Innovative Cold Packs to Minimize Heat Stress for Wearing Personal Protective Equipment in a Health Care Environment (BeCool Pack)

NHS的工作人员，卫生和护理工作者一直在努力挽救患有COVID-19的患者的生命。这些前线工作人员须长时间佩戴个人防护装备，例如口罩、围裙及手套，以保护自己，避免接触受感染病人的病毒飞沫或气溶胶。然而，他们在高风险的封闭和拥挤的工作环境中长时间佩戴PPE时会受到热应力和热不适。进行了调查，以报告医务人员在穿戴PPE时遇到的问题，大多数（82%）表示汗水和刺激（73%）带来了重大挑战，使用有限，因此有效性有限。由于PPE套装的织物热特性和工作环境，身体与环境之间的热交换可能受到显著限制或阻碍，从而导致热应激，物理性能能力下降和热应激相关伤害的风险增加。由于COVID-19的主要症状是高温和持续咳嗽，患者群体会出现发热、脱水和热不适，这对于护理院中患有冠状病毒的老年人来说尤其成问题。此外，由于救护车很少配备有效的冷却或通风系统，长距离高温运送COVID-19患者可能会造成热应激。因此，迫切需要提供解决上述热应激问题的措施，从而提供更好的热舒适性和保护。冰袋可以降低体温，从而避免热应激的风险。然而，市场上的几种类型的冰袋使用相变材料（PCM），即冰袋和与板条/纤维片材的化学反应。它们不紧凑到集成PPE，难以操作，刚性/不舒适，冷却时间短，昂贵，传热差/冷冻时间长，并且不符合使用者的身体。在该项目中，提出了创新的冷却“BeCool Packs”，其使用多细胞生物聚合物结构，该结构包含吸热复合颗粒，例如从含水细胞中分离的尿素/氯化铵。通过用手压打破颗粒和水之间的密封来实现冷却。当颗粒溶解在水中时，热量被吸收，并产生冷却效果。冷却温度可由用户根据需要进行控制。BeCool Pack也可以作为快速冷冻冰袋放置在冰箱重复使用。简单灵活的BeCool Pack可以生产各种尺寸和配置，因此它们适合各种应用和解剖位置，例如放置在脖子后面用于身体冷却或作为冷却毯用于紧急医疗设置以降低体温。BeCool Pack使用安全、无毒、可降解的材料，在处置过程中对人体和环境无害。BeCool Pack的设计旨在减少用户的热应力和最小的热不适。此外，BeCool Pack允许当地快速大规模制造/生产，以满足保护卫生工作者和其他人免受热应激的迫切需求。

NHS staff, health and care workers have been working hard to save patients' lives suffering from the COVID-19\. These front-line workers are required to wear, for very long periods, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as masks, aprons and gloves to protect themselves to prevent exposure to virus-carrying droplets or aerosols from infected patients. However, they suffer heat stress and thermal discomfort while prolonged wearing PPE in high-risk enclosed and crowded working environments. Surveys were conducted to report issues with wearing PPE that medical staff experienced, most (82%) said sweat and irritation (73%) presented major challenges, limited use and thus effectiveness. Due to the fabric thermal proprieties of PPE suits and working environments, heat exchange between the body and the environment can be significantly limited or impeded, thus result in heat stress, a decrement in physical performance capabilities and increased risk of heat-stress-related injuries. As the main symptoms of COVID-19 are a high temperature and continuous cough, patient cohorts experience fever, dehydration, and thermal discomfort, this is especially problematic in elderly people with coronavirus in care homes. Moreover, the transportation of COVID-19 patients with high temperatures over long distances can cause heat stress as ambulances are rarely equipped with effective cooling or ventilation systems.Therefore, it is urgent to provide measures to address the above-mentioned heat stress issues, thus provide better thermal comfort and protection. Cool packs could be an option to lower the body's temperature thus to avoid the risk of heat stress. However, several types of cold packs on the market using phase change materials (PCM), namely ice packs and chemical reactions with slat/fibrous sheet materials. They are not compact to integrated PPE, difficult to operate, rigid/uncomfortable, short cooling time, expensive, poor heat transfer/long freezing time and do not conform to the body of the users. In this project, innovative cooling 'BeCool Packs' is proposed which use a multi-cell bio-polymer structure that contains endothermic composite particles such as urea/ammonium chloride separated from cells that contain water. The cooling is achieved by breaking the seal between the particles and water using hand pressure. As the particles dissolve in the water, heat is absorbed, and a cooling effect is generated. The cooling temperature can be controlled by the user depending on the demand. BeCool Pack can also be made as fast freezing ice packs by placing in a freezer for reuse. The simple and flexible BeCool Pack can be produced in a range of sizes and configurations so that they are appropriate to a range of applications and anatomical placements, such as placed at the back of the neck for body cooling or as a cooling blanket to lower the body temperature for emergency medical settings. BeCool Pack uses safe, non-toxic, degradable materials, which are not harmful to human and the environment in the disposal. BeCool Pack will be designed to reduce user's heat stress and minimal thermal discomfort. Furthermore, BeCool Pack allows local rapid mass manufacture/production to meet the urgent demand to protect health workers and others from heat stress.