Firefighter temperature monitoring

There are a lot of jobs out there, that are very tough. Hard to imagine what firemen go through in serious conditions. The earconnect technology of cosinuss° is now being tested in the Netherlands to make sure such hard working people can enjoy a sustainable employability. Therefore we will monitor their vital signs with the cosinuss° Temp sensor during action and recovery to get very useful long-term insights. 

At the University Medical Center of Groningen (UMCG) in the Netherland a project called SPRINT@Work has been performed about creating sustainable employability. The retirement age in the Netherlands is increasing rapidly resulting in an increase in the average age of the Dutch working population. In this project the goal is to keep an ageing population healthy and deployable in the long term.  Employers in the northern Netherlands are collaborating within SPRINT@Work to test innovative products and technologies in actual practice and to adapt them to specific circumstances where necessary.

The cosinuss° Temp is one of the products that is very useful to monitor the health and working situations of employees. Within SPRINT@Work, firstly the °Temp is validated in a lab study and secondly in a real-life working situation of four types of employees;

• fire fighters,
• maintenance engineers working in warm and humid factories,
• chemical cleaners working in protective airtight suits and
• neighbourhood maintainers working in different weather conditions.

Their core body temperature was measured and additional the ambient temperature and humidity, and at the moment is being investigated how these parameters are developing over the day and how overheating of employees could be prevented.

The first results show a high correlation between the cosinuss° Temp and an infrared inner-ear thermometer (ICC_lab = 0.72 and ICC_field = 0.77), but after performance of their job a lowered correlation (ICC = 0.55) probably due to a shift of ear part. Overall the °Temp is a very useful device which is easy to position in the ear and is not or very little interfering with the workability of the employees. The employees as well as the employers are very enthusiastic and interested in the °Temp to keep the working population healthy. Especially after trying this device and see the numbers for themselves.