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Not All Moisture Barriers are Equal
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Heat stress puts firefighters at a greater risk of developing heat-related complications that can affect their decision making and performance.
When the body temperature is pushed beyond the narrow window of roughly 97-99°F, our body's ability to maintain an optimum temperature becomes disrupted causing us to become too cold or too hot, which can impact how our organs function. Even 1/10th of a degree above 99.5° can create challenges. Firefighters might start off by missing audible signals and progress to more serious effects such as a decrease in mental accuracy or spontaneous decision making.
In an effort to regulate your temperature in hotter environments, your body sweats. When liquid sweat on your skin evaporates into a vapor, it pulls heat from your body. An obstacle to this natural sweating mechanism is your personal protective gear that’s comprised of:
- An outer shell
- A thermal liner
- A moisture barrier
When evaluating materials for your next set of turnout gear keep in mind that your selection of moisture barrier alone has more impact on your turnout gear’s breathability than any combination of the outer shell and thermal liner you can make.
GORE® moisture barriers create the least amount of resistance for that critical sweat vapor to move through them, so ultimately selecting anything else could result in added heat stress.
Learn more about the importance of the moisture barrier in this short video.
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WARNING: No products, including garments and accessories, protect completely, even when new; their protective performance will decline with wear, tear, abrasion, and other damage associated with use.
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