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Tiny Pill Relays Body Temperature of Firefighters In Real-time
pcritter writes "Australian firefighters are enlisting the help of tiny pill to battle fires. In a training exercise, 50 firefighters swallowed the LifeMonitor capsule which is equipped with a thermometer and a transmitter. The pill transmits data to a device worn on the chest, which also gathers data on heartbeat, respiration and skin temperature. This data is relayed in real-time, allowing better management of heat-stress during firefighting. Victoria's Country Fire Authority trialed this new mechanism when they found that the standard measurement of temperature by the ear was an ineffective indication of heat-stress. The pill is expelled naturally after two days."
We don't drink warm beer mate, if you open a warm beer at a party its the last one you drink there.
I'm not signing anything
is recovering the re-usable pills after they are expelled. Seems the firefighters are reluctant to see them recovered and even more reluctant to be in the second round of trials for some reason.
During rescue-academy studies there is a heat stress test, which is to test the students capabilities under physical workload and lots of heat. They used to use anal thermometers, which were real pain in the ass. So this is great news!
This being the CFA I assume the pills are expected to be reused.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Core temperature is important for medical reasons. A suit would give you the temperature of the skin.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Nothing about this technology is new.
Professional and rich college sports teams have been using it since the early 2000s to monitor potential heatstroke in players during summer practice and the pills cost $30~$40 each.
I believe it all started with NASA wanting a good way to get actual body temperatures of astronauts.
At the time, the only accurate measurement technique was a thermometer in the butt...
And that isn't a method that allows you to gather long term data.
FYI - Those in-ear thermometers and IR skin thermometers are only useful as indicators. Their readings cannot be considered representive of your core temperature.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
When I was a rookie I almost went down several times with heat exhaustion. Had other friends get cut off from their exit by a collapse during a training burn right after fire academy, fortunately only a few hand and neck burns which required skin grafts.
An Aliens style readout next to the pumper engineers pannel with telem from firefighters and a IR helmet cam feed would save many lives.
The greatest OTJ killer of firefighters is actually stress heart attacks, much of this stress is from overheating.
They wear heavy wool "suits", wool is fireproof and an excellent insulator that protects them from radiant heat that can melt a car windscreen from 100 meters away. Imagine dressing for an outdoors job in Chicago in winter, but instead your fighting one of these fires on foot, on a 40degC summers day, with 120km/h bone dry winds blowing off the central deserts for added discomfort. The surface temperature of the suit is meaningless, it's the core temperature of the human that matters. Thing is, these suits work both ways, it's just as hard for heat to get out as it is to get in, the body is left with no way to cool itself and ceases to function, often without much warning. "Heat stroke" is a major killer here, especially during a heatwave such as the one we are experiencing now. It's not just the sick, stupid, or elderly, a healthy (~12yo) boy sadly collapsed and died just last week while hiking with his dad.
Disclaimer: I had a mild case of heat stroke as a child, it's like a cross between the worst food poisoning you have ever had combined with what feels like a pick-axe sticking out of your crown, I really wouldn't wish it on anybody, it's so painful you can't enjoy the hallucinations. Thing is, the day I got it was hot but nothing out of the ordinary, I was at a family BBQ with a bunch of other kids playing together, most likely I simply didn't drink enough fluids.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Well if you live anywhere with an urban infrastructure, chances are the water you had in your coffee / glass of tap water by your bed side has been recycled through other people too....
All water and air and pretty much everything on Earth has been recycled through other creatures...
As a structural firefighter in the US, I fail to see the need for this other than in some specialized testing to help make better procedures.
Our work is not like the movies. Yes, we wear heavy gear. Yes, it's quite hot in that gear even if there is no fire on a warm day. Inside a several hundred degress (F) building, it does it's job quite well. (Wool may be used as an insulator -- though I don't think so -- but only inside the carbon fiber and gnomex coverings which are far more important).
We go into a building wearing an air bottle good for about 30 minutes for most people in good shape. A bit less if you're working hard, a bit more if you stretch it. After about 2/3 of that time (20min) a low air alert vibrates the mask letting you know it's time to leave. You have ten minutes before it becomes a problem.
When we exit the building we go immediately to a "rehab" area manned by EMT's. We take off our coats (on a winter day you can see the steam coming off us) and are required to drink a 20oz bottle of water. The EMTs take heart rate and blood pressure readings as we enter rehab, and before we have to pass their requirements for health and safety -- basically that both heart rate and bp are dropping back toward normal readings.
Nothing in this pill is going to change the requirements of the job. Carrying more stuff just makes the job harder. We're already laden with 80 pounds of stuff entering the building.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Correct, mostly. In the U.S., at least, structural firefighting gear is Nomex or Kevlar, or similar. Wildland firefighting gear is typically Nomex, but I believe that there are still a lot of wool trousers out there.