose gas drove the pump. At 26°C ambient temperature it removed 1,700 BTU per hour at a flow of 106 lb per hour. The author reported that the device allowed work to continue for 1-2 hours in cycles of 20 minutes' work and 5 minutes' rest, and that thermal equilibrium could be kept in both acclimatized and naive subjects. It gave no subject numbers or physiological measurements to support these findings. The author noted that the charged weight of 31 lb (14 kg) was high and the systems expensive initially.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Short descriptive report of a cooling device for industrial heat protection, based on the author's own use of it; not an epidemiological or clinical study
• Who was studied: Unspecified subjects, described only as acclimatized and naive, working in extreme radiant heat. The number of subjects, the place and the dates are not stated. The author was at Pilkington Bros Ltd, St Helens, Lancashire.
• Exposure: Radiant heat of 200°C black bulb, with aluminized asbestos outer garments worn because of possible accidental exposure to flame. No fiber type or asbestos dose is given, and asbestos exposure was not studied.
• Main results:
  • Under these conditions the device allowed work to continue for 1-2 hours in cycles of 20 minutes' work and 5 minutes' rest
  • Thermal equilibrium could be maintained in these conditions in both acclimatized and naive subjects (no subject numbers or physiological measurements given)
  • The unit used a container charged with 7 lb (3.15 kg) of dry ice, whose evolved gas drove the pump
  • At 26°C ambient temperature the unit removed 1,700 BTU per hour at a flow rate of 106 lb per hour
  • The author described the system's safety factors as high, because malfunction is quickly recognized and heat then rises slowly
• The authors' conclusion: The author reported finding the cooling device effective in these extreme radiant-heat conditions
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author stated that the charged weight of 31 lb (14 kg) is high
  • The author stated that the systems are expensive initially, although cheap to run

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