Shawn Deaton, of the T-PACC staff introduces the sweating mannequin, which simulates how a human would perspire allowing researchers an excellent tool for evaluating thermal comfort and heat stress potential of protective apparel

The College of Textiles at North Carolina State University planned and hosted the Second Protective Garment Symposium, June 12-14, 2002. Speakers presented papers covering such subjects as thermal/flammability technology, biological/medical threats, garment comfort evaluations, particulate matter control, and world wide terrorism threats and methods to address all of these critical issues.
One of the speakers for Terror and Emergency Response was David Prezant, MD, with the New York City Fire Department. He discussed first hand knowledge of the tragedy and heroism witnessed on September 11th. Although virtually every conference participant had a keen awareness of the World Trade Center attack, learned mostly from the media, Dr. Prezant’s paper offered a new perspective as to the health issues associated with the immediate aftermath of the tragic event. The talk also imparted a deeper understanding of the selfless devotion to duty of the firefighters, police and rescue workers and healthcare personnel who served our Nation during a time of crisis. A number of additional papers outlined new directions related to protective apparel which are being pursued as a result of September 11th and our current war against global terrorism.

Other areas that were discussed were chemical/biological threats from weapons carrying such agents as anthrax and small pox and methods for protecting workers with appropriate protective clothing. Dr. Marion McCord of the College of Textiles presented 2 papers related to medical/biological material technology. One being an introduction to testing of barrier fabrics and another paper entitled, “Surface Treatments for Protective Fabrics” that discusses work underway within T-PACC utilizing plasma surface modification methods applied to barrer fabrics.

The participants in the symposium also toured the Textile Protection and Comfort Center which allowed them to view, first hand, the many laboratories associated with T-PACC.

Shawn Deaton, of the T-PACC staff introduces the sweating mannequin, which simulates how a human would perspire allowing researchers an excellent tool for evaluating thermal comfort and heat stress potential of protective apparel.