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

创新的冷袋可最大限度地减少在医疗保健环境中穿戴个人防护装备时的热应激（BeCool Pack）

• 批准号: 90322
• 金额: $ 14.36万
• 依托单位: PHASE CHANGE MATERIAL PRODUCTS LTD
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=90322
• 关键词: Innovative; Cold; Packs; Minimize; Heat

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.

英国国民健康保险制度的工作人员、卫生保健工作者一直在努力挽救新冠肺炎患者的生命。这些前线工作人员须长时间佩戴口罩、围裙和手套等个人防护装备，以保护自己，以防止接触到受感染患者携带病毒的飞沫或气雾剂。然而，他们在高风险、封闭和拥挤的工作环境中长时间佩戴个人防护装备时，会受到热应激和热不适的影响。调查报告了医务人员佩戴个人防护用品时遇到的问题，大多数(82%)表示汗水和刺激感(73%)是主要挑战，使用有限，因此效果不佳。由于PPE服装和工作环境的织物热特性，人体与环境之间的热交换可能会受到极大的限制或阻碍，从而导致热应激，身体性能下降，并增加与热应激相关的伤害风险。由于新冠肺炎的主要症状是高烧和持续咳嗽，患者队列出现发烧、脱水和热不适，这在疗养院感染冠状病毒的老年人中尤为严重。此外，由于救护车很少配备有效的冷却或通风系统，因此新冠肺炎患者的长途高温运输可能会导致热应激。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和保护。凉爽的背包可以降低身体温度，从而避免热应激的风险。然而，市场上有几种类型的冷包使用相变材料(PCM)，即冰包和与板条/纤维板材料的化学反应。它们不紧凑到集成PPE，操作困难，僵硬/不舒服，冷却时间短，价格昂贵，传热差/冻结时间长，不符合使用者的身体。在这个项目中，提出了创新的冷却‘BeCool Pack’，它使用了一种多单元生物聚合物结构，其中包含从含有水的单元中分离出来的吸热复合颗粒，如尿素/氯化铵。冷却是通过用手压打破颗粒和水之间的密封来实现的。当颗粒溶解在水中时，热量被吸收，产生降温效果。冷却温度可由用户根据需要控制。BeCool Pack也可以作为速冻冰袋放置在冰箱中重复使用。简单而灵活的BeCool Pack可以生产一系列尺寸和配置，以便它们适合一系列应用和解剖位置，例如放置在颈部后部用于身体降温或作为降温毯子用于紧急医疗设置。BeCool Pack使用安全、无毒、可降解的材料，处置时不会对人类和环境造成伤害。BeCool Pack将设计为减少用户的热压力，并将热不适降至最低。此外，BeCool Pack允许当地快速大规模生产/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。